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Group wants fossil fuel sector shut out of climate talks

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Group wants fossil fuel sector shut out of climate talks

Environmental groups rallied in Lagos on Wednesday to demand that Nigerian delegates to the UN climate treaty take decisive action to address the influence of the fossil fuel industry on climate policy.

Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, executive director of ERA/FoEN, leading a protest march in Abuja
Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, executive director of ERA/FoEN, leading a protest march in Abuja

The action is part of a global series of actions calling for governments to launch an investigation into industry interference at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) – a leading group in the Kick Big Polluters campaign – has demanded that Nigerian delegates to the talks lend their voices to calls for the fossil fuels industry to be shut out of the talks. ERA/FoEN is part of the Break Free from Fossil Fuels Coalition which commenced actions in Nigeria on Tuesday (10th May 2016), with a rally at Oil Well 1 in Oloibiri, Nigeria’s first oil well drilled in 1956.

The gathering on Wednesday had hundreds of community chiefs, youths, women groups, and civil society groups.

“Thanks to interference from big polluters, the Paris Agreement doesn’t go far enough to prevent the worst effects of climate change here in Nigeria,” said Godwin Ojo, executive director of ERA/FoEN. “We, the people, urge our government leaders to take action in Bonn to eliminate the primary obstacle to more ambitious and aggressive action by showing big polluters the door.”

Across all the geo-political zones of Nigeria, climate change is dislocating communities and ruining livelihoods. From the north where the desert continues its downward march, to the south west where coastal erosion is swallowing coastal communities, and to the east where gulley erosion is assuming frightening dimensions, the impact is real, according to ERA/FoEN. It adds that oil extraction and gas flares in the Niger Delta, aside polluting surrounding communities, are exacerbating the climate chaos.

On May 16, delegates to the UNFCCC will convene in Bonn, Germany for the first time since the Paris Agreement was gavelled through last December. While the agreement has been applauded as an historic accomplishment, many have criticised it for not being ambitious enough to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

“The Paris Agreement doesn’t go far enough. In fact, without more ambitious action now, we will be on a path that far exceeds the temperature threshold that would prevent the worst effects of climate change,” said Patti Lynn of Corporate Accountability International, “To ensure governments can take action far beyond the Paris Agreement, we must first ensure that those that wish to undermine progress – polluting industries like Big Oil, Coal, and Gas – are out of the room.”

From aggressive lobbying at the regional level to financial sponsorship of international meetings, the industry interferes at all levels. Industry co-optation of treaty meetings has been a growing problem and a primary obstacle to progress. At the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Warsaw, corporate entities with a direct conflict of interest in the treaty’s success not only sponsored the talks, they were given preferential access to delegates.

And, at COP21 in Paris, industry interference was a central concern. The meetings, dubbed the “Corporate COP,” were financially sponsored by dozens of corporations with massive carbon footprints and track records of undermining sound climate policy. Inside the meetings, special areas were created for corporations and everything from charging stations to water fountains were branded.

Wednesday’s events are part of a rapidly growing movement of people demanding that big polluters are removed from the climate policymaking process. To date, more than 570,000 people have joined the call, which was launched in May of 2015.

Elevating public participation in planning practice

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Elevating public participation in planning practice

The title of this article arose from the writer’s rumination about the urban planning practice in Nigeria and its shortcomings. Every planner knows public participation is fundamental to the profession. It is in our code of ethics, our academic training; and it is made mandatory in our planning laws.

Dr Femi Olomola, President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP)
Dr Femi Olomola, President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP)

Yet our practice of public participation in planning has not witnessed acceptable level of improvement. It is still practiced in tokenism compared to what obtains in other democratic countries where citizen participation in planning is the norm, the law and the only acceptable practice. The citizens of those countries own their cities. They have collective voice in the planning process. They are well informed of planning issues in their cities and “the dream of a better city is always in the heads of the residents.” Their planning professionals provide the technical expertise in translating the dreams to reality through plan formulation, program initiation and project development. The funding and implementation of programs and projects is the responsible of the government.

