The United Nations will finalize in September its Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to eliminate poverty while reducing humanity's environmental discussion, including lessening the harmful effects of climate change. And some advocates are working to spread the message that climate change impacts men and women differently — and the UN goals need to reflect this sometimes grim reality.
"In the climate change process specifically, we want the normative framework to embed gender equality," said Verona Collantes, a climate change specialist with UN Women, the international agency's gender empowerment organization.
The proposed goals include a mission to achieve broad gender equality, including eliminating sexual violence and childhood marriage, and increasing women's political and economic leadership.
But some advocates are concerned that the goals' reliance on private sector investments will undermine efforts to improve the lives of women.
For the complete article, please see VICE News.
Colombia’s long-standing internal conflict and the country’s contribution to climate change share one common root cause: land concentration. Policies to strengthen access to land and to ensure sustainable land use might therefore hold the key to promoting peacebuilding in Colombia, while simultaneously reducing emissions.
As disasters wreak havoc all over South Asia, health impacts have increasingly emerged as a major concern for communities and governments in the region. It underscores the need for concerted efforts towards building synergies between the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, particularly now, in the post-disaster reconstruction phase, to ensure “building back better” and future disaster prevention.
In the Inner Mongolian county of Horinger, Northwestern China, afforestation efforts have transformed a barren, dusty landscape into a pine forest. Planting trees has diminished the sandstorms, boosted biodiversity and improved the environment generally. As the climate emergency worsens, the potential for planted trees to draw carbon out of the atmosphere is being re-examined. What can the world learn from the Chinese experience with afforestation?
Two events in August 2019 underlined the complexity of paving the way to a climate-neutral world: the publishing of the new IPCC report and the Amazon fires. Both events demand that climate diplomats move beyond a narrowed focus on energy in decarbonisation debates.