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This technical document provides background information on groundwater protection with particular reference to its use in emergency situations as result of natural hazards and hydrological extremes. It also outlines the governance policy framework in which groundwater as an emergency resource may be integrated into overall emergency management and service provision. To illustrate the principles and techniques presented in the Guide, a varied number of real world case studies from widely differing regions is presented.

This manual aims to assist United Nations (UN) organization offices in becoming ‘climate friendly’, meaning that offices will generate lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during their operation than would be standard practice. With the UN currently maintaining offices in more than 530 locations worldwide, the guide is a resource for all those who are interested in energy efficient buildings. Though primarily aimed at assisting UN facility and property managers, this manual is also applicable to other building mangers who are looking to reduce office-related energy and GHG emissions.

This manual is a guide on how facilitators, peer educators, project officers, teachers or youth workers can support young people in non-formal learning settings, both in and out of school, to take action in addressing the challenges of climate change. It aims to support the reader to focus the energy and ideas of children and young people into effective activism. This can take a range of forms, from practical projects such as tree planting or making solar cookers, to awareness-raising workshops or performances, community mapping and preparing for natural disasters. This resource can be used with any group: large or small, formal or informal, girls, boys or mixed-gender groups. However, it places special emphasis on the power and potential of girls and young women as catalysts for change in their communities.

This manual is intended as a practical reference tool to guide implementation of a Weather Index-based Insurance programme. It translates the WRMF into practical decision-making steps for donors and practitioners, covering phases of project design and management processes. It also highlights the need to use weather index-based insurance within an integrated approach that also considers constraints such as lack of access to finance, improved seed, inputs and markets. The manual includes background information, explanations and resource recommendations to help inform decision making.

This report shows how uranium resources could create a platform for innovative engagement with the integrated challenge of natural resource management and climate action. The United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC), the comprehensive resource management scheme, provides the necessary tools and conditions for the redesign of the uranium resource pathway. 

This report argues that the conventional model of uranium as a mineral commodity needs to give way to a new model of uranium as a “critical energy material” for meeting the global sustainability objectives on energy and climate action.

This technical document aims to assess potential opportunities and options to promote a green economy, with a focus on key economic sectors set out by South Africa’s National Development Plan – Vision 2030. It presents a modelling exercise that compares a scenario of investments directed to “business-as-usual” (BAU) with scenarios of investments allocated to four critical sectors for a transition to a green economy in South Africa, namely: natural resource management, agriculture, transport and energy. The findings from this assessment using the parameters of economic growth, poverty, employment, resource efficiency and climate change, show that the strengthening of natural resource management and environmental protection is fundamental for sustained economic growth and well-being.

Published by WRI and UNDP, Enhancing NDCs: A Guide to Strengthening National Climate Plans is designed to help practitioners think through how to structure their country’s enhanced NDCs across three dimensions: 

1. Strengthening targets to reduce emissions (mitigation), 

2. Enhancing climate resilience (adaptation) and 

3. Clearly communicating their actions to build trust and facilitate effective implementation.

This guide responds to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015- 2030concern that more dedicated action needs to be focused on tackling underlying disaster risk drivers and strengthening good governance in disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies, at all levels and across sectors and actors.

The Ship Emissions Toolkit provides a structured framework as well as decision support tools for evaluating
emissions reduction opportunities in maritime transport. It includes the development of a national ship emissions reduction strategy: supports countries in developing a national ship emissions reduction strategy that can guide potential policy and investments options.

The UN-REDD Programme Benefits and Risks Tool (BeRT) is a guidance document which seeks to support the application of the BeRT in a workshop setting. In other words, this facilitators’ guide provides documentation to REDD+ countries to assess the social and environmental benefits and risks associated with candidate Policies and Measures (PAMs) and makes sure the the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is respected. 

The guide focuses on the water climate change adaptation technology taxonomy, systematizing the most pressing climate change challenges in the water sector. It also shows that adaptation technologies are relevant to ensuring sustainable supplies of clean water and mitigation of water-related disasters. 

This guidance document is based on examples from Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) projects of the GEF Small Grants Programme implemented by UNDP and aims to guide practitioners in developing CBA projects from design to implementation. It includes recommendations on country entry points, roles and responsibilities of multi-level stakeholders, financial management, use of methodologies, applying the Theory of Change (ToC) and more.

The World Heritage Centre has developed this practical guide to assist those responsible for the management of natural World Heritage sites to better understand how climate change may affect those features of the site that contribute to its Outstanding Universal Value and offer ideas for identifying options for adapting to climate change with tailored management responses.

This technical document is a response to the UN-REDD Programme partner-country demand for practical guidance on Participatory Governance Assessments (PGAs), and its purpose is to outline the main steps of a PGA process, while allowing flexibility for variances across regions, countries, peoples, communities and circumstances. The guide draws on lessons, challenges and practical solutions taken from the experience of the four PGA pilots within the UN-REDD Programme to date: Ecuador, Indonesia, Nigeria and Viet Nam.

This manual sets basic standards for open source creation and communication of disaster and climate change information. It builds on the World Bank’s Open Data initiative and seeks to: improve disaster and climate change resilience; ensure streamlined data sharing and collaboration among government agencies, the private sector, academia and civil society; and encourage data collaboration with humanitarian efforts. The Guide draws on a number of projects which provide tools to empower both governments and communities to develop mitigation strategies for storms, flooding, droughts and other natural hazards.

This manual aims to describe in a practical manner the six-step process that proved effective in order to assist non-climate experts in UN Country Teams to mainstream climate change in UN and government development planning, as well as build national capacity to do so. The guide proposes a set of best practices and identifies crucial issues to consider. Also available in portuguese.

This manual is designed as a working tool for World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Information and Public Affairs focal points within National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) to ensure that – in a contest of heightened awareness and growing international concern over climate change and increasing incidence of extreme weather events affecting the daily lives of millions of people – the broader public is informed as quickly, accurately and effectively as possible through effective working relations with the media. This guide refers to basic concepts and approaches in dealing with the media, whether through one-on-one interviews, press conferences or briefings or by disseminating “news” via press releases or other means of communication, including the Internet. It is not aimed solely at media presenting forecasts, but also at reporters, editors and broadcast producers who cover general news and feature stories that are impacted by climate- and weather-related events. Also available in Polish.

This manual provides guidance to IFAD project staff on developing participatory communication strategies that will support and enhance the impact of participatory mapping initiatives, especially among pastoralists, indigenous peoples and forest dwellers. It provides a list of tools for documenting and managing the knowledge that emerges from the mapping process. The first section provides a review of participatory mapping and communication. The second section outlines a four-stage process for developing and implementing a communication strategy to support a participatory mapping initiative. It includes a step-by-step guide for creating a communication action plan and implementing communication activities. And the third section addresses knowledge management procedures that can be employed.

This document presents a summary of the Guide to Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction in UN Organizations, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2009. It includes action checklists to support implementation of mitigation activities.

This manual consists of a teacher’s and/or facilitator’s guide for in-school and extracurricular exploration and action activities in industrialized countries on the issue of climate change and its impact on child rights. The goal of this toolkit is to help children and young people understand the links between climate change and child rights and make them realize that they can fight climate change, empowering them to become actors of change. More precisely, the activities included aim to enable children to: explain the issue of climate change and its impact on children and child rights; explain how reducing carbon emissions in industrialized countries can reduce climate change and its negative effects, and that they can contribute personally to achieving this; and develop skills to undertake action.