Readers may ask, what is the fuss about public (citizen) participation in planning? The answer is simple: citizens are their own experts on what they value and what they hold as their belief. This does not require rocket science rationalization. For example, it is a personal decision where you want to live, the type of house you want to live in, how you want to commute and where you play or spend your leisure time. As citizens, you have to provide the information during plan formulation to enable the planners who have the technical knowledge to conceptualise a plan that would fit into the value of your community. Such value is usually a collective decision of the residents taken at a forum, typically a public hearing or town hall meeting. The exact thing planning does (using the expertise of planners) is to enable the citizens to have choices in their communities.

It then logically follows that if any decision is to be taken, those who will be affected by the decision must take part in the decision-making process. Research has found out that “wherever citizens have been given the opportunity to participate in their communities, the results have been drastically encouraging.” Definitely, such inclusive approach produces better decisions and in the long run, citizens are satisfied because they are rest assured that their various interests have been adequately addressed.

 

Let us have a paradigm shift

The kernel of the message I want to transmit is that citizens’ participation has come to define good planning world-wide. If we embrace the practice in our society, it should improve the quality of life of our people. When government decides to plan, the citizenry should be carried along. If planning is not to be labeled a direct control of resources by government, not only it must take into consideration citizens’ and other stakeholders’ opinion, it must start with them (my emphasis). Public participation builds trust and support. There is little chance of a plan that has no “ownership” by the citizenry of being effective and successful.

 

What is expected of town planners

The professionals involved in planning, most especially the town planners, must build trust with the people and sustain that trust. To care is to build trust. People care less about what you know professionally until they know how much you care about their welfare. Planners should be tolerant, patience, good listeners to the yearnings of the people, not impostors. They should not abuse their office. The message in the phrase “abuse of office” in our situation is self-explanatory and implicit. It needs no further explanation.

Abuse of office is one of the reasons for societal disdain for the profession. Our planners must always remember that planning is a function of society working together to achieve a desirable goal; the planners are the catalysts in realizing the dream. In our society, public perception about town planners must change from ill feelings to mutual understanding and cordiality with the public.

Again, we need to critically assess our role in whatever approach we choose to galvanise public support during plan preparation, mindful of the population we are serving and the level of the education. Given recognition to this fact, our primary obligation is to design simple, easy-to-understand and inclusive engagement process to draw citizens closer, not to drift them apart from us. City dwellers in our country need civics education on how not to be charlatan about planning, how to be community-minded and to care for the city. They need to know how people can work together as a community. I see a big role that planners can play in this regard by letting citizens have exposure into the workings of government, in order to erase the erroneous impression that planning is about control of resources or outright dictation as to what people can do with their property.

 

What the citizens should do

The citizens’ complementary role in this bargain should be total. They must be active and ever-ready to participate in planning. Houses make a town; citizens make a city.  Therefore, the people must be in the driver’s seat during the planning process. To be effective, the citizenry must be ready to read and freely discuss planning issues affecting their communities, attend public hearing and participate in civic engagement activities focused on promoting good planning practice where they reside.

The citizenry should be able to connect with the government through many media and options. They can choose letter writing to city officials, submit suggestion online with the use of the internet or join a group discussion such as the Community Development Association (CDA), Landlord Association and Religious Association. These are just few examples; the means are inexhaustible. The overall benefit is that active participation educates and empowers citizens and makes them responsible for civic action.

 

Last word

My candid opinion is that, both government and planners need to raise the level of our practice and commitment to citizen participation. We cannot deny this fact. It is the right thing to do. Albeit there are challenges, we should not throw in the towel.

A caveat: if we fail to recognise citizens’ involvement in the planning process due to often-held bias that the process is time-consuming and costly. The ranting that people don’t usually come to town hall meetings or that the target audience are mostly illiterates, my fear is that this could cause more damage to the fragile reputation of the planning profession which, in the main, is still struggling for public acceptance in our society.

