Biblioteca

This technical document presents the main results of an assessment of climate risk and risk management capacity in the health sector in Nicaragua. The combination of different scientific and participatory research streams, including literature reviews, community consultations, statistical analyses, and policy and capacity assessments, provide a basis for identifying climate related health risks and prioritizing measures to manage them.

This technical document assesses climate risks in crop production in two different agroecological zones of Uganda and identifies climate risk management options. The report presents an evidence base for understanding how climatic risks are likely to unfold. It aims to help governments, development agencies and the communities themselves to identify underlying risks, including inappropriately designed policies and plans and crucial capacity gaps.

This analytical report examines the effects of two «megatrends» – climate change and urbanization – on environmental emergencies. In particular, it considers how climate change and urbanization affect the scope and scale of emergencies, as well as what these trends mean for emergency preparedness and response. Challenges posed include overwhelming national and local-level emergency preparedness and depleting the capacity to prepare, respond, and rebuild. The report then highlights a few opportunities for addressing these challenges.

This technical document aims to discuss SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) indicators that can be used for assessing the impact of climate change projects, including those that seek to adapt to the expected impacts of climate change and those that promote low carbon emissions growth strategies to mitigate greenhouse gases.

This analytical report is focused on the climate and development challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It first presents the expected impacts of climate change and possible adaptation responses, then reviews the region’s carbon footprint while illustrating some opportunities for mitigation. The document finally highlights the development cobenefits that adaptation and mitigation can bring to the region.

This analytical report aims to demonstrate the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions by information and communication technology (ICT) services, estimate the reduced volume of GHG, and identify major ICT GHG reduction enablers in Korea. This report comprises a review of more than 30 ICT services through a literature study and global benchmarking.

This sourcebook aims to further elaborate the concept of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and demonstrate its potential, as well as limitations. It is a reference tool for planners, practitioners and policy makers working in agriculture, forestry and fisheries at national and subnational levels.  It aims to help decision makers at a number of levels  to understand the different options that are available for planning, policies and investments and the practices that are suitable for making different agricultural sectors, landscapes and food systems more climate-smart.

This publication is a collaborative effort of the United Nations Joint Framework Initiative on Children, Youth and Climate Change aiming at highlighting concrete activities young people are leading around the world. It has been produced as a tool and a source of inspiration for designing and carrying out climate change projects, initiatives and campaigns. The document is divided into five chapters, namely: 1) Uncovering mitigation potential showcasing initiatives to reduce greenhouse gases emissions; 2) Gearing up for the storm relating to adaptation and disaster risk reduction projects; 3) Nurturing youth leaders presenting activities in education, training and capacity-building; 4) Spreading the message highlighting awareness raising campaigns and materials; and 5) Shaping up the future climate change regime presenting examples of youth participation in climate change policy-making. A list of useful resources and materials for youth is included at the end.

This activity report summarizes the key outcomes of a meeting of around one hundred climate change education (CCE) experts, primarily from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The meeting discussed and reflected on the challenges that climate change poses to education systems in SIDS, and on the role that education must play in adaptation to climate change.

This analytical report reflects on Bangladesh’s experience in mainstreaming climate change resilience into development planning. It explains how political will facilitates a climate-resilient development planning process in the country. In addition, it provides an introduction to climate financing mechanisms.

This technical document provides a brief overview of available funding and technical support opportunities for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in Africa. Further to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) initiatives, it introduces the relevant World Bank initiatives, the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) African Carbon Support Programme (ACSP), the Africa Carbon Asset Development Initiative (ACAD), the Intra-ACP Climate Support Facility (CSF), the African Biofuels and Renewable Energy Fund (ABREF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Carbon, and Germany’s Programme of Activities (POA) Support Facilities. The introduction of these initiatives also highlights some measures and available facilities for assisting African countries to further develop their capacities in preparing for climate change mitigation and related projects.

This manual encompasses and shares lessons learned from key technologies and mechanisms that the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has supported to date, encompassing renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, and innovative financing. Case studies on fuel cell buses, concentrating solar power, and wind energy are examples of how GEF support spurs innovation in developing and transition countries. The brick-making program highlights how energy efficiency can be improved drastically, and be scaled up through South-South technology transfer. The innovative financing case study illustrates the merits of financial instruments in promoting investments for technology transfer. This manual also hopes to raise a deeper awareness of efforts to catalyze technology transfer, and to inspire the readers to scale up efforts to address climate change challenges in partnership with the GEF.

This analytical report describes how United Nations organizations use the information provided by space-based technologies to monitor the Earth’s climate system and support decision-making about climate change adaptation, prediction and mitigation, including addressing the needs identified under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It also provides an overview of the global observing systems co-sponsored by several United Nations organizations and the International Council for Science that coordinate Earth observations on behalf of United Nations Member States. United Nations organizations are making full use of space-based technologies in order to build a safer, better world for all. This document also aims to provide a clear understanding of how these technologies are enhancing our ability to manage planet Earth and to address the critical challenges that we are facing.

