Climate Action

Lead authors: Assia Alexieva, Anaïs Bellalouna, Cheyenne L’Auclair.

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a complex global challenge with far-reaching implications for human societies. Its effects extend beyond environmental impacts, affecting various aspects of human society, including economic systems, social structures and human rights (IPCC, 2022).

Early warning lies at the heart of the WMO mandate.

Заблаговременные предупреждения лежат в основе мандата ВМО . Предоставляя странам возможность реагировать на экстремальные явления, связанные с погодой, климатом, водой и окружающей средой, и предвосхищать их, ВМО помогает защитить жизни людей, средства к существованию и инфраструктуру, обеспечивая при этом поддержку принятия решений с учетом климатических факторов и устойчивого развития.

Climate change has led to profound implications on economic activities especially in agricultural and coastal areas.

Forest services are the benefits, such as cleaner air, fresh water, timber and recreation, derived from different functions of the forests.

Section 1.4 summarizes the growing recognition of MHEWS globally, with the most prominent initiative to date being EW4All.

Climate change poses significant challenges for the Philippines, with both slow- and sudden-onset events increasingly affecting communities across the country.

This section describes the ways in which demographic and community factors affect the climate change–trafficking chain in Ethiopia, based on both primary and secondary data and analysis.

The UNECE region has a variety of forest types across three biomes: boreal (taiga), temperate and subtropical.

This paper examines the impacts of the El Niño during the 2015/2016 season on maize productivity and income in rural Zambia. The analysis aims at identifying whether and how sustainable land management (SLM) practices and livelihood diversification strategies have contributed to moderate the impacts of such a weather shock. The analysis was conducted using a specifically designed survey called the El Niño Impact Assessment Survey (ENIAS), which is combined with the 2015 wave of the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Surveys (RALS), as well as high resolution rainfall data from the Africa Rainfall Climatology version 2 (ARC2). This unique, integrated data set provides an opportunity to understand the impacts of shocks like El Niño that are expected to get more frequent and severe in Zambia, as well as understand the agricultural practices and livelihood strategies that can buffer household production and welfare from the impacts of such shocks to drive policy recommendations. Results show that households affected by the drought experienced a decrease in maize yield by around 20 percent, as well as a reduction in income up to 37 percent, all else equal. Practices that moderated the impact of the drought included livestock diversification, income diversification, and the adoption of agro-forestry. Interestingly, the use of minimum soil disturbance was not effective in moderating the yield and income effects of the drought. Policies to support livestock sector development, agroforestry adoption, and off-farm diversification should be prioritized as effective drought resiliency strategies in Zambia.

This paper examines the impact of the harsh 2012 winter on livestock herding households in Kyrgyzstan and identifies policy options to increase household resilience to such shocks. While existing studies mostly focus on rainfall shocks in tropical or dry climate areas, this analysis examines the exceptionally harsh winter that hit Kyrgyzstan in 2012, which resulted in the death of 25 000 animals. Using a unique household panel survey, merged with observed temperature data, the analysis finds that, on average, the negative effects of the winter shock on household welfare are significant and persistent over time, leading to a 5 percent and a 8 percent decrease in households’ food consumption expenditure in the short- (2011–2013) and medium-run (2011–2016), respectively. When disaggregating by income quantiles, the evidence shows that negative impact is concentrated in the upper quantiles of the welfare distribution. Several policy options are identified as effective in mitigating the negative welfare impacts of the weather shock. First, supporting households to restock their herds following weather shocks is found to significantly improve medium-term welfare by 10 percent relative to those that did not restock. Restocking efforts can be addressed in a holistic manner that takes into account immediate household needs, while simultaneously building long-term resilience in the livestock sector. This may include mitigating animal losses through the development of local forage markets that increase the availability of winter forage, combined with efforts to improve the genetic pool of livestock species through breeding programmes that select for resiliency traits. Second, results show that households living in regions with higher access to public veterinary services had significantly better welfare outcomes following the winter shock. Improvements of veterinary services and strengthening community-based organizations focusing on livestock and pasture development may help herding households to cope with weather shocks.

Climate change, deforestation, pollution, development and loss of diversity are serious threats to indigenous peoples due to their dependence on the environment and the resources of the lands and territories. It causes the loss of traditional knowledge, disintegrating traditional governance structures and their cultures. This policy briefing provides examples of the holistic perspective of indigenous peoples on resource governance, land rights, mitigation of climate change impact on their environment and resilience-building through the use of their traditional knowledge. It also highlights the benefit of indigenous peoples' full participation, in particular, indigenous women in decision-making processes to prevent conflict. It notes the importance of upholding the rights of indigenous peoples as enshrined in international law and full respect for the right of indigenous peoples decision to not to engage in the global economy. Further, it points to the need to promote dialogue among indigenous peoples, local communities, scientists, including meteorologists and climate experts, policymakers and other relevant actors, to enable co-production of knowledge, and sharing of sustainable strategies to overcome risks and strengthen resilience to climate change.

Expanding opportunities in non-farm activities in rural areas is a key for sustainable development without “leaving no one behind”. Where the typical farmers are small landowners, technology alone may not be able to help farmers escape from poverty, and technical advances need to be complemented by a holistic approach.

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our times. Sport plays an important role as part of the solution. Sport is a key social platform that can reach and influence millions of peoples worldwide and raise awareness on climate change, promote a culture in favour of climate action, and champion sustainable behaviours. The sport sector can contribute to tackle climate change by reducing sport organizations's climate footprint while governments and international organizations facilitate this goal by setting right policies and guidelines.

Documenting more evidence around post-COVID 19 transport measures can provide useful references in revamping transport systems. It is paramount, however, that governments and the private sector revisit such short-term policies with a view to ensuring that any emergency-based actions that may have had inadvertent negative consequences on sustainable development would not become permanent measures.

This paper attempts to answer a series of questions that continue to hamstring the policy space of commodity dependent developing countries (CDDCs), particularly considering commitments made in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. First, is it possible for CDDCs to meet their development goals while also fulfilling their commitments to climate change mitigation? Is it possible to manage the commodity sector in a way that fosters growth without worsening environmental outcomes? Can CDDCs at their current development stage decouple economic growth and development from increasing emissions, environmental pollution, and resource depletion? While the international community needs to consider the challenges facing CDDCs as they attempt to move towards a low-carbon growth path, CDDCs should embrace green industrial policies to position themselves as viable producers and exporters of green goods. Continued reliance on traditional commodities in an era of green transition may not be a viable long-term option.