By Yacoob Abiodun, a planning advocate, in Hayward, California, USA.

Sea level rise claims five Pacific islands

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Sea level rise claims five Pacific islands

Rising sea levels that submerge entire islands were supposed to be a distant possibility of an apocalyptic future. But in the idyllic Pacific, that future is here.

Communities in parts of the Solomom Islands have been forced to move to higher ground as the receding coastline allows seawater to flood their homes
Communities in parts of the Solomom Islands have been forced to move to higher ground as the receding coastline allows seawater to flood their homes

Five of the Solomon Islands have completely disappeared under water over the past seven decades, one drawing its last breath as recently as 2011, according to a study published in Environmental Research Letters.

Another six islands have lost more than 20% of their surface area, forcing communities to relocate as the shoreline closes in on their homes.

“The human element of this is alarming. Working alongside people on the frontline who have lost their family home – that they’ve had for four to five generations – it’s quite alarming,” the study’s lead author, Simon Albert of the University of Queensland, said.

The study is the first scientific confirmation of what residents in the Pacific have been saying for years – their islands are disappearing.

The Solomon Islands are a sparsely populated archipelago of more than 900 islands that lie east of Papua New Guinea, and as low-lying islands are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rises.

The study, by a group of Australian scientists, used aerial and satellite imagery of 33 islands between 1947 and 2014 to track changes in land surface areas.

They attributed the changes to general sea level rises driven by climate change, as well as an intensification in trade winds, driven by both a warming of the atmosphere and natural cycles.

In the past 20 years, sea levels in the archipelago have risen 7 to 10 mm (.28 to .39 inches) annually, three times the global average. According to the International Panel for Climate Change, global rises will reach 5mm annually in the second half of the century.

“So the Solomon Islands are like a natural laboratory that gives us a good indication of what we can expect globally. What we are seeing there will become the norm,” Albert said.

The five islands that disappeared were not inhabited, although they were significant in size and communities used them for fishing.

The inhabited island of Nuatambu, however, has lost more than 50 percent of its surface area – more than 14,000 square meters – forcing some families to move to a higher volcanic island nearby.

But more worrying for the Solomon Islands is the likely relocation of Taro, a provincial capital, which will involve moving major infrastructure in health, education, sewage and electricity services.

“This kind of relocation will be incredibly complex and likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which will make the country more reliant on international help,” Albert said.

Yearly climate adaptation cost could hit $500 billion by 2050

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Yearly climate adaptation cost could hit $500 billion by 2050

UNEP’s Adaptation Finance Gap Report: Failure to cut emissions will dramatically increase the annual costs of adaptation, which could be up to five times higher by 2050 than previously thought.

Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director of UNEP
Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director of UNEP

The cost of adapting to climate change in developing countries could rise to between $280 and $500 billion per year by 2050, a figure that is four to five times greater than previous estimates, according to a new United Nations Environment (UNEP) report.

Released as nations sign the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, the report assesses the difference between the financial costs of adapting to climate change in developing countries and the amount of money actually available to meet these costs – a difference known as the “adaptation finance gap”.

The report, the second in UNEP’s series of Adaptation Gap reports, finds that total bilateral and multilateral funding for climate change adaptation in developing countries has risen substantially in the five years leading up to 2014, reaching $22.5 billion. But the report warns that, despite this increase, there will be a significant funding gap by 2050 unless new and additional finance for adaptation is made available.

“It is vital that governments understand the costs involved in adapting to climate change,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

“This report serves as a powerful reminder that climate change will continue to have serious economic costs. The adaptation finance gap is large, and likely to grow substantially over the coming decades, unless significant progress is made to secure new, additional and innovative financing for adaptation.”

Previous estimates place the cost of adapting to climate change at between $70 to $100 billion annually for the period 2010-2050, a figure based on a World Bank study from 2010. The Adaptation Finance Gap Report, which is written by authors from 15 institutions and reviewed by 31 experts, builds upon these earlier estimates by reviewing national and sector studies.

