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This information document explains what Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR) is and why it is important for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It also describes UNICEF’s approach to DRR and provides examples of UNICEF’s DRR work.

This analytical report provides an overview of the climate change trends and potential impacts on children in East Asia and the Pacific that appeared in studies covering five countries that were commissioned by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The country studies highlight children’s specific vulnerability to climate change that needs to be taken into account in policy development. The impacts children will encounter, however, will not be uniform. In addition, the scientific research indicates that existing vulnerabilities will likely be exacerbated by continued climate change. Involving children in the design of policy and designing climate change policies with children’s rights in mind are essential to creating policies that do not have unintended negative consequences.

This analytical report reviews the implications of climate change for children and future generations, drawing on relevant experiences in different sectors and countries of promoting child rights and well-being. It traces in considerable detail the pathways through which shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns create serious additional barriers to the achievement of the child survival, development and protection goals embraced by the international community. The role of children as vital participants and agents of change emerges as a key theme.

This analytical report stresses that the response to the threat of climate change demands a “child-centred” approach and includes a scoping study that highlights some of the evidence in an economic argument for a child-centred approach to adaptation. It notices that many of the measures that can address children’s vulnerability to climate change are already well known and are some of the lowest-cost measures available.

This publication examines the effects of climate change on children highlighting how climate change has evolved from an “environmental” issue into one that requires collective expertise in sustainable development, energy security, and the health and well-being of children. It provides a summary of comments and letters from children and young people from all over the world, collected from UNICEF Voices of Youth, child delegates to the 2007 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) African Regional Children’s Conference for the Environment and the 2007 World Scout Jamboree in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

This analytical report examines emerging environmental issues and policy-relevant developments, while providing an overview of the latest trends based on key environmental indicators. In particular, it details two emerging issues, the benefits of soil carbon, and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. It features chapters on: the year in review, which highlights environmental extremes, including record extreme weather and climate events and increasing degradation of marine ecosystems, but notes progress towards new investments in renewable energy and towards a green economy; the benefits of soil carbon; the closing and decommissioning of nuclear power reactors; and on key environmental indicators, which underscores the need to address mounting challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and land and soil degradation. It includes recommendations for future actions.

This technical document is part of an annual series published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on the status of the global climate. Key results of the present issue include that the year 2010 was especially notable in that global surface temperatures reached record values at the same level as in 1998 and 2005, consistent with the acceleration of the warming experienced over the last 50 years. The year also signalled the closure of the warmest decade on record. Over this decade, warming was markedly more pronounced in some regions, notably so in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia and the Arctic.

This brochure provides a sample of extreme events for the past decade (2001–2010). Some of these events compared with — or exceeded in intensity, duration or geographical extent — the most significant historical events. Scientists are still studying the quantitative links between these events and climate change. Meanwhile, this brochure illustrates a qualitative fit between the facts observed about extreme events over the past decade, and the IPCC projections regarding the consequences of climate variability and change.

This activity report highlights the significant linkages between World Meteorological Organization (WMO) weather-, climate- and water-related programmes and activities, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In particular it aims to illustrate how, under the rising threat of climate change, the production, delivery and effective use of weather and hydrological forecasts, climate predictions and related services can be utilized by communities and socioeconomic sectors to achieve most of the MDGs. The given examples of “Ways WMO helps” were compiled from best practices and success stories, especially from developing and least developed countries. These examples are intended as an illustration rather than a comprehensive list of the efforts undertaken by WMO and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of its 189 Members, often with the support of development partners, to increasingly advance the vision of the Millennium Declaration.

This policy document consists of a COP 17 position paper that aims to provide guidance to the Directors and senior managers from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) at COP 17 on the role of meteorological and hydrological services in climate services for adaptation and sustainable development. The document includes a set of recommendations.

This brief describes the role of forests and forestry in the prevention and rehabilitation of landslides in Asia, noting that landslides may increase over the coming decades, in part due to climate change. It underscores the role of forests in preventing landslides, and describes how in some areas of China and Mongolia, climate change is causing landslides due to rapidly thawing permafrost. Additional climate change implications include increased rains and severe weather, which could lead to soil inundation and tree falls. The document also notes that climate change-induced drought will increase the chances of devastating wild fire and forest die-back, which by removing or damaging forest cover will induce root decay, resulting in loss of slope stability. It concludes by providing recommendations for maintenance of forest cover and forest health.

