Climate Action

Photo (L-R): Benjamin Schachter, OHCHR; Jennifer Hanna, PCCB; Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, UN Secretary General Special Envoy for the 2019 Climate Summit; Verona Collantes, UN Women; Michael Windfuhr, German Institute for Human Rights; Agnes Leina, Illaramatak Community Concerns; and Sébastien Duyck, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Credit: IISD.

Experts Urge Respect for Human Rights in Climate Actions

By Aleksandra Gadzinski

KATOWICE (IDN) – Independent experts of the UN Human Rights Council, are calling on States to fully integrate human rights standards and principles in the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change (the Paris Rulebook) adopted by the international community.

In the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, they recalled that "in a significant breakthrough" in 2015, Parties to the Paris Agreement recognized the need to integrate their human rights obligations and their efforts to address climate change, pledging to respect and protect human rights in all climate actions.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 09 December 2018

Gap Widens Between Ambition and Action To Combat Future Climate Risks

By Aleksandra Gadzinski

KATOWICE (IDN) – Climate consciousness across the globe is on the rise. But a new report has found a considerable gap between countries’ preparedness for climate change and the actual measures put in place to prepare communities for a future of increasing climate risks.

The fourth edition of the UN Environment's Adaptation Gap Report highlights in particular a growing divide between the estimated annual costs of adaptation and the actual global investments in resilience measures, establishing a distinct connection between adaptation to climate change and sustainable development that results in healthy communities and thriving economies.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 December 2018

Photo: Seyni Nafo (left), spokesman of the African delegation to the COP24, with Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, at a meeting in 2016. Credit: World Bank

Africa Seeks Commitments to Fight Climate Threat at COP24

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Seyni Nafo, spokesman of the African delegation at the UN Climate Change Conference COP24 taking place in Katowice in southern Poland from December 2-14 is not one to mince words about the serious climate threat now facing the African continent.

"We are the most vulnerable, we are the least responsible but we will suffer the most," the Malian-born Nafo summed up in an interview with Germany’s international broadcaster DW. The African continent is already experiencing the effects of climate change. In many places drought, torrential rainfall or flooding are regular occurrences.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 December 2018

Photo: UN Chief Opening COP24. Credit: UNFCCC.

UN Chief Calls for Katowice to Lay Down Ground Rules for the Paris Agreement

By António Guterres

Following are extensive excerpts from the UN Secretary-General's remarks at the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP14) from December 2-14 in Katowice, Poland.

KATOWICE (IDN-INPS) – We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with climate change.

Climate change is running faster than we are and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late.

For many, people, regions even countries this is already a matter of life and death.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 04 December 2018

Photo: COP24 Opening Ceremony. Credit: UNFCCC.

Polish Perspectives of the UN Climate Change Conference

By Aleksandra Gadzinski

KATOWICE (IDN) – "We can't afford to fail in Katowice," declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening remarks to the two-week-long 24th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in southern Poland.

The political will to fight climate change had faded since the Paris Agreement three years ago. The accord in December 2015 saw countries agree to step up efforts to fight the pressing problem of global warming. But with temperatures rising, oceans warming and glaciers receding faster than expected, climate change was running away from us.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 03 December 2018

Photo: Lesotho has had its fair share of the climate change impacts owing to the El Nino crisis in the past years. Credit: Lesotho: Agence Kaolin

ACP Steps in to Rescue Africa from Climate Change Impacts

By Jeffrey Moyo

MASERU (ACP-IDN) – Three years ago, Lesotho, Southern Africa’s small mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa, was hit hard by the drought that led to the driest season in the region in 35 years. In the tiny dynastic nation, the El Niño driven-phenomenon resulted in a fall in maize production, the country's staple food.

But now thanks to ACP, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, a group that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975, climate change impacts in African countries like Lesotho have met their match.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 01 December 2018

Photo: A boy watches the shore from a boat near Sirajganj, a community affected by severe erosion that has left many displaced. Sirajganj, Bangladesh. October 2016. Credit: IOM/Amanda Nero.

New Study Calls for USD 2.3 Billion Support to ACP Countries

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – A new study finds that the 79-nation African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States can boost climate action with technical and financial support amounting to a minimum of USD 2,317 billion. Capacity building, an important aspect of efforts to halt climate catastrophe, is expected to draw considerable attention at the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland.

The urgency of climate action is underlined also by the new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It shows that global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose again during 2017 after a three-year break, highlighting the imperative for countries to deliver on the historic Paris Agreement to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 29 November 2018

Photo: Small remnants of thicker, multiyear ice float with thinner, seasonal ice in the Beaufort Sea on September 30, 2016. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Alek Petty

Governments Unable to Take Climate Responsibility Seriously

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio

The writer is publisher of Other News, a vehicle for "voices against the tide", and founder of IPS-Inter Press Service News Agency. This article is being reproduced courtesy of Other News with the writer's permission. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and his articles and comments can be read on Facebook @robertosavioutopia

ROME (IDN) – With any high-sounding pledges that have been made to combat climate change remaining empty words, it is now clear that we have lost the battle to keep the planet as we have known it.

: Roberto Savio; OPINION; 20 November 2018

Technology Comes to Rescue as Freshwater Becomes Scarcer

By Anna Kucirkova

UNIVERSAL CITY, Texas (IDN-INPS) – Fresh water is the most important resource for human life on earth. People can survive far longer without food than without water, and virtually all of our food sources require fresh water to grow or create.

Global climate change and the exponential increase in population has led to water scarcity and recent headline-grabbing water shortages in major urban centres like Cape Town and Sao Paulo.

As water scarcity or cleanliness continue to present major issues to humanity’s survival, communities across the globe are turning to technology to help access more fresh water – or create it using seemingly ‘magic’ techniques.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Clean Water & Sanitation; 19 November 2018

Image credit: UN Convention on Biological Diversity

Conserving Biodiversity is Key to Mitigating Climate Change

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – An area almost the size of Australia – up to 724 million hectares in all – will be required by 2050 for cultivating bioenergy, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Climate Change (IPCC) on limiting climate warming to 1.5C.

Models foresee that demand for bioenergy to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuels could cause a 10- to 30-fold increase in green energy-related land use in years to come, adding crushing pressure on habitat for plants and animals and undermining the essential diversity of species on Earth.