As a result, the report finds that the World Bank’s earlier figures are likely to be a significant underestimate. The true cost of adapting to climate change in developing countries could range between $140 and $300 billion per year in 2030, and between $280 and $500 billion per year in 2050, it says.

Adaptation costs are likely to increase sharply over time even if the world succeeds in limiting a global rise in temperatures to below two degrees Celsius by 2100, the report warns. For higher scenarios of global warming, estimates of the adaptation costs in developing countries are higher even in early years, the report states.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has called on developed countries to provide $100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing countries mitigate climate change, and adapt to its impacts, such as drought, rising sea levels and floods.

However, the UNEP report notes: “There is no agreement as to the type of funding that shall be mobilised to meet this goal. This hampers efforts to monitor progress toward meeting the goal.” The report further highlights the need for the proper measurement, tracking, and reporting system of adaptation investments, to help ensure that finance is used efficiently and targeted where it is most needed.

The report states that, while dedicated climate funds are breaking down the barriers to investing in adaptation projects in developing countries, contributions to these funds are low when compared to the contributions made to funds that mitigate climate change.

The Green Climate Fund, which was set up by the UNFCCC, with its stated goal of splitting funding equally between mitigation and adaptation efforts, is expected to play a significant role in efforts to fund adaptation, the report states.

“The adaptation finance gap is large, and likely to grow substantially over the coming decades, unless significant progress is made to secure new and additional finance for adaptation,” the report concludes.

“To meet finance needs and avoid an adaptation gap the total finance for adaptation in 2030 would have to be approximately six to 13 times greater than international public finance today”.

Adaptation costs are already two to three times higher than current international public funding for adaptation, states the report, which was launched today at Adaptation Futures – the biennial conference of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation.

Closing this gap will be vital if the world is to address future adaptation needs, especially those of developing countries.

The Paris Agreement on climate change, which 195 countries negotiated in December, includes several key provisions designed to advance adaptation. Three are particularly momentous: the adoption of a global goal on adaptation, the commitment to increase developed country funding to developing countries and the requirement that all parties draw up and regularly update adaptation plans and strategies.

In an unprecedented move, the Paris Agreement also calls for a balance between adaptation and mitigation finance and support in a bid to meet longstanding demand for adaptation finance from developing countries.

Spate of illegal bird killing in Egypt unveiled

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Spate of illegal bird killing in Egypt unveiled

A new study has revealed that over 75% of bird killing and trapping in Egypt is illegal. BirdLife International releases new data on Mediterranean hotspot for illegal bird killing, and shows graphic video on killing methods.

Migratory birds
Migratory birds

Nature Conservation Egypt (BirdLife in Egypt) and the BirdLife International Secretariat on Tuesday, 10 May, 2016 released a study on the socio-economic drivers of hunting and trapping practices in Egypt.

With an estimated six million birds killed and trapped illegally every year, Egypt is said to be one of the most dangerous places for migratory birds in the Mediterranean, followed by Italy and Lebanon. BirdLife International has also released a video to document the Mediterranean massacre that has reached over two million people in 48 hours.

Tuesday, 10 May is World Migratory Bird Day, and this year is focused on the illegal killing, taking and trade of migratory birds. According to scientists, migratory birds are declining in large numbers. On the African-Eurasian migratory flyway one in 10 migratory bird species are said to be threatened with global extinction.

The new study’s main findings:

  • There are three “hunter profiles”: Commercial hunters motivated by the economic value of bird selling; subsistence hunters who hunt for securing source of protein; and recreational hunters;
  • Almost 50% are fishermen and live in families with more than 4 members. But almost 20% are public-sector employees;
  • At least 75% of hunting observed is illegal and bird hunting has significant socioeconomic importance to the local communities along the coast;
  • Almost all hunters use illegal fine ‘trammel’ nets (100%) and call devices (85%) knowing these are illegal;
  • Only 7% keep the birds for personal consumption. Most of the birds are sold to the market;
  • Almost all hunters target quails and doves. Nearly 80% target also songbirds;
  • Education: nearly 2/3 of hunters interviewed had either primary or no education;
  • Over 50% of the hunters derive 50% or more of their income from the activity, with 21% earning more than 75%.

