As the world heads towards crucial global climate talks in Paris in December, and Premier Abe and President Obama met in Washington D.C., Japan's role in climate leadership is on my mind.
When the international climate change talks ended in Peru last December, the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), a political and economic union comprising small, developing, climate-vulnerable islands and low-lying nations, left with “the bare minimum necessary to continue the process to add
Developed countries have less than 48 hours to meet a deadline to reveal what levels of greenhouse gas reductions they would be willing to accept under a UN deal.
As Pacific Islanders contemplate the scale of devastation wrought by Cyclone Pam this month across four Pacific Island states, including Vanuatu, leaders in the region are calling with renewed urgency for global action on climate finance, which they say is vital for building climate resilience and arresting development losses.
The UNFCCC Secretariat has announced that the negotiating text for the anticipated 2015 climate change agreement has been translated into the six official UN languages and formally communicated to governments.
Last Friday, the European Union has submitted its formal promise on greenhouse gases cuts to the United Nations ahead of the climate change talks starting in December.
Cities need to be recognized, increasingly more so for their role in implementing necessary and timely action to address the impacts of climate change where it matters – at the local level. With majority of the global population living in urban environments, cities are major sources of carbon emissions as well as highly vulnerable to climate impacts. The involvement and participation of cities and urban localities are therefore important and required in terms of both climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.
International climate negotiators meeting last week in Geneva, Switzerland, started their journey toward establishing a new international climate agreement in Paris at the end of the year. As in the early stages of the Tour de France, they focused on getting their feel for the road.
Policy-makers are often wary of the large investments and efforts a sustainable transformation of the economy requires. But it can provide significant opportunities for economic growth and new jobs, as most recently the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate has highlighted. What are the main opportunities in terms of job creation?
Sustainable development has fallen under the climate change agenda but most recently it has emerged as a unifying force for all environmental security issues. It is thus necessary to provide the context from where, how and what sustainable development is envisioned by action leaders. On 21 November 2014, five distinguished action leaders – two city mayors, a climate negotiator, a clean energy entrepreneur and a civil society leader – along with more than 60 representatives from Singapore government ministries, universities, think tanks, embassies, civil society organisations and the private sector in Singapore gathered for a Policy Roundtable jointly organised by the German Embassy in Singapore and the RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies. It was part of the RSIS-NTS’ joint series of events on climate diplomacy with the German Embassy in Singapore on exploring the theme of Securing our Sustainable Future: Bringing Sustainable Development Back In.