Climate Change
Global Issues
Alex Pashley

Pope Francis urged “sustainable and integral development” to protect the world’s most vulnerable at the outset of a landmark visit to the United States on Wednesday.

The Latin American pontiff, who issued an unprecedented pastoral message to Catholics to conserve the planet in June, repeated the call on a sunlit morning in Washington DC aside President Barack Obama.

His first visit to the US, Pope Francis said climate change was a “problem that can no longer be left to a future generation” and welcomed Obama’s leadership to cut greenhouse gas emissions in August’s clean power plan.

For the complete article, please see Climate Home.

Read the speech Pope Francis gave at the White House here.

Source:
Climate Home

Water
Global Issues
Raquel Munayer, adelphi

As part of this year’s online World Water Week at Home, adelphi and IHE Delft convened the workshop "Water diplomacy: a tool for climate action?". The workshop reflected on the role that foreign policy can play in mitigating, solving and potentially preventing conflicts over the management of transboundary water resources, especially in a changing climate.

Forests
South America
Adriana E. Abdenur, Igarapé Institute

The Cerrado, a tropical savannah region located in Central Brazil, is nearly half as large as the Amazon and a deforestation hotspot. Yet little attention is paid to this important biome. That has to change.

Technology & Innovation
Middle East & North Africa
Will Marshall, Fair Observer

China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects may exacerbate the risk of climate-related instability across the Middle East in the long term.

Sustainable Transformation
Global Issues
Emily Wright, adelphi

With the European Green Deal, the European Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen has committed to accelerating decarbonisation in Europe as a major priority. The report "The Geopolitics of Decarbonization: Reshaping European Foreign Relations" shows how the EU’s external relations need to evolve to adequately reflect the political, economic and social outcomes of this process.