Content tagged with Climate change

In 2016 CEB adopted the "Common Core Principles for a UN System-wide Approach to Climate Action". The principles have been designed to guide a system-wide approach and inform and strengthen the system’s collective support to climate change action under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UNFCCC process, and the implementation of the Paris Agreement at the global, regional and national and sub-national level.

The UNDG Chair, Ms. Helen Clark, opened the first UNDG meeting of the year by highlighting that 2015 would be a huge opportunity to advance the global sustainable development agenda by finding synergies across the big global processes and outcomes around the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, the Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, the Special Summit on Sustainable Development in New York, and the Climate Change COP21 in Paris.

Issues discussed at the session: Urbanization and Sustainable Development; Disaster Risk Reduction; Climate Change; World Humanitarian Summit; Equality and Non-Discrimination at the Heart of Sustainable Development; Promoting Peaceful, Just, and Inclusive Societies, Preventing Conflict; Support to the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and Summary of information Items: Istanbul Programme of Actions for the LDCs; and Reports of UN-Water, UN-Energy, UN-Oceans.

The present report provides an overview of major developments in inter-agency cooperation within the framework of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) in 2014.

Conclusions of the Twenty-ninth Session of the High Level Committee on Management (Paris, 19-20 March 2015). Issues discussed included: Review of the implementation of the HLCM Strategic Plan 2013-2016 and Follow-up to the CEB post 2015 Fit for Purpose; Review of the Draft UN System programme of work for a Data Revolution; ICSC review of the UN system compensation package: assessment of the proposals on the table and strategic guidance for their finalization – Path towards implementation of MAS 65 for current staff; Review and adoption of a System-wide road map for UN climate neutrality by 2020 and of the related goals towards enhancing environmental sustainability of UN operations; ERP Interoperability Study; Review of progress by the HLCM Strategic Group on reconciling the “duty of care” for UN system personnel with the need to “stay and deliver” in high risk environments; UN system Occupational Health and Safety Framework.

This brochure, jointly written and produced by the nearly 40 UN specialized agencies, funds, programmes and other bodies that coordinate their respective activities on climate change through the HLCP Working Group on Climate Change, provides examples of how the diverse entities of the UN system work together and with partners to support ambitious action on climate change.

This report covers: the reports of the Board's committees; HLCM, HLCP and UNDG; Briefing on UN-Water; Issues of system-wide concern: financing for sustainable development; Other matters (United Nations Environment Assembly; Climate Summit)

The present report provides an overview of major developments in inter-agency cooperation within the framework of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) in 2013.

This report covers: the reports of the Board's committees (HLCM, HLCP, UNDG); Briefing by Mr. Michel Jarraud, Chair of UN-Water; Briefing by Kandeh Yumkella, Chair of UN-Energy; Discusssions on issues of system-wide concern: cybersecurity/cybercrime; Other Matters: Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States.

Efforts to address climate change need to be vastly scaled up, UN leaders told participants at the Warsaw Climate Conference today, and promised that UN agencies would ratchet up their work to help reduce emissions and guide adaptation efforts.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) endeavours to create incentives for poor forested countries to protect, better manage and wisely use their forest resources, thus contributing to the global fight against climate change.

To foster knowledge sharing and strengthening of climate-change learning and skills development in Member States in an effective and efficient manner.

GEI provides evidence of the contributions green investments can make to economic performance, social development and environmental improvement, including climate mitigation and adaptation.

This platform, led by the UNDP and the World Bank Group , aims at providing comprehensive support to developing-country governments through learning and knowledge sharing

The United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) invitation to the debate on "Advancing work on adaptation to climate change:A UN system perspective"

Empowering individuals, communities and countries to cope with climate change impacts, in particular strengthening the adaptive capacity of the poorest, must go hand-in-hand with progress towards sustainable development in all its economic, social and environmental aspects.