This manual aims to translate available climate science and current international climate policies into the tools for practical action in Africa, in the context of sustainable development. In this regard the guidebook focuses on the potential climate change impacts on key sectors in Africa and appropriate adaptation and mitigation options. It outlines the governance, technological, financial and capacity building opportunities available to the continent to work effectively towards sustainable development. The manual is self-contained and stands alone, but provides guidance to intended users to other relevant materials in the form of links and annexes. The primary audiences for the guidebook are policymakers, decision makers, practitioners from public and private sector, civil society organizations, environment and climate change negotiators and experts

This technical document reviews existing laws and regulations relevant to REDD+ in Zambia. It identifies key legal challenges associated with REDD+, including equitable and secure land tenure, decentralized governance, integrated land-use planning, benefit distribution systems, inter-ministerial coordination and definitions in the forest sector. The findings also reveal how legal instruments already in place in the country, for instance those related to payments for ecosystem services, could provide context-specific solutions for REDD+ implementation.

This technical document reviews existing laws and regulations relevant to REDD+ in Vietnam. It identifies key legal challenges associated with REDD+, including equitable and secure land tenure, decentralized governance, integrated land-use planning, benefit distribution systems, inter-ministerial coordination and definitions in the forest sector. The findings also reveal how legal instruments already in place in the country, for instance those related to payments for ecosystem services, could provide context-specific solutions for REDD+ implementation. Also available in Vietnamese.

This technical document reviews existing laws and regulations relevant to REDD+ in Mexico. It identifies key legal challenges associated with REDD+, including equitable and secure land tenure, decentralized governance, integrated land-use planning, benefit distribution systems, inter-ministerial coordination and definitions in the forest sector. The findings also reveal how legal instruments already in place in the country, for instance those related to payments for ecosystem services, could provide context-specific solutions for REDD+ implementation.

This booklet identifies tangible challenges and best practices that have emerged among its 12 partner countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including examples and case studies related to information, monitoring and MRV, benefit distribution systems, safeguards and the formulation of national REDD+ strategies.

This analytical report aims to demonstrate and illustrate how integrating gender equality principles into REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) results in improved sustainability of climate and development outcomes. In particular, it examines why integrating gender considerations may increase efficiency, efficacy and sustainability, and proposes initial recommendations on how to do so. It also examines what gender equality and equity mean and entail for stakeholder engagement, land and resources tenure, multiple benefits of forests, benefit distribution systems, anti corruption efforts and inclusive growth and development. The report includes brief case studies.

This technical document introduces 24 economic (e.g. price and supply of food, change in income, jobs, productivity, energy balance, infrastructure), ecological (e.g. emissions, soil quality, water use, biodiversity, land-use change) and social (e.g. unpaid time of women and children, injury and illness, training, land allocation and tenure) indicators pertinent to the sustainability of bioenergy. One chapter is dedicated to each indicator, describing the measurement units, relevance, scientific basis, methodological approach, anticipated limitations, data requirements, knowledge gaps, relevant international processes, and references.

This brief highlights the impacts that climate change has on the forest ecosystems of Asia. It stresses that forest adaptation activities that assist mitigation should be eligible for carbon financing, and that the adaptive capacity of forest-dependent people can be improved by the allocation of forestland use rights, local-level capacity building and improving forest-based products access to markets. It also underscores that national adaptation strategies should address adaptation within a broader framework of sustainable forest management (SFM) activities.

This analytical report highlights ways to reduce the environmental impact and improve the environmental, economic and social sustainability of traditional and emerging ocean-oriented economies. The chapters show where fisheries, tourism and maritime transportation and other industries can take steps to reduce their impact on the marine environment. Throughout, the report demonstrates that creating a green economy in the blue world, one that improves human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities means creating sustainable jobs, lasting economic value and increased social equity.