Dr. Salwa Elhalawani, author of the study for Nature Conservation Egypt, states: “The study sheds light on the magnitude of the illegality of hunting along the Mediterranean cost of Egypt. But, most importantly, we have profiled hunters and mapped their socio-economic background, so we can recommend mechanisms to help them, as well as the birds, in the future.”

Noor A.Noor, Executive Coordinator at Nature Conservation Egypt, adds: “The socioeconomic study provides much needed context for all scientific research taking place by the Responsible Hunting Programme. By deepening our understanding of the human factors behind illegal killing and trapping, we increase our chances of taking suitable measures, in coordination with local communities, to promote sustainable practices.”

Claire Thompson, Conservation expert at BirdLife International, discloses: “Egypt is situated on important migration routes for birds travelling between their breeding grounds in Eurasia and their wintering sites in Africa. Studies such as these enable BirdLife Partners to push for a more strategic and holistic approach to eliminating illegal killing of birds in the Mediterranean region.”

The study contains a detailed list of recommendations to address the illegal killing of birds.

Cities key to liveable future, says report

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Cities key to liveable future, says report

Today, nearly 3.9 billion people – half of the world’s population – live in urban areas. By 2050 that number is expected to nearly double. According to report title “Can a City Be Sustainable?”, the latest edition of the annual State of the World report series from the Worldwatch Institute, there is no question cities will continue to grow; the only debate is over how.

Eduardo da Costa Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Eduardo da Costa Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“Cities are at a crossroads, confronting historic challenges posed by rising populations, accelerating climate change, increasing inequity, and – all too often – faltering liveability,” writes Eduardo da Costa Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

Cities have voracious appetites for energy, accounting for about three-quarters of the world’s direct final energy use in 2005 – far more than their 49 percent share of global population that year. Cities today must also deal with growing stress on raw material supplies. Extraction of metals, minerals, and fuels is increasingly complex now that the easiest sources have been tapped. A city’s food system – the production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste of its food – has impacts that extend to a city’s host region and country, and often to other countries as well.

“As rural migrants to cities adopt city-based lifestyles, they tend to use more resources as their incomes rise and as their diets shift from starchy staples to a greater share of animal products and processed foods,” writes Tom Prugh, author and co-director of the report. This, in turn, puts natural systems – either in the migrants’ own countries or in other countries that export products or their inputs – under strain.

However, cities today are also in an exciting position to take leadership on the effort to build sustainable economies.

“People care about their cities and often are motivated to protect and improve their urban homes,” says Gary Gardner, author and co-director of State of the World. “Cities can harness that passion to help advance a sustainability agenda, perhaps more easily than national governments or corporations can.”

Perhaps the biggest single step that cities can take toward a sustainable future is to create economies that greatly reduce materials use, (re)circulate most materials, and rely largely on renewable energy. “Green infrastructure” – the use of natural areas to provide economic services – can also help cities avoid building costly new water management facilities, can recharge aquifers, and can provide flood protection. Ensuring that decision-making is transparent and participatory ensures that no community is left behind.

“Building on the new hope created by the breakthrough agreement on climate action achieved in Paris last December, cities stand ready to engage their citizens in building a sustainable future,” writes Mayor Paes.

Activists: Oil has brought destruction, death to Nigeria

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Activists: Oil has brought destruction, death to Nigeria

Break Free from Fossil Fuels actions commenced in Nigeria on Tuesday, 10 May 2016, with a rally at Oil Well 1 in Oloibiri, Nigeria’s first oil well drilled in 1956.