The United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) invitation to the debate on the role of the UN system in addressing climate change:COP15/CMP5

The UN’s green economy activities are being developed in a way that supports the sustainable development aspirations of developing countries and balances the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental).

The UN-REDD Programme is the UN system’s collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and supporting conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.

Climate change affects every aspect of society, from the health of the global economy to the health of our children. It is about the water in our wells and in our taps. It is about the food on the table...

To ensure a focused system-wide approach, CEB created UN-Energy was created in 2004 as an interagency mechanism for coordination on energy issues...

The Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) is a joint endeavour of the UN system to support efforts to address climate change by strengthening climate knowledge and its applications across all sectors and disciplines.

The UN system has the broad operational reach and vast network of regional, national and sub-national offices to deliver capacity development services at such scope and scale.

The UN system is taking concerted action to help people and communities in countries, especially those particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, to manage climate-related risks in their efforts to achieve sustainable socio-economic development.

The earth’s climate is changing at rates unprecedented in recent human history and will continue to change. The associated impacts and risks are global in their nature, geographically diverse and are increasingly being felt across a range of systems...

The adverse effect of climate change will not only be felt in natural and managed ecosystems, but also have "significant deleterious effects" on the "operation of socio‐economic systems or on human health and welfare".

Fiscal policy has a critical role to play in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and raising revenues for climate finance, fiscal consolidation, and other purposes.

The United Nations system is responding to society's pressing needs for practical information to anticipate the increasing impacts of climate on people's life. The Sixteenth World Meteorological Congress (Geneva, May‐June 2011) set in motion the process for the development of the Global Framework for Climate Service (GFCS) ...

Thus, climate analysis tools for assessing changes in severity, frequency, and occurrences of hydro‐meteorological hazards at seasonal, inter‐annual, decadal, and longer climate change time scales need to become available operationally and applied for risk assessment within the economic sectors to support decision‐making at various levels and time scales.

To catalyze low‐emissions, climate‐resilient growth, countries need access to adequate climate finance that simultaneously reduces GHG emissions and promotes poverty reduction.

At COP16, Parties agreed to include some of these issues as part of the Adaptation Framework, and to consider them within the emerging Green Climate Fund.

Issues discussed at the session: Sustainable Development: Follow up to the Rio +20; United Nations system contribution to the post-2015 development agenda; The World at 7 Billion and Beyond; Climate Change; Cybersecurity and cybercrime; Quadrennial comprehensive policy review (QCPR) and “Delivering as one”; High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development.

The UN System supports countries to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework on the social dimensions of climate change, advocate a multidimensional approach to climate change policies and develop climate-related measures to ensure better living conditions.

This report provides an overview of major developments in inter-agency cooperation within the framework of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) covering the period 2011/12.

The CEB statement of purpose was issued during the UN Climate Change conference (COP15/CMP5) in Copenhagen, December 2009. The United Nations system, as the most inclusive multilateral institutional framework for policy and action, has an essential role to play in supporting the international community's efforts to combat climate change, especially those of developing countries.

This report provides an overview of major developments in inter-agency cooperation within the framework of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) during the period leading to and covering its fall 2010 session and its spring 2011 session.

With this report, the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) aims to contribute to the preparations for the 2005 World Summit, to take place this September in the General Assembly, five years after the adoption of the historic Millennium Declaration. The report provides an  account of how UN organizations are working together to assist countries in achieving the Declaration’s objectives.

The Secretary-General has made it a top priority of his tenure to raise awareness at the highest level of the potential impacts of climate change and the necessity for taking urgent action. He is pursuing that personally, in cooperation with other UN system Executive Heads, as well as through his Special Envoys on Climate Change and other senior UN officials.

Technology transfer and development activities by the UN system promote the diffusion and uptake of environmentallyfriendly and climate-friendly technologies and practices towards achieving objectives of mitigation and adaptation at the country level.

The UN system, including the Bretton Woods Institutions, is assisting developing countries in better leveraging finance from a variety of sources to help them adapt to climate change impacts and undertake nationally appropriate mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development.

