Search

Begin New Search Topic Climate Change

411. Measurement and Monitoring for REDD+: The Needs, Current Technological Capabilities and Future Potential

Author:
Jonah Busch, Scott J. Goetz, Matthew Hansen, Richard A. Houghton, Wayne Walker, and Nadine Laporte
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
This paper presents an overview of the state of measurement and monitoring capabilities for forests in the context of REDD+ needs, with a focus on what is currently possible, where improvements are needed, and what capabilities will be advanced in the near-term with new technologies already under development. We summarize the role of remote sensing (both satellite and aircraft) for observational monitoring of forests, including measuring changes in their current and past extent for setting baselines, their carbon stock density for estimating emissions in areas that are deforested or degraded, and their regrowth dynamics following disturbance. We emphasize the synergistic role of integrating field inventory measurements with remote sensing for best practices in monitoring, reporting and verification. We also address the potential of remote sensing for enforcing safeguards on conservation of natural forests and biodiversity. We argue that capabilities exist now to meet operational needs for REDD+ measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) and reference levels. For some other areas of importance for REDD+, such as safeguards for natural forests and biodiversity, monitoring capabilities are approaching operational in the near term. For all REDD+ needs, measurement capabilities will rapidly advance in the next few years as a result of new technology as well as advances in capacity building both within and outside of the tropical forest nations on which REDD+ is primarily focused.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and Natural Resources

412. Can't Afford to Wait: Why Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation plans in Asia are still failing millions of people

Author:
Steph Cousins
Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Climate-related disasters and food crises are devastating thousands of lives and holding back development across Asia. A year on from the devastating super-typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Oxfam calls for governments across Asia, backed by regional and global institutions and fair contributions from wealthy countries, to ramp up efforts to address these challenges. Without greater investment in climate and disaster-resilient development and more effective assistance for those at risk, super-typhoon Haiyan-scale disasters could fast become the norm, not the exception.
Topic:
Climate Change, Disaster Relief, Environment, Humanitarian Aid, and Natural Disasters
Political Geography:
Asia and Philippines

413. Breaking the Standoff: Post-2020 climate finance in the Paris agreement

Author:
Tim Gore, Simon Bradshaw, Annaka Carvalho, Kiri Hanks, and Jan Kowalzig
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Negotiations are currently under way to develop a new international climate change agreement that will cover all countries and curb global warming to below the internationally agreed limit of 2 degrees. The new agreement will be adopted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference – Conference of the Parties 21, or COP21 – to be held in Paris in November/December 2015, and will be implemented from 2020.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Economics, and Environment

414. Impacto De La Roya Del Café

Author:
Alberto Vargas
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Muchas de las comunidades de El Salvador tienen una baja resiliencia (su capacidad de enfrentar y recuperarse de los efectos de los desastres es muy limitada). Existen comunidades que a causa del cambio climático están enfrentando diversos eventos cada uno o dos años.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Health, Human Welfare, and Food
Political Geography:
South America

415. The Role of Human Rights in Climate Change Adaptation

Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Inconsistent climate change policies increase the vulnerability of marginalised populations and lead to resource conflicts. A human rights-based approach can help protect the adaptive capacities of climate vulnerable populations.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Human Rights, and International Cooperation

416. After Ukraine: Keeping the Arctic Stable

Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The greatest challenge to the stability of the Arctic actually comes from outside the region itself, but there are still strong reasons to be optimistic about security in the Arctic region.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Climate Change, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, and Arctic

417. Pathways to 'The future we want': financing mitigation and adaptation

Author:
Haroldo Machado Filho and Thiago de Araújo Mendes
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)
Abstract:
Haroldo Machado Filho and Thiago Mendes introduce the reader to the complex architecture of international funding available for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. In a very consistent manner, the authors propose an analysis on the institutional and political context in which the creation and maintenance of these financial mechanisms occur. Emphasizing the truly global spatial scale of climate change, Machado Filho and Mendes highlight the importance of international cooperation to promote the transformation to a low-carbon world and with more resilient societies to climate change. However, the authors show that the negotiations in multilateral forums aimed at the question of financing have been marked by slow decision-making and the absence of clear rules that guide the implementation of the agreements.
Topic:
Climate Change, International Trade and Finance, and Climate Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

418. Climate and Environmental Change: Views from Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility

Author:
Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
How are rapid recent food price changes linked to climate and environmental change? How do people who are vulnerable to these changes view these links? This note explores the views of people living on low and precarious incomes on these connections, based on research designed to explore experiences of food price volatility in 2012, through qualitative research in 23 research sites in 10 countries. The research was not specifically designed to study perceptions of climate and environmental change; these views are collected here because they offer interesting, relatively unmediated insights into how people perceive the causal connections between their food security and environment across varied social and ecological settings.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Climate Change, Economics, and Food

419. Table of Contents, Volume 28.2 (Summer 2014)

Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
This issue features essays by Roger Berkowitz on "Drones and the Question of 'The Human'" and Alan Sussman on the philosophical foundations of human rights; a special centennial roundtable on "The Future of Human Rights," featuring Beth A. Simmons, Philip Alston, James W. Nickel, Jack Donnelly, and Andrew Gilmour; a review essay by Jens Bartelson on empire and sovereignty; and book reviews by Dale Jamieson, Tom Bailey, and Simon Cotton.
Topic:
Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs

420. Why Human Rights Are Called Human Rights

Author:
Alan Sussman
Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
The title of this essay is rather ambitious and the space available is hardly sufficient to examine two words of almost limitless expanse—“human rights”—whether standing alone or in tandem. This requires that I begin with (and remained disciplined by) what a teacher of mine, Leo Strauss, called “low facts.” My low facts are these: We call ourselves humans because we have certain characteristics that define our nature. We are social and political animals, as Aristotle noted, and possess attributes not shared by other animals. The ancients noted this, of course, when they defined our principal behavioral and cognitive distinction from the rest of the natural world as the faculty of speech. The Greek word for this, logos, means much more than speech, as it connotes word and reason and, in the more common understanding, talking and writing, praising and criticizing, persuading and reading. While other animals communicate by making sounds of attraction or warning, leaving smells, and so on, none read newspapers, make speeches, publish their memoirs, or write poetry.
Topic:
Climate Change, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Law, International Political Economy, Sovereignty, and International Affairs