Search Climate Insights Directory

The document is a glossary booklet by ClimaTalk that defines essential climate science terms, UNFCCC mechanisms, and international agreements. It covers technical concepts such as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), as well as policy instruments like Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Global Stocktake. It also details the roles of various bodies, including the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the Youth Non-Governmental Organisation (YOUNGO).

The report identifies three primary areas of WTO negotiations that may undermine the UNCCD: agricultural market liberalization, the liberalization of environmental and water services, and the legal relationship between Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and WTO rules. It warns that export-oriented agriculture can lead to chemical-dependent farming and displacement of local communities, while the privatization of nature protection and water services may restrict indigenous access to resources. Furthermore, the document suggests that WTO dispute mechanisms might deter states from adopting the most effective anti-desertification measures if those measures are deemed trade-restrictive.

Sand to Green, supported by the Catalyst Fund through the Catalysing Climate Resilience (CCR) Programme, uses agroforestry and solar desalination to transform deserts into productive farmland. With $100,000 in initial capital and tailored support, the firm secured $1 million in seed funding, expanded its land holdings to 30 hectares in Morocco, and grew its annual turnover from €30,000 in 2019 to over €100,000 in 2020.

The report identifies severe coastal erosion, flooding, fishery decline, and poor waste management as existential threats to Saint-Louis, Senegal. After evaluating eighteen financial instruments, it recommends the use of Impact Bonds due to their flexibility in scale, capacity to crowd in private capital, and focus on measurable outcomes. The report suggests potential applications for these bonds in waste management, sustainable tourism, and aquaculture, particularly targeting youth and women.

Mongolia's progress toward a green economy was ranked 3 out of 10 in a 2018 report. The country faces significant environmental hurdles, including air pollution, land degradation, and water mismanagement, with 70% of its land lacking groundwater access. While the government has implemented the National Green Development Policy and Sustainable Development Vision 2030, a gap remains between official narratives and actual implementation. Transition efforts involve tax exemptions for renewables, the operation of 12 renewable energy sites (wind, hydro, and solar), and international support from entities like the Green Climate Fund and ADB to develop low-carbon eco-districts in Ulaanbaatar.

This briefing document, approved by the Conference of the Parties (CoP-VIII) in July 2001, outlines the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the External Review Committee (ERC) tasked with evaluating the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). The review aims to assess the IAI's institutional and programmatic development since its 1992 establishment, focusing on its ability to provide value to governments and improve social well-being in member countries.

The report examines the challenges of fragmented public policies in Latin America and proposes the Ecosystem Approach—a holistic strategy from the Convention on Biological Diversity—as a framework for integrating biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation. It emphasizes the role of territorial planning (Ordenamiento Territorial) and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in building resilience, using the Integrated National Adaptation Project (INAP) in Colombia's Chingaza Massif as a practical example of bottom-up implementation.

The report outlines the implementation of the RLA/92/G34 project, focusing on the deployment of GIS-SPRING 2.0 and METVIEW systems, hardware upgrades for IBM RISC 6000/250 workstations across several Latin American and Caribbean countries, and the establishment of experimental internet nodes in Costa Rica and Uruguay. It also highlights the inclusion of Jamaica in the project and proposes a potential Phase II to support the creation of regional research consortia for biodiversity and climate change.

Climate change is projected to increase temperatures in South Africa at double the global average, leading to water scarcity, reduced crop yields for staples like maize and wheat, and increased risks for small-scale farmers and marginalized communities. The document argues that a market-led response will exacerbate inequality and instead advocates for a just transition involving resource redistribution, agro-ecological practices, and a universal basic income grant to build resilience.

The GEO Resource Book is a comprehensive guide designed to help practitioners and public agency leaders implement integrated environmental assessments (IEA). It outlines a structured eight-module process that moves from initial design and stakeholder engagement to data collection, trend analysis, scenario development, and communication of results. The manual emphasizes a participatory approach to link scientific knowledge with policy action, utilizing the Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework to analyze interactions between the natural environment and human society. It also provides strategies for ensuring that assessment findings lead to actual policy impact through targeted communication and continuous monitoring and evaluation.

The document examines the rapid rate of urbanisation across Africa, highlighting that while urban growth can drive economic diversification, unplanned growth in developing economies often leads to slums and infrastructure stress. It focuses on Nigeria, where rapid urban population growth has outpaced planning, resulting in high slum residency and significant shortages in housing, water, and sanitation. The briefing notes that Nigeria's inability to manage this growth and integrate its large informal economy limits national economic contributions and increases the risk of political and social instability.