It was a gathering of hundreds of community chiefs, youths, women groups, and civil society groups in the Break Free Coalition. Frontline environmental activist, Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) led the rallying calls alongside a leader from the neighbouring communities, Chief Napoleon Ofiruma, at the feisty event. A musical performance by BioMagic, a group of environmental activists lead by Akpotu Ziworitin, added verve to the occasion as they sang: “Stop the gas flares, we need fresh air…”

While Bassey clamours for a clean Delta region and for the fossil fuels to be kept underground, Ofiruma pleads that government should diversify the economy and restore the degraded ecosystems so that indigenes can resume fishing and farming activities

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Nnimmo Bassey

As we stand at the very first oil well in Nigeria, we see clearly that when the well runs dry all your hopes also dry up. This first oil well has been named a national monument. This is indeed a monument. This Olibiri Oil Well is a monument to neglect. It is a monument to pollution. It is a monument to destroyed livelihoods and of betrayed hopes. It is a monument to the agents of global warming. It is a monument to fossil colonialism. It is a monumental disappointment. And we are saying, never again!

This oil well demands that we raise our voice and speak out loudly. For the Nigerian economy to be truly diversified, we must break free from the bondage to fossil fuels. For the Nigerian economy to work for Nigerians, it is time to move on from fossil fuels.

Globally, fossil fuels extraction, and use, is the major driver of climate change. Today our weather is unbearably hot. Our waters are so polluted with crude oil that we cannot dive into them to cool our bodies. Some of our rivers and forests even go up in flames.

The water we drink used to be sweet. Today the only sweet thing coming out of our land is so-called sweet crude. It is only sweet to those who do not care about the land, our lives.

I don’t need to remind you about oil spills. The evidence is all over the land. Thousands of oil spill locations are crying out to be cleaned. We don’t talk about it, but hundreds of barrels of produced water are dumped into our water ways daily in the Niger Delta, poisoning our waters and choking throats instead of quenching thirst.

Oil extraction has poked holes all over the Niger Delta. Coastlines erosion is eating up the lands of our communities and sea level rise will make this worse. Ask our people at Brass. Ask our people at Koluoama. In addition, our land is sinking!

Combine these with the effects of gas flaring and tell me what benefit crude oil has brought to our land, to Nigeria.

We want a clean Niger Delta.

We want Niger Delta to stay clean.

We demand that fossil fuels be kept in the ground.

We insist that we must not wait until the wells run dry.

We cannot have a clean Niger Delta if oil spills continue. We cannot have a clean Niger Delta if pipelines keep getting bombed. We cannot have a clean Niger Delta with broken pipelines and without companies maintaining their facilities. We must all join our hands to make fossil fuels history and make this first oil well a monument to the monumental damage caused by fossil fuels.

What do we want? A clean Niger Delta!

How can this happen? Stop oil spills. Stop gas flares.

What is our demand? Keep the oil in the ground!

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Chief Napoleon Ofiruma

Today is special because we have the opportunity to speak out to Nigerians and to the world. Today we can say that when we welcomed oil drilling on our land 60 years ago we had a lot of hopes and now we can boldly say that our hopes have been dashed. After 60 years what have we got from oil? In fact, our hopes have been betrayed and relegated.

As we stand at the very first oil well to be drilled in the Niger Delta, we ask the world to see our situation. The oil well has been sucked dry and abandoned. As the oil well has been abandoned so have we been abandoned.

We realise that our being abandoned and neglected is not all the story. Oil extraction and use has brought a lot of problems to the Nigeria and the world. Today everywhere is hot. The climate is changing. Life is very tough and unbearable.

Crude oil spillages have destroyed our fishing business. They have also destroyed our farms. We demand that oil companies should stop polluting our land. We demand that our land and creeks should be cleaned up urgently. We demand an end to gas flaring. We are tired of diseases and deaths caused by oil pollution.

Welcome to our land. Look around you and help us tell government that oil has brought nothing to us but destruction and death.