This manual aims at improving national legal and regulatory regimes to support and facilitate the development and implementation of measures for adaptation to climate change. It builds on an in-depth study that was done on the legal, regulatory and institutional measures required for adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change in the Asia-Pacific region which pointed, inter alia, to the recognition by governments of the need for establishing policy, regulatory and legal frameworks as a necessary pre-requisite for successfully developing and implementing measures for adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change across various sectors of national activity. The project found that appropriate policy, legal and institutional underpinnings are essential pre-requisites for the development and implementation of adaptation measures. It also supports the sharing of experiences and lessons learned from this pilot project with other developing countries through the formulation of a set of draft legal provisions that could serve as a reference tool to policy makers and legal drafters of a larger number of countries, in their efforts to further strengthen existing legislation to support and facilitate adaptation.

This analytical report builds on the first volume and communicates experiences of selected Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in addressing adaptation through National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and other adaptation initiatives. It draws on these experiences and others from the rest of the other LDCs, to present additional best practices and lessons learned in addressing adaptation through the NAPAs and other initiatives. It covers experiences on institutional arrangements for coordinating adaptation work at the national level, working with several agencies in initial considerations on monitoring and evaluation of adaptation efforts, accessing and mobilizing financial resources, and deploying programmatic approaches. For many LDCs, these best practices and lessons learned will provide valuable information when addressing adaptation since they present a variety of experiences that they could consider, tailor, and use for their specific situations. These lessons will also be particularly useful for countries that are embarking on the NAP process.

This analytical report provides rich scientific and policy information about current mitigation and adaptation science. It also highlights recent climate change projections, including expected impacts, and reviews key mitigation sectors and technologies. It focuses on “traditional” Global Environment Facility (GEF) support policies and mitigation opportunities in energy efficiency, renewable energy, REDD+, and a number of other key strategies and sectors. The report argues for a strong GEF role in such emerging sectors with high mitigation potential as urban systems combining transport, buildings, water supply, waste treatment, food supply and land use zoning, AFOLU (Agriculture, Forest and Other Land Use), agri-food supply systems – including emerging and often controversial mitigation opportunities such as short-lived climate forcers and carbon capture and storage.

This analytical report seeks to inform a broad audience about permafrost and communicate to decision-makers and the general public the implications of changing permafrost in a warming climate. It defines basic terminology and describes fundamental physical and biological processes that shape the permafrost landscape using the best scientific information available from published literature. The report discusses the impacts of a changing climate on ecosystems and human infrastructure in regions with significant presence of permafrost, as well as the impacts of thawing permafrost on global climate. Graphics, illustrations and photographs help to explain complicated concepts and ideas in a way that is easily understood and visualized by a non-scientific audience. This report also builds upon other reports written in recent years. This report aims to fill gaps by providing a concise, highly readable and fully up-to-date description of permafrost and future social, economic and environmental impacts of changing permafrost in a warming climate.

These guidelines aim to provide climatologists with the essential information on observation networks and systems to help ensure that their outputs are adequate for the comprehensive needs of climate services, applications and research. In these guidelines, emphasis is placed on equipping climatologists with information relevant to their own operations and research needs as opposed to attempting to cover all nuances of systems and networks. This guidance will also give greater attention to infrastructure that they are more likely to encounter in their day-to-day activities as opposed to other networks and systems.

This activity report is based on a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) workshop organised to build the capacity of health professionals and climate scientists in the Greater Horn of Africa on practical applications of climate information and prediction services in the health sector for improved decision-making and better management of health services. The objective was achieved through lectures, practical demonstrations, laboratory exercises, plenary discussions, and field excursions. In concluding the workshop, the participants suggested several items as follow-up actions, including a similar workshop to review progress of previous interactions; enhancement of the interaction between climate scientists and health experts; implementation of national action plans by multi-disciplinary teams and other relevant organizations and institutions; and maintaining regular communication among the group.

This activity report is based on a World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Expert Meeting aimed at identifying the current state of climate information that potentially could be used by water managers that would suit their requirements. The meeting served as a platform to identify current uses of climate information in water management and to provide an overview at which scales climate information has the greatest potential for use now and the near future. Likewise, gaps and deficiencies in present knowledge and research were identified. The meeting showed that climate predictions and seasonal climate outlooks at present have the highest potential to be more readily used, while predictions of climate variability and change are not yet ready to be applied from an engineering point of view. Additionally, other techniques are required to improve prediction skills to reduce large uncertainties. The meeting concluded that all possible information should be processed in such a way that it would allow the development of adaptation processes and activities despite prevailing uncertainties. Major outcomes of the expert meeting include the encouragement to develop demonstration projects; and an agenda and work plan for a WMO initiative on “Improvement in Water Resources Planning through the Use of Climate Information”.