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This Declaration was endorsed by the Mayors of the UNECE region at the first Forum of Mayors held in October 2020. It is a commitment to:

1. Strengthen the resilience of our cities;
2. Take ambitious climate action;
3.  Make our cities greener;
4. Accelerate the transition to sustainable energy;
5. Ensure urban transport is sustainable;
6. Ensure housing is affordable, healthy and adequate;
7. Make cities more equitable and inclusive.

Despite its satisfactory response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa has lost over 30 million jobs, poverties are once again on the rise, and debt pressures are mounting. A swift and bold response is needed to address the devastating impact of the climate, health and economic crises. African finance ministers have called for an injection of external assistance of $100 billion each year for the next three years to close the financing gap of more than $345 billion identified by the IMF. Finally, for climate, health, and the economy, one thing is clear: the entire international community must cooperate to reset and rebuild a stronger multilateral framework to respond to global crises and provide equitable, just and transparent processes and systems for the management and implementation of rapid, monitorable solutions. Without such an approach, African development aspirations, as set out in national development plans, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 of the African Union, will not be attained.

Climate change is causing unprecedented variations in the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events: floods, droughts and heatwaves. How African countries prepare for and manage these extreme events will be fundamental to the performance of their economies and realization of their development aspirations as embodied in various national development plans, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Another key factor that will determine the attainment of Africa’s development objectives is how the continent responds to its increasing need for access to adequate, secure and reliable energy services to industrialize, trade, provide better health and education services, reduce poverty and increase inclusion, boost economic growth and cater for population growth, a growing middle class, increasing urbanization and climate change.

This report outlines a business model based on the success stories of these actors to encourage the engagement of the private sector. The recommendations include: putting in place a comprehensive policy and legal framework on the involvement of private actors in the provision of climate information services; and upgrading the current infrastructure, equipment and software of national meteorological and hydrological services to state-of-the-art systems to meet private sector demand for high quality, high resolution data. Strategic and operational recommendations are made for the national and regional levels to improve the engagement of the private sector in the provision of climate information services in Africa.

The study, Learn for Our Planet, analyzed educational plans and curricula frameworks in close to 50 countries across all regions. More than half make no reference to climate change while only 19% speak about biodiversity. The study notes a lack of attention to socio-emotional skills and action-oriented competences that are central to environmental and climate action. In an on-line survey of some 1,600 teachers and education leaders conducted for the study, one third of respondents indicated that environment-related issues were not part of teacher training.

This banner features key activities delivered by UN CC: Learn.

Created by young people who are concerned about our planet´s situation and who, as activists, have faced many challenges when advocating and taking action. Its goal is to share clear, concise, easily understandable information that describes the course that global, regional and national climate action is taking, in order to prepare young people for full and informed participation. Available in English and Spanish.

With 1.2 million respondents, the Peoples’ Climate Vote is the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted. Using a new and unconventional approach to polling, results span 50 countries covering 56% of the world’s population. Poll questions were distributed through advertisements in mobile game apps in 17 languages, which resulted in a huge, unique, and random sample of people of all genders, ages, and educational backgrounds.

The Peoples’ Climate Vote is a pillar of the Mission 1.5 campaign launched in 2020 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to educate people about climate change solutions and ask them about the actions that they think governments should take. The aim of the Peoples’ Climate Vote was to connect the public to policymakers – and to provide the latter with reliable information on whether people considered climate change an emergency, and how they would like their countries to respond.

This handbook is intended to be used as practical reference tool and to highlight the far-reaching impact of hosting a COP.

The Little Book of Green Nudges is a quick guide to reducing your campus’ environmental impact through behavioural change in the form of a concise and user-friendly publication. It summarises the evidence around what nudges work best while seeking to encourage more sustainable practices among students and staff across several behavioural categories. It also provides simple guidance on how to implement and evaluate behavioural interventions in a variety of contexts.

GAP Key Partners reported their progress against five key indicators in three surveys sent to Partners by UNESCO over the course of the programme. Key Partners were also invited to rate the benefits of their participation in the GAP for their work and provide qualitative data concerning their implementation progress. 

In the framework of the 2020 review of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, this guide aims to provide countries with advice on how to enhance ambition and address the six elements of  ‘Action for Climate Empowerment’ (ACE) – Education, Training, Public Awareness, Public Access to Information, Public Participation and International Cooperation – in their respective NDCs. 

In five simple questions and answers, it provides suggestions for elements that can be integrated into the NDCs in order to make ACE an integral part of countries’ climate responses. The guide also shows why ACE is key to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and its greenhouse gas emission targets.

This document provides a status report on the implementation of climate change education (CCE) in countries.  The document outlines key findings from an analysis of country submissions to the UNFCCC Secretariat as part of UNFCCC reporting processes. The document highlights achievements and remaining gaps in the area of climate change education. The analysis presented in this document can also inform the reporting on three climate change education-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Targets, namely Targets 4.7, 12.8, and 13.3, and their global indicators.

This report explains how gender norms and power structures shape the way women and men are impacted by—and respond to—risks caused by climate change and insecurity. It also displays how pre-existing inequalities, gender-related expectations, and unequal access to resources can leave some groups of women and men disproportionately vulnerable.

As the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011–2020 comes to a close and countries prepare to adopt a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, this edition of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) examines the contributions of forests, and of the people who use and manage them, to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Forests cover just over 30 percent of the global land area, yet they provide habitat for the vast majority of the terrestrial plant and animal species known to science. Unfortunately, forests and the biodiversity they contain continue to be under threat from actions to convert the land to agriculture or unsustainable levels of exploitation, much of it illegal.

The State of the World’s Forests 2020 assesses progress to date in meeting global targets and goals related to forest biodiversity and examines the effectiveness of policies, actions and approaches, in terms of both conservation and sustainable development outcomes. A series of case studies provide examples of innovative practices that combine conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity to create balanced solutions for both people and the planet.

The report looks at how to incorporate climate change issues into the full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) processes, as a practical way to ensure that development projects align with climate adaptation and mitigation measures.