We demand that as government begins to diversify the economy, the only oil business in Nigeria should be the business of cleaning up the oil pollution. That will employ thousands of youths and restore our fisheries and agriculture. We want to return to our fishing business. We want fish and food, not oil.

We join all Nigerians and others in the world to say that our bondage to crude oil is enough. It is time to break free from this bad business. We support your call to leave the oil in the soil and to quench the killing gas flares and the destruction of our flora and fauna.

Interim concrete climate action registry launched

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Interim concrete climate action registry launched

National climate action intentions are becoming concrete under the Paris Agreement

UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres
UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres

The UN climate change secretariat has launched a new interim public registry to capture countries’ formal climate action plans under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), they set out publicly what each country plans to do as part of the Paris Agreement to contribute to the international effort to secure a sustainable future for all by keeping the global temperature rise since pre-industrial times well below two degrees Celsius, with a preference to limit it to 1.5 degrees.

The NDCs showcase countries’ climate policies and actions to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change across many sectors, for example such as decarbonising energy supply through shifts to renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements, better land management, urban planning and transport.

The launch of the registry heralds a key step towards implementing the Paris Agreement that has now been signed by 177 Parties under the UNFCCC (176 countries plus the European Union, which is counted as a Party).

“The Paris Agreement marked the start of a new era in international climate change cooperation,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. “The launch of the interim public registry for NDCs underpins the collective trust and goodwill that led to the historic agreement and is a new milestone on the road to its implementation.”

The new interim registry for NDCs is the principal instrument to formally record action taken by countries under the Agreement. It is a fully transparent channel of communication where anyone can browse and search for information on what countries are doing to tackle climate change.

Ahead of Paris, as part of the negotiating process, countries had submitted their climate action plans based on their national circumstances and interests, which were called “intended nationally determined contributions”, or INDCs. The Paris Agreement included a change in legal status of these climate action plans, turning what were intentions, or INDCs, into concrete plans for action known as NDCs.

If an INDC has been submitted by a Party under the UNFCCC – and there are now 189 INDCs already submitted – and that Party ratifies the Agreement, then that INDC will be considered their first NDC, unless the Party decides otherwise. Parties can also make changes to a communicated INDC by submitting a new NDC. Countries have also been invited to communicate their first NDC before their instrument of ratification of the Agreement has been submitted.

The Paris Agreement establishes the principle that future national plans will be no less ambitious than existing ones. National contributions are expected to be made more ambitious over time as climate finance and other forms of multilateral cooperation spurred by the Agreement become mobilised.

The interim public registry will be presented at a side event taking place on 18 May during the Bonn session, where countries will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the registry’s design and features.

Ban Ki-moon wants climate action taken to next level

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Ban Ki-moon wants climate action taken to next level

Recalling that just two weeks ago, 175 countries came to the United Nations to sign the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that it is time to take climate action to the next level.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the opening session of the summit “Climate Action 2016: Catalysing a Sustainable Future”. Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the opening session of the summit “Climate Action 2016: Catalysing a Sustainable Future”. Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

“We need to accelerate the speed, scope and scale of our response, locally and globally,” Mr. Ban last week told participants of the Climate Action Summit 2016 in Washington D.C., a forum that aimed to strengthen the multi-stakeholder approach to climate implementation.

In particular, it is expected to deepen and expand the action coalitions of government, business, finance, philanthropy, civil society and academic leaders launched at the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit 2014 in New York.

“I have been looking forward to this event because it is about solutions – innovation and imagination; collaboration and partnerships between the public and private sectors. Today as never before, the stars are aligning in favour of climate action. Everywhere I look, I see signs of hope,” he said.

Noting that the current Summit would focus on six, high-value areas of multi-stakeholder partnership: sustainable energy; sustainable land-use; cities; transport; and tools for decision-making, the UN chief underscored that strong partnership would be needed at all levels to tackle those challenges.