The document examines the evolution of environmental security, critiquing 'statist' models that view environmental scarcity primarily as a threat to the state. It proposes a 'human security' framework, specifically applying a Sustainable Livelihoods approach to understand how land access and tenure systems in Africa influence poverty and conflict. The author highlights that in southern Africa, colonial legacies of land dispossession and current 'opportunistic land grabbing' by elites exacerbate insecurity. The paper concludes that sustainable security requires moving beyond technical fixes to address the underlying power imbalances, governance failures, and social injustices that drive environmental and human insecurity.

The document assesses how climate variability and anthropogenic factors drive resource scarcity and conflict in Africa, focusing on the African Union's response and specific regional crises in the Lake Chad Basin, Lesotho, the Nile Basin, the Niger Delta, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, and Uganda.

The study analyzes 285 conflict episodes to determine how natural resources affect the duration of postconflict peace. It identifies three primary mechanisms: distribution, financing, and aggravation. The findings indicate that while natural resource conflicts generally show shorter peace periods bivariately, only conflicts driven by disagreements over the distribution of resources and revenues significantly increase the risk of recurrence in a multivariate analysis. This suggests that resource-related grievances are a more persistent driver of conflict relapse than the mere opportunity to finance warfare.

The research argues that the expansion of jihadist groups in central Mali is fueled by a 'predatory and corrupt state' and a development model that ignores pastoral priorities. By analyzing land-use conflicts in the Mopti region, the authors find that pastoralists support jihadist groups because they offer an anti-elite discourse and a perceived alternative to a state that extracts rent through corrupt courts and a paramilitary Forest Service. The study concludes that recruitment is largely a strategic response to material interests and political exclusion.

The report assesses conservation agriculture (CA) in Niger, focusing on techniques like Assisted Natural Regeneration (RNA), Zaï, and mulching. It highlights the positive impacts of RNA on crop yields and soil fertility, particularly in the Maradi region, while identifying constraints such as limited crop residue availability and land-use conflicts.

The document outlines a comprehensive set of demands from Latin American and Caribbean civil society for the COP30 Presidency, focusing on increasing NDC ambition, scaling adaptation and loss and damage financing, reforming the global financial system, and ensuring a multidimensional just transition. It emphasizes the need for the 'Global Mutirão' to be informed by Southern perspectives and calls for a clear timeline for phasing out fossil fuels.

The Southwest is projected to warm by 4-6°F under lower-emissions and 7-10°F under higher-emissions scenarios by the end of the century. The region faces severe water scarcity, expanding deserts, and reduced runoff, particularly in the Colorado River system. Public health risks include increased heat-related deaths in Los Angeles and worsening air quality. Economic threats include reduced yields for California specialty crops, diminished ski resort profitability due to snowpack loss, and reduced aircraft freight capacity at high-altitude airports like Phoenix and Denver. Biodiversity is critically threatened, especially in the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands, while mountain ecosystems face range reductions and reproductive failures in wildflowers due to earlier snowmelt and spring frosts.

In the semiarid Caatinga region of Brazil, farmers are adopting agroforestry by integrating native trees, specifically the umbu (Spondias tuberosa), into livestock pastures. This transition is driven by severe climate impacts, including a 50% decline in rainfall in the Jacuípe Drainage Basin since 1962 and increasing desertification. The establishment of the Ser do Sertão cooperative and its Delícias do Jacuípe factory has created a commercial market for umbu pulp, providing farmers with supplemental income that can exceed dairy revenues during the harvest season. Beyond economic gains, these practices help retain soil moisture and provide animal feed during droughts, offering a scalable model for restoring degraded landscapes and ensuring the livelihoods of subsistence farmers.

The document examines Mongolia's transition from reactive post-disaster funding to a proactive risk management framework for its livestock sector, specifically through the Index-Based Livestock Insurance Project. It details the challenges posed by dzuds—severe winter weather events—and the failure of traditional indemnity insurance. The project utilizes mortality-based index insurance to reduce transaction costs and moral hazard, offering products like Livestock Risk Insurance and Government Catastrophic Coverage. While facing challenges such as cashmere price declines and data collection needs, the project has exceeded adoption targets and attracted international reinsurance, with plans for nationwide coverage by 2012.