Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) adopted the ‘BRICS Leaders’ Xiamen Declaration,’ reaffirming their commitment to fully implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, committing to enhance BRICS cooperation on climate change and expand green financing, and agreeing “to take concrete actions to advance result-oriented cooperation in such areas as prevention of air and water pollution, waste management and biodiversity conservation,” among others.
As global temperatures rise, warmer air and oceans are expected to fuel stronger hurricanes, with dangerous consequences.
There is an emerging consensus CO2 needs to be sucked out of the air to meet climate goals, but no discussion of which countries are responsible for acting. Countries need to start negotiating who will take responsibility for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, two scientists argued in Nature Climate Change on Monday.
Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement has sparked renewed interest in the question of what the agreement actually requires countries to do.
The UN’s top climate change official Patricia Espinosa briefed today embassies in Berlin regarding the UN climate conference in Bonn in November (COP23, 6 – 17 November). She shared shared how diplomats can contribute to making the Paris Agreement operational and highlighted where they can support ministers and leaders back home.
The impacts of new dams and diversions are felt across borders, and the development of new water infrastructure can increase political tensions in transboundary river basins. International water treaties and river basin organizations serve as a framework to potentially deescalate hydro-political tensions across borders.
Tomorrow's megacities will be more crowded, but also greener. What's in them for women as they increasingly demand a space suited to their needs? Can women take the lead in designing more sustainable cities?
It was supposed to be a week - but it became two! The Climate Diplomacy Week 2017 was programmed for 19-25 June, however, one week proved insufficient to fit the wide range of events by embassies around the world.
Food is an undeniable human right that for many years has been interpreted either as a pure gastronomic topic or in terms of humanitarian assistance. These visions have totally disregarded the complex dynamics that are linked to its production and distribution.
In an unprecedented move, the G-20 minus 1 decided to include three separate paragraphs on climate change in the final communiqué – one spelling out a general pledge to tackle climate change, a boxed one on the US’ (rather the Trump administration’s) rejection of the Paris Agreement, and one on the rest of the leaders’ reaffirmation of their unconditional support to the Paris agreement. This was reportedly after the US’ demand of inclusion of fossil fuels in the communiqué was rejected by others.