“No sector of society and no nation can succeed alone. I encourage you to collaborate. Innovate. Invest. Together we can build the world we want,” he said.

The signing of the Paris Agreement on 22 April received overwhelming support from all regions of the world, said UN officials, adding that never before had so many countries signed an international accord in one day.

Adopted in Paris by the 196 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at a conference known as COP21 last December, the Agreement’s objective is to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius. It will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification.

“Two of the world’s largest emitters – China and the United States – have pledged their continued commitment and collaboration,” Mr. Ban stressed, noting that leaders must turn the “promise of Paris” into action and implementation as soon as possible.

The UN chief also announced that, in September, on the margins of the G20 meeting, he intends to co-convene a meeting in China similar to this one to further solidify coalitions.

Also speaking at the event, the President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, said there is no time waste.

“Political agreements are critical but they are just the beginning. We must regain the sense of urgency we all felt on the eve of COP21. Inaction means we will not meet our targets set in Paris, and the global temperature will soar above 2 degrees Celsius. That would spell disaster for us, for our children, and for the planet,” he warned.

Mr. Kim highlighted the World Bank Group’s Climate Action Plan, developed soon after the Paris agreement, which aims to increase its support in a range of areas – from water to crowded cities and from forests to agriculture.

“One part of our plan is to help countries put a price on carbon, which will create incentives for investments in renewable energy and in energy efficiency,” he explained. “In many parts of the world, we have seen the price of renewables like solar and wind falling fast – so fast that they are now competitive with fossil fuels. Private sector investments are pouring in. But we need to expand these breakthroughs and help countries establish the right policies that will drive down the cost of renewable energy even further.”

The Summit drove high-level engagement as “global luminaries” addressed plenary sessions on how to deliver on climate commitments and embed the transformation agenda across the globe in government, key sectors and among the general population.

Climate-driven water scarcity could cost regions up to 6% of GDP by 2050

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Climate-driven water scarcity could cost regions up to 6% of GDP by 2050

A new World Bank reports finds that water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could hinder economic growth, spur migration, and spark conflict. However, most countries can neutralise the adverse impacts of water scarcity by taking action to allocate and use water resources more efficiently.

The impact of water scarcity on GDP by 2050, relative to a baseline scenario with no scarcity.
The impact of water scarcity on GDP by 2050, relative to a baseline scenario with no scarcity.

Key findings of the are listed to include:

  • Water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could cost some regions up to 6% of their GDP, spur migration, and spark conflict.
  • The combined effects of growing populations, rising incomes, and expanding cities will see demand for water rising exponentially, while supply becomes more erratic and uncertain.
  • Unless action is taken soon, water will become scarce in regions where it is currently abundant – such as Central Africa and East Asia – and scarcity will greatly worsen in regions where water is already in short supply – such as the Middle East and the Sahel in Africa. These regions could see their growth rates decline by as much as 6% of GDP by 2050 due to water-related impacts on agriculture, health, and incomes.
  • Water insecurity could multiply the risk of conflict. Food price spikes caused by droughts can inflame latent conflicts and drive migration. Where economic growth is impacted by rainfall, episodes of droughts and floods have generated waves of migration and spikes in violence within countries.
  • The negative impacts of climate change on water could be neutralised with better policy decisions, with some regions standing to improve their growth rates by up to 6% with better water resource management.
  • Improved water stewardship pays high economic dividends. When governments respond to water shortages by boosting efficiency and allocating even 25% of water to more highly-valued uses, such as more efficient agricultural practices, losses decline dramatically and for some regions may even vanish.
  • In the world’s extremely dry regions, more far-reaching policies are needed to avoid inefficient water use. Stronger policies and reforms are needed to cope with deepening climate stresses.
  • Policies and investments that can help lead countries to more water secure and climate-resilient economies include: (1) Better planning for water resource allocation, (2) Adoption of incentives to increase water efficiency, and (3) Investments in infrastructure for more secure water supplies and availability.
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