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This analytical report, prepared by the UNU Maastricht Economic and social Research institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), focuses on an Integrated Innovation Policy for an Integrated Problem: Climate Change, Resource Scarcity and Demographic Change.

This analytical document outlines the practical necessity of identifying and examining policy options for pursuing a transformational agenda that is aimed at reconciling economic growth with ecological limits and social equity. It includes an examination of the transformational changes that have occurred in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), and the role the BRICS countries can play in supporting Africa towards achieving a similar type of green transformation.

Each year, Momentum for Change recognizes game-changing initiatives that not only tackle climate change but also other challenges like poverty and natural resource use. Winning initiatives, called Lighthouse Activities, are celebrated at the annual year-end United Nations Climate Change Conference. 

This policy document and related activities seek to deepen understanding of, and enhance action to address, the impacts of climate change on food security and human mobility as part of the Where the Rain Falls: Climate Change, Food and Livelihood Security and Migration («Rainfalls») project.

This policy document outlines the role of insurance in the context of adaptation and loss and damage. It further highlights a set of recommendations to the UNFCCC as a facilitator of short and long-term strategies of loss and damage. Produced by the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), the document is a submission to the Subsidiary Body for Implementation Work Programme on Loss and Damage.

This analytical report systematically considers a country’s vulnerability, and its exposure to natural hazards to determine a ranking of countries based on their disaster risk. This edition focuses on health and healthcare as decisive factors in determining the extent of harm countries will experience in the wake of a natural hazard.

African journalists have critical roles to play in explaining the cause and effects of climate change, in describing what countries and communities can do to adapt, and in reporting on what governments and companies do, or not, to respond to these threats. Yet across Africa the media can and should do more to tell the story of climate change. UNESCO produced this book to help fill this important gap.

This publication, developed by the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB), features satellite images of different mountain regions worldwide, many of which are UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage sites. It highlights the critical functions of mountains and the implications of climate change for mountain ecosystems, water resources and livelihoods.

This activity report provides the results of research which was done on loss and damage. Loss and damage occurs when there are barriers that impede planning and implementation of adaptation, and when physical and social limits to adaptation are reached or exceeded. Across the nine research sites, households struggle to manage climatic stressors on their household economy and their livelihoods. Despite their efforts to cope with the impact of extreme weather events and to adapt to slow-onset climatic changes, many incurred residual impact that they could not adequately manage.

This factsheet includes information about the Low Emission Capacity Building Programme.

This guidance document brings together the knowledge, concerns and visions of leading Arctic scientists in the natural and social sciences, prominent Chukchi, Even, Inuit and Saami leaders from across the circumpolar North, and international experts in education, health and ethics. The publication highlight the urgent need for a sustained interdisciplinary and multi-actor approach to monitoring, managing and responding to climate change in the Arctic, and explore avenues by which this can be achieved.

This paper, prepared by UNU Maastricht Economic and social Research institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), focuses on the inter-temporal resource allocation requirements of a program of technological changes that could halt global warming by completing the transition to a “green” (zero net CO2-emission) production regime within the possibly brief finite interval that remains before Earth’s climate is driven beyond a catastrophic tipping point. It formulates a multi-phase, just-in-time transition model incorporating carbon-based and carbon-free technical options.

This policy document, produced by UNU and the Nansen Initiative, examines the available options for coordinating and linking human mobility issues with climate change–related policies and planning, in particular, the development of national adaptation plans (NAPs).

This analytical report aims to offer an understanding of displacement patterns and trends in the Horn of Africa and explores what existing policy and legal options are available to those displaced by disasters. The report focuses specifically on displaced Somalis and Ethiopians in Kenya and the MENA-region (Yemen and Egypt). The report was launched at the Nansen Initiative Regional Consultation meeting in Nairobi.

This article evaluates the potential implications of climate change for overall growth and development prospects in Malawi.

This paper examines two of South Africa’s main energy policy considerations: the introduction of a carbon tax and liberalization of import supply restrictions in order to exploit regional hydropower potential. The results suggest substantial reductions in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions when these two policy changes are jointly implemented (relative to business-as-usual baseline scenario).

This paper considers the practicalities, opportunities and threats associated with one of the earliest proposed carbon-removal techniques: large-scale ocean fertilization, achieved by adding iron or other nutrients to surface waters. The intention is to enhance microscopic marine plant growth, on a scale large enough not only to significantly increase the uptake of atmospheric carbon by the ocean, but also to remove it from the atmosphere for long enough to provide global climatic benefit. 

This technical document aims to increase understanding of the tenure aspects of REDD+ readiness in the context of national tenure processes and the implementation of the Voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of national food security (Guidelines).

This briefing note provides a brief summary of some key concepts from the Derisking Renewable Energy Investment report: the impact of high financing costs on renewable energy; identifying a public instrument mix; the framework’s waterfalls; and the frameworks performance metrics.

This manual links classroom activities to real-life issues relating to climate change, environment, sustainable development, cultural diversity, science and more. It also stimulates and encourages practitioners, young and old, to take action by becoming involved in caring for their environment, and in understanding and influencing local government policy and action.