The United Nations system is working to help people and communities in countries, especially those most vulnerable, to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change while continuing to grow and achieve their development goals and aspirations.

The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirmed that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are having significant and negative impacts on the climate, emphasized the dangers of rising global mean temperatures and associated changes in precipitation patterns and extreme weather events, and provided an assessment of the means and costs of combating climate change.

Under the leadership of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) has initiated a process of aligning its strengths to achieve a coordinated action-oriented approach to the global and multifaceted challenge of climate change. This document brings together information on activities undertaken throughout the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds and programmes, as contributed by the respective entities.

This report covers: the reports of the Board's committees (HLCM, HLCP, UNDG); Discussion on Climate Change and on Staff Security and Safety; Chairmanship of the High-level Committee on Programmes and the High-level Committee on Management.

This report provides an overview of major developments in inter-agency cooperation within the framework of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), during the period covering its fall session 2007 and its spring session 2008.

This report provides an overview of major developments in inter-agency cooperation within the framework of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) during the period leading to and covering its fall session 2009 and its spring session 2010.

Issues discussed included: CEB review; Preparations for the fall 2007 session of CEB (Climate change; Energy; Africa; Follow-up to CEB/High-Level Committee on Programmes decisions).

Issues discussed included: Review of recent developments on system-wide coherence and the implications for the Chief Executives Board; Review of the High-level Committee on Programmes’ role, functioning and working methods; Evaluation of the United Nations pilots; Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review; Climate change; Peacebuilding; African development.

Issues discussed included: The global financial crisis and its impact on the work of the United Nations System; Regional coherence; Climate change; Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017)...

Issues discussed at the session: Fairer, greener, sustainable globalization; Rio +20; Follow-up to the GA Plenary meeting on the MDGs; Climate change; Fourth UN Conference on the LDCs; and Biodiversity.

In this webcast, you can watch the entire high-level event, hosted by the UN Secretary-General, as Chair of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is the outcome of cross-disciplinary teamwork between scientists studying the physical aspects of climate change, scientists with expertise in impacts, adaptation and vulnerability as well as experts in disaster risk management.

The 2007 Bali Climate Change Conference culminated in the adoption of the Bali Road Map, which consists of a number of forward-looking decisions that represent the various tracks that are essential to reaching a secure climate future.

The Bali Road Map includes the Bali Action Plan, which charts the course for a new negotiating process designed to tackle climate change, with the aim of completing this by 2009, along with a number of other decisions and resolutions.

Parties adopted the Cancun Adaptation Framework (CAF) as part of the Cancun Agreements at the 2010 Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico (COP 16/ CMP 6). In the Agreements, Parties affirmed that adaptation must be addressed with the same level of priority as mitigation.

The main goal of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) is to "enable better management of the risks of climate variability and change and adaptation to climate change, through the development and incorporation of science-based climate information and prediction into planning, policy and practice on the global, regional and national scale". (World Climate Conference-3)

The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol.

The Working Group on Climate Change was established in 2007 to facilitate knowledge sharing and enhance coherence and coordination in the actions of UN system member organizations on climate change.

The most recent analysis of the UN's performance in implementing the UN's Climate Neutral Strategy. The report includes the details of the greenhouse gas emissions for 52 organizations in 2009, as well as a breakdown of emissions by activity. It also details progress in reducing emissions and plans for the future. The a Foreword by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and a Preface by the UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, this report is the first and last word in the UN's sustainability performance to date.

Under the leadership of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) has initiated a process of aligning its strengths to achieve a coordinated action-oriented approach to the global and multifaceted challenge of climate change.

