Climate Change

As preparations intensified worldwide for COP 21 in Paris, a new publication titled Guide to INDCs that provides practical guidance to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on how to prepare their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been released.  The guide is a joint publication of The Climate and Development Knowledge ...

The importance of communication and awareness are entrenched in the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework on Climate Change) system – Article 6 of the Convention which talked about public awareness while protocol Article10 emphasised training, public awareness and access to information on climate change. This piece looks at the impact of communication and how the public can be carried along through ...

If you keep going in the same direction, you will inevitably end up at where you are going – Proverb   The climate paradox is that while governments agree that it is an imminent crisis, they are unwilling to act in a manner that shows that they assimilate this truth. Indeed, climate negotiations have remained largely a political exercise that ...

Ministers from governments across Africa including Nigeria have renewed their call for a strong and universal climate change agreement with increased flows of funds, including through market and finance opportunities, sufficient to fulfil Africa’s development aspirations. With countries set to approve a new climate change agreement under the UN in Paris in December, African ministers stressed the region’s readiness and ...

The popular media and the public often confuse a number of concepts and issues related to climate change. I was at a technical review meeting late in 2014 when a “scientist” insisted that climate change is the same as global warming. Despite some clarifications and even protests from many other colleagues, our scientist stood his ground. I kept my cool ...

I have always emphasised that COP 21 in Paris is not only a platform for negotiation but an opportunity to pursue the road to low carbon economy. Some of the parties, while addressing the reduction of emission, are also planning how to manage and consistently look at the risk adjusted investment into a new fora of sustainability activities and programmes. It is a ...

On June 6, beginning at dawn in the Pacific Islands and ending at dusk in the West Coast of the United States, citizens around the world will take part in the largest ever public consultation on climate change and energy. This unique World Wide Views Day is in support of an ambitious new, universal climate change agreement that the nations ...

The Secretariat of UNFCCC communicated the negotiation text of the Climate Change Agreement in Paris in December 2015 to Governments on 19th March 2015 in all six official languages. This communication, according to the UNFCCC, means that the formal, legal and procedural requirements to allow countries to adopt a legal instrument under the UNFCCC have been fulfilled. Governments are set to ...

The New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has described the United State’s climate action plan – the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) – as grossly inadequate. It also sees US, which has a history of being the world’s largest polluter of the environment, as doing less to address climate change. A release issued by CSE on April 1, ...

Key Facts “The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.” – The board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter Between 2030 ...