Library

This fact sheet addresses the issue of climate change finance. The review provides an analysis and assessment of investment and financial flows in 2030 that will be needed to meet worldwide mitigation and adaptation requirements. The results should be seen as indicative only. They should be seen as broad contours of what would be needed rather than exact figures.

This fact sheet presents various approaches to reduce emissions from deforestation in developing countries under the UNFCCC and the Bali frameworks.

This analytical report presents findings of the work of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer on its elaboration of a strategy paper for the long-term perspective beyond 2012. It includes sectoral approaches to facilitate the development, deployment, diffusion and transfer of technologies under the Convention.

This activity report summarises the work of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer (EGTT) in 2009. It also presents a rolling programme of work of the EGTT for 2010–2011 including recommendations for enhancing the implementation of the technology transfer framework and other activities which the EGTT believes can contribute to advancing the development and transfer of technologies under the Convention.

This analytical report showcases the concrete results of the action implemented by partners through their Action Pledges under the Nairobi Work Programme (NWP). The objective of this work programme is to assist all Parties, in particular developing countries, to improve their understanding and assessment of impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, and to make informed decisions on practical adaptation actions and measures to respond to climate change on a sound scientific, technical and socioeconomic basis, taking into account current and future climate change and variability.

This UNFCCC fact sheet explains the need for mitigation, lists current mechanisms for emission reduction and highlights commitments made under the Convention.

This fact sheet presents the current status of climate change science and stresses that urgent action needs to be taken. The IPCC assesses worldwide climate change science in three working groups and in the context of three broad categories: 1) the physical science, 2) climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and 3) mitigation of climate change. It is politically significant that all governments agreed to the conclusions of the scientists, making the assessment a solid foundation for sound decision-making.

This activity report explains how over the past 30 years, UNESCO has actively contributed to building the global knowledge base on climate change and reports on UNESCO’s International Seminar on Climate Change Education 2009.

This analytical report highlights that women and girls around the world are excluded from participation in science and technology (S&T) by poverty, lack of education and aspects of their legal, institutional, political and cultural environments. Marking the start of an ongoing initiative, it aims to spur serious discussion and action in national and international scientific and academic communities, especially regarding the pressing needs to increase women’s participation in S&T careers and enable sex-disaggregated data collection and rigorous research development, along with increasing public awareness of gender issues.

This activity report outlines the threats posed by climate change to natural and cultural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The report features 26 examples – including the Tower of London, Kilimanjaro National Park and the Great Barrier Reef – case studies that are representative of the dangers faced by the 830 sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.

This report approved by the world’s governments notes that warming of the climate system is unequivocal. It predicts that global mean temperatures will rise by 1.8°-4.0°C this century, depending on which socio-economic scenario is followed. The report confirms that most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations and that discernible human influences now extend to other aspects of climate, including ocean warming, continental-average temperatures, temperature extremes and wind patterns.

This document presents an integrated multidisciplinary programme offering Member States capacity building and technical advice to design and implement evidence-based climate change policies and projects at the local, national, regional and global levels. UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organisation have been designated as the joint convening agencies for the cross-cutting areas of science, assessment, monitoring and early warning within the UN system.

This activity report came out of a Special Expert Meeting of the World Heritage Convention, 16-17 March, 2006. It aims at reviewing the potential impacts of climate change on World Heritage properties and suggests appropriate measures to deal with them.

This activity report informs about the outcomes of a Working Group Meeting of the World Heritage Committee on the impacts of climate change. The Committee endorsed a “Strategy to assist States Parties to implement management responses” and took note of the report on “Predicting and managing the impacts of Climate Change on World Heritage”. Both documents are available on the website.

This activity report presents the UNESCO Strategy for Action on Climate Change. This strategy aims at helping Member States to build and maintain the requisite knowledge base, and to adopt measures for adapting to the impacts of climate change, contribute to the mitigation of its causes, and enhance sustainable development.

This analytical report proposes practical and objective solutions to the entrenched water conflicts in the Middle East. The author reveals and clarifies the complexity of the water conflicts, drawing on years of experience facilitating and chairing water negotiations in the region.

Amid contemporary scenarios of potential climatic catastrophes and global warming that might be imagined to bring a new ice age, the powerful image of the Gulf Stream rising from the Florida Straits and flowing to the north Atlantic inevitably provokes questions about its ecological significance and whether it might ever stop. This analytical report states that even dramatic climatic change would not bring an end to the Gulf Stream. Combining complex scientific information with an engaging narrative, the book paints an elaborate but accessible portrait of this extraordinary natural phenomenon, tracing its historical discovery and the paradigms of its exploration, outlining its causes and dynamics, and examining its profound importance for the marine ecosystems of the Atlantic Ocean.

This analytical report that came out of the International Scientific Conference on Desertification and Drylands Research addresses the problem of desertification in the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions of the world. Deterioration of soil and plant cover has adversely affected 70% of the world’s drylands as a result of extended droughts as well as mismanagement of range and cultivated lands. The report offers practical solutions for combating desertification along with conserving and sustainably managing dryland ecosystems. Major themes include the conservation of dryland biological and cultural diversity and the human dryland interface.

This analytical report, commissioned by UNESCO in 2005, looks at the state of research on arid lands in 1956 to then consider how scientific understanding of the processes governing arid lands has evolved. It  extracts lessons from this comparison that might guide current and future arid land managers.

This analytical report discusses a particular use of solar energy. Divided into two parts, the first part of this book addresses the theory and fundamentals of water decontamination by means of solar energy. This prepares the reader for the second part, which deals with the practical applications and systems engineering of the process.