Library

The report was prepared as UN Climate Change input to the UN Climate Summit and it puts a spotlight on the progress made over the past 25 years since the inception of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This can help in scaling up further action, as governments prepare to submit the next round of national climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by 2020.

The Report reflects the universal, indivisible and integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It also seeks to strengthen the science-policy interface as an evidence-based instrument to support policymakers and other stakeholders in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda across the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

The focus of the conference was promoting coordinated implementation at the global, regional and country level. Participants identified examples that specifically illustrate the potential of synergistic and interlinked approaches to realizing the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement (including through analyses of, for example, national development plans, nationally determined contributions, national adaptation plans and national risk reduction strategies). This detailed summary will contribute to the better understanding and more effective promotion of synergy between climate action and sustainable development.

The briefs explore SDG 7 and its interlinkages with other SDGs, including advancing SDG 7 implementation, strengthening interlinkages between SDG 7 and other SDGs, regional perspectives and experiences, and building a sustainable and equitable energy future

This report identifies best practices that have proven successful in recent years, as well as key approaches that policymakers may deploy in coming years. Recommendations applicable to all SDG 7 targets include recognizing the importance of political commitment and long-term energy planning, stepping up private financing, and supplying adequate incentives for the deployment of clean technology options. The sections review progress in electricity access, access to clean cooking solutions, renewable energy, and energy efficiency.

The impacts of climate change will be channeled primarily through the water cycle, with consequences that could be large and uneven across the globe. Water-related climate risks cascade through food, energy, urban, and environmental systems. Growing populations, rising incomes, and expanding cities will converge upon a world where the demand for water rises exponentially, while supply becomes more erratic and uncertain. They will jeopardize growth prospects in the regions worst affected and in some of the poorest countries. These challenges are not insurmountable, however, and smart policies that induce water-use efficiency, align incentives across regional and trading partners, and invest in adaptive technologies can go a long way toward reducing or eliminating these negative effects.

This report, using information from the Water Scarce Cities Initiative, attempts to compile innovative approaches—based on cities’ successful responses to water scarcity—to inspire a new kind of urban water security. The Water Scarce Cities report intends to magnify the successes of those urban areas and to stimulate knowledge exchange between global cities, their policymakers and, most important, the practitioners. It first seeks to shift predominant, outdated, mostly linear, and siloed thought patterns that sometimes lead to disjointed and costly investment decisions without necessarily providing protection against depleting resources or an increasingly adversarial climate. It then demystifies innovative urban water practices, including managing conventional resources such as aquifers more effectively, tapping new and nonconventional resources such as wastewater, con-trolling demand, or engaging differently (such as showing how the practices were done and what can be learned from them). The goal is to engage meaningfully with diverse water scarce cities to facilitate concrete engagement, product development, and technical assistance.

Stakeholder and public support are critical for an enduring and robust carbon pricing policy. How jurisdictions communicate their carbon pricing policy plays a key role in creating and maintaining that support. Drawing on case studies, research and best practice, the report provides guidance on designing and implementing effective carbon pricing communications strategies.

Building on a wide range of case studies, global empirical analyses, and modeling exercises, Lifelines lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience—the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users’ needs during and after a natural shock—and it makes an economic case for building more resilient infrastructure. Lifelines conclude by identifying five obstacles to resilient infrastructure and offering concrete recommendations and specific actions that can be taken by governments, stakeholders, and the international community to improve the quality and resilience of these essential services, and thereby contribute to more resilient and prosperous societies.

The Nature-based Solutions Toolkit captures more than 100 tools and resources on nature-based solutions that can support national decision-makers as they enhance their NDCs. 

This toolkit includes spatial datasets, reports, policy briefs, guidance documents, handbooks, other toolkits, and platforms on NBS for climate mitigation and adaptation.

This short guidance for government stakeholders on conducting a gender analysis for NDCs explains how the analysis should provide recommendations on gender-responsive policy alignment, institutional coordination, capacity building, sex-disaggregated data collection, and finance into the priority NDC sectors.

Published by WRI and UNDP, Enhancing NDCs: A Guide to Strengthening National Climate Plans is designed to help practitioners think through how to structure their country’s enhanced NDCs across three dimensions: 

1. Strengthening targets to reduce emissions (mitigation), 

2. Enhancing climate resilience (adaptation) and 

3. Clearly communicating their actions to build trust and facilitate effective implementation.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been working together since 2014 to support countries in developing Nationally Determined Contributions – or NDCs – beginning with the launch of a regional NDC dialogue series that just completed its 22nd event having engaged over 2,200 participants from over 150 developing countries. This report, leveraging those relationships and history, is the most detailed review yet of momentum since the Paris Agreement and is designed to both inspire and inform the UN Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September.

This voluntary guideline focuses on the design and effective implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice prior to the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

This Research and Policy Brief is based on discussions at the Expert Group Meeting “Transformative Adaptation: Tackling the Root Causes of Vulnerability to Climate Change in Southeast Asian Coastal Cities that was held in Geneva on 21-22 November 2018 and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.

This report, by the Just Transition Research Collaborative (JTRC), unpacks the different understandings, narratives, and framings of Just Transition that underpin the concept’s growing popularity and uptake. Six short country case studies then provide insights into how Just Transition is—or is not—being mobilized on the ground.

This brief was presented during the Transformative Adaptation in Coastal Cities workshop on 23–24 June 2019 in Bonn, Germany. 

This document focuses on how IAEA has been building Member States’ capacities to study and understand the effects of climate change on their soil and water resources.

This Strategic Plan shows how WIPO contributes to accelerating the transition to a greener global economy.

This impact story shows how Green School collaborated with Zero Mass Water in bringing SOURCE Hydropanels to supply Green School’s Bali campus with drinking water.