It is clear that the health sector can also play a leader¬ship role in mitigating climate change – that is reducing its magnitude and consequences – by getting our own house in order. By doing so the health sector will create a series of health, economic and social co-benefits that improve the health of the population in addition to the traditional role of the health sector in the delivery of quality health care

Vulnerable countries, communities, and ecosystems are already feeling the effects of climate change, as sea levels and temperature rise, rainfall patterns change, and extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, storms, and other natural disasters, occur more frequently and intensively. These events not only adversely affect core development needs, such as access to drinking water, food security, irrigation, and health, but also entire ecosystems on which all life forms depend— and they exact the heaviest toll on poor people.

GEF projects have been a catalytic force for change, helping to deepen decision makers’ understanding of how to develop an adaptation project and integrate adaptation measures into development sectors. Thanks to the LDCF’s and SCCF’s pioneering work, we have financed projects that have balanced the GEF’s mandate on adaptation with the development mandate of our implementing agencies. Today we have early results to show for this successful collaboration.

Various factsheets From the Global Environment Facility

UNEP’s Climate Change Strategy is the result of a comprehensive process involving external experts and UNEP staff from across the organization. The strategy is built on the analysis of UNEP’s political mandate, the existing portfolio of climate change activities and the areas of distinctiveness. The Climate Change Strategy provides the foundation for transforming the organization’s engagement on climate change and for developing a results-oriented programme of work.

This report on Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories is the response to the request from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to complete its work on uncertainty and prepare a report on good practice in inventory management.

The series consists of five volumes: General Guidance and Reporting; Energy; Industrial Processes and Product Use; Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use; Waste.

The Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry was prepared in response to a request from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). At its Eighth Session in Bonn from 2-12 June 1998, SBSTA requested a report examining the scientific and technical state of understanding for carbon sequestration strategies related to land use, land-use change, and forestry activities and relevant Articles of the Kyoto Protocol.

Achieving the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, will require technological innovation and the rapid and widespread transfer and implementation of technologies, including know-how for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Transfer of technology for adaptation to climate change is also an important element of reducing vulnerability to climate change.

IPCC’s Third Assessment Report stated ‘there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities’. It went on to point out that ‘human influences will continue to change atmospheric composition throughout the 21st century’ (IPCC, 2001c). Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the greenhouse gas that makes the largest contribution from human activities.

This report assesses the scientific, technological, environmental, economic and social aspects of the mitigation of climate change. Research in climate change mitigation 1 has continued since the publication of the IPCC Second Assessment Report (SAR), taking into account political changes such as the agreement on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997, and is reported on here.

The idea of a special IPCC publication dedicated to water and climate change dates back to the 19th IPCC Session held in Geneva in April 2002, when the Secretariat of the World Climate Programme – Water and the International Steering Committee of the Dialogue on Water and Climate requested that the IPCC prepare a Special Report on Water and Climate

The Assessment is of current scientific understanding of the impacts of climate change on natural, managed and human systems, the capacity of these systems to adapt and their vulnerability. It builds upon past IPCC assessments and incorporates new knowledge gained since the Third Assessment.

An Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This underlying report, adopted section by section at IPCC Plenary XXVII (Valencia, Spain, 12-17 November 2007),represents the formally agreed statement of the IPCC concerning key findings and uncertainties contained in the Working Group contributions to the Fourth Assessment Report.

Since 1976, Habitat has helped more than 9.8 million people meet their affordable housing needs. In fiscal year 2016, Habitat improved the housing conditions of 3 million people through new home construction, rehabilitation, incremental improvements, repairs or increased access to improved shelter through partnerships with the private sector.

Climate Change Policy & Practice is a knowledge management project for international negotiations and related activities on climate change managed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services.

UN-Energy was established to help ensure coherence in the UN system’s multi-disciplinary response to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and to ensure the effective engagement of non-UN stakeholders in implementing WSSD energy-related decisions. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI), decisions taken at CSD-9, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21, and Agenda 21 serve as the basis for action on energy.

The EMG was established in 1999 pursuant by General Assembly resolution 53/242 as recommended by the Secretary-General in his report on Environment and Human Settlements (A/53/463). It is chaired by the Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and supported by a secretariat provided by UNEP.