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This analytical report underscores the need for protecting coastal wetlands, creating incentives for avoiding their degradation and improving their restoration, and including the protection of these ecosystems in carbon emission reduction strategies and in climate negotiations. It highlights that the current rates of degradation and loss of coastal wetlands and mangroves has led to the release of centuries of accumulated carbon. Managing coastal ecosystems for the range of services they provide can complement existing approaches to nature-based solutions to reduce the effects of climate change.

This activity report outlines GEF’s efforts and strategies to combat land degradation and desertification globally. It presents the GEF’s approach toward financing sustainable land management as a means of ensuring the stewardship of land globally. It includes highlights of innovative actions and solutions to combating land degradation over the last decade and approach to financing projects.

This activity report is intended to shed light on the Global Environment Facility (GEF) experience in sustainable forestry management. It also puts forward guiding ideas on how to build on GEF comparative advantages in financing forests in the coming years, as these invaluable, threatened resources occupy center stage in multiple international agendas.

This policy document presents the strategies developed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support adaptation action in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Several case studies illustrate the various activities implemented to address climate change and help meet development goals.

This technical document aims to support the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the development of a global framework to facilitate the reduction of the carbon footprint and total environmental impact of its offices and operations globally. The study estimates carbon emissions that arise due to activities under the direct operational control of WHO. This includes emissions over which the organisation’s offices have influence as well as various indirect carbon emissions that arise due to its activities. The project covered WHO offices in Switzerland, Ethiopia, Japan and Malaysia.

This policy document includes the proposal presented by the High-Level Taskforce for the Global Framework for Climate Services concerning the development of a Global Framework for Climate Services. The Taskforce worked in consultation with all relevant actors with the aim to assess the current state of global climate service provision and identify opportunities for improvement. The report includes recommendations on proposed elements for this Framework and next steps, to be considered in May 2011 by the Sixteenth World Meteorological Congress.

This manual aims to facilitate the process of developing a national REDD+ strategy by supporting policymakers identify the costs of participating in REDD+ programs. REDD+ opportunity costs are the difference in net earnings from conserving or enhancing forests versus converting them to other, typically more valuable, land uses, such as crops or livestock. The manual shares hands-on experiences from field programs and presents the essential practical and theoretical steps, methods and tools to estimate the opportunity costs of REDD+ at the national level.

This analytical report provides a progress update on implementation of the United Nations (UN) Climate Neutral Strategy. This strategy was approved by the UN Chief Executives Board (CEB) in October 2007 and committed all UN agencies, funds and programmes to move towards climate neutrality within the wider context of greening the UN. The report includes details of the greenhouse gas emissions of 52 UN organizations, total emissions from the UN system in 2009, and details of plans to reduce them.

This manual provides step-by-step interdisciplinary methodology on how to develop and implement an adaptation strategy in a transboundary context. Based on the concept of integrated water resources management, the Guidance provides advice to decision-makers and water managers on how to: assess impacts of climate change on water quantity and quality; perform risk assessment, including health risks; gauge vulnerability; and design and implement appropriate adaptation strategies. The Guidance also contains nearly 40 case studies.

This audio document includes the trailers of five ‘broadcast-ready’ radio stories produced by the UNFCCC secretariat for dissemination to radio stations in Africa. These stories are meant to make the CDM understandable and accessible to a broad audience, including community stakeholders, potential project participants and policy makers.

This ‘broadcast-ready’ radio story has been produced by the UNFCCC secretariat for dissemination to radio stations in Africa, with the aim to make the CDM understandable and accessible to a broad audience. It introduces a fuel switch project that reduces fossil fuel use and brings additional benefits, such as the long-term sustainability of the local paper mill and economic improvement in the area where the project is located.

This ‘broadcast-ready’ radio story has been produced by the UNFCCC secretariat for dissemination to radio stations in Africa, with the aim to make the CDM understandable and accessible to a broad audience. It introduces a waste-to-energy project that collects and treats 200,000 tonnes of urban waste annually using anaerobic digesters. The resulting biogas is used to produce electricity, while residual waste is transformed into compost.

This ‘broadcast-ready’ radio story has been produced by the UNFCCC secretariat for dissemination to radio stations in Africa, with the aim to make the CDM understandable and accessible to a broad audience. It introduces a project that supported families in Kuyasa, a low-income informal settlement in the Khayelitsha township, to cut their electricity costs and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

This ‘broadcast-ready’ radio story has been produced by the UNFCCC secretariat for dissemination to radio stations in Africa, with the aim to make the CDM understandable and accessible to a broad audience. It stresses that in Nigeria, firewood consumption has led to severe deforestation and desertification. Highly efficient wood stoves are helping to tackle this problem. Households are saving money, youth are finding employment, and time that used to be spent collecting wood is now going to income generation.

This ‘broadcast-ready’ radio story has been produced by the UNFCCC secretariat for dissemination to radio stations in Africa, with the aim to make the CDM understandable and accessible to a broad audience. It stresses that CDM projects can help local communities in Africa by providing opportunities for sustainable development, creating employment or increased economic activity, improving air quality, and transferring technology. CDM projects can also earn credits that are tradable and saleable.

This document includes a statement from the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Meat and Dairy Products. It highlights that the livestock industry needs to take steps to reduce the high level of its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as well as to adapt to climate change. The Intergovernmental Group has recommended that countries should coordinate their livestock policies and practices to help the sector achieve its full mitigation potential.

This activity report includes the proceedings of the Symposium on “Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Animal Production: A Policy Agenda”, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Asunción, Paraguay, 6-7 May 2009. It collects various interventions on the implications of the growth of the agriculture and livestock sectors for climate change.

This video highlights that continuing deforestation and forest degradation account for almost one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions more than the entire global transport sector. It explains how society can combat climate change by conserving and managing existing forests, by tackling causes of deforestation and by planting new forests. It stresses the use of wood as a renewable energy source and as a raw material, pointing out that wood products store carbon for their entire lifetime, until they decay or are burned.

This analytical report explores the multiple effects that global warming and climate change could have on food systems and food security. It also suggests strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change in several key policy domains of importance for food security. Finally, it describes the institutional setting for acting to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and draws conclusions for follow-up action by FAO and the international community.

This analytical report explores the linkage between deforestation and the agricultural sector. The authors compare the different factors contributing to deforestation in Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America, and argue that agricultural expansion is one of the most important among them. The report suggests ways forward for consolidating the global agendas of curbing climate change and ensuring food security for all.