How economic resilience can be built in semi-arid regions

Photo credit: Livestock Systems and Environment

Peul herders pump water from a well for their cow herd and families, Niassante Rural Community, Saint Louis Région, Senegal (photo credit: ILRI/Jo Cadilhon).

A triple whammy: avoiding a leak future for semi-arid regions

by DORINE ODONGO

This article was written by Helen Mountfort, Consortium Co-ordinator for Pathways to Resilience in Semi-Arid Economies (PRISE)

Building economic resilience in semi-arid regions: what role for the sustainable development goals?

As the world adopts the sustainable development goals (SDGs) to help drive the implementation of sustainable development, it is imperative that these must do more to consider how economic resilience can be built in semi-arid regions.

Semi-arid regions are among the areas that have been identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as being particularly exposed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Home to over 2.5billion people, highly variable arid and semi-arid systems are already affected by climate change, and will increasingly struggle to support the people who depend on them unless we can find ways to harness the resilience that is inherent to many of these systems.

The SDGs must consider several major challenges, for inclusive consideration of sustainable development

 

Read the full story: Livestock Systems and Environment

Link between desertification and climate change

 

 

IPCC Adopts Algeria’s Proposal On Desertification, Climate Change

Algerie Presse Service (Algiers)

Algeria’s proposal on the elaboration of a special report on the link between desertification and climate change have been recently accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The announcement of accepting Algeria’s proposal was made in the meeting of the 41st session of IPCC held from 24 to 27 February at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi (Kenya).

This proposal was supported by several countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Mali, Chad, Switzerland and Spain.

Read the full article: allAfrica

The link between desertification and climate change

Photo credit: Google

An olive grove in the Mascara Region, Algeria (Photo UNEP)

Algeria: IPCC Adopts Algeria’s Proposal On Desertification, Climate Change

Algeria’s proposal on the elaboration of a special report on the link between desertification and climate change have been recently accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The announcement of accepting Algeria’s proposal was made in the meeting of the 41st session of IPCC held from 24 to 27 February at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi (Kenya).

This proposal was supported by several countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Mali, Chad, Switzerland and Spain.

Read the full article: allAfrica

Small-scale farming and climate change

Photo credit: CCAFS-CGIAR

Farmers learning exchange in Peru to discuss climate change and adaptation practices. Photo: Manon Koningstein (CIAT)

Why smallholder farming is crucial in new climate deal

Countries should seize the chance to shape the new global climate deal.

Following December’s climate change meeting in Lima, countries are working on identifying their national contributions to mitigation and adaptation for submission at the end of March. These will form the basis of a new climate deal to be agreed in Paris at the end of this year. But with no formal arrangement for addressing agriculture within the negotiations, we could miss a key opportunity to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while enhancing food and nutritional security.

The global food system produces about 25 per cent of GHGs, of which around half comes from food production and the rest from processing, transport, packaging and land use change to agriculture.

Climate change is already having a negative impact on agricultural production and food security, as made forcefully clear in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment.

Read the full article: CCAFS-CGIAR

Need for technology to help harness water more efficiently, particularly in agriculture

Photo credit: Pixabay

Drought

Africa: World Has Not Woken Up to Water Crisis Caused By Climate Change – IPCC Head

By Nita Bhalla

Thomson Reuters Foundation

New Delhi — Water scarcity could lead to conflict between communities and nations as the world is still not fully aware of the water crisis many countries face as a result of climate change, the head of the U.N. panel of climate scientists warned on Tuesday.

The latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a rise in global temperature of between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5 to 8.6 Fahrenheit) by the late 21st century.

Countries such as India are likely to be hit hard by global warming, which will bring more freak weather such as droughts that will lead to serious water shortages and affect agricultural output and food security.

“Unfortunately, the world has not really woken up to the reality of what we are going to face in terms of the crises as far as water is concerned,” IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri told participants at a conference on water security.

“If you look at agricultural products, if you look at animal protein – the demand for which is growing – that’s highly water intensive.

At the same time, on the supply side, there are going to be several constraints. Firstly because there are going to be profound changes in the water cycle due to climate change.”

Development experts around the world have become increasingly concerned about water security in recent years.

Read the full article: allAfrica

Climate change projects for a sustainable solution

Photo credit: Google

Farmers in Sierra Leone

Effects of Climate Change in Sierra Leone

By Gabriel Benjam

Climate change refers to an increase in average global temperatures. Natural events and human activities such as deforestation, increasing population pressure, intensive agricultural land use, overgrazing, bush burning, extraction of fuel wood and other biotic resources are believed to be contributing to an increase in average global temperatures. This is caused primarily by increases in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2).

Sierra Leone is experiencing adverse climate conditions with negative impacts on the welfare of millions of Sierra Leoneans. Flooding during the raining season, off season rains and dry spells have sent growing seasons out of orbit; on a country dependent on a rain fed agriculture. Alarm bells are ringing. Lakes are drying up. There is reduction in river flow. The water table is at its lowest ebb. The red flag is up. No one is talking. The warnings are being dismissed. It’s been business as usual.

The result is fewer water supplies for use in agriculture, hydro power generation and other domestic purposes. The main suspect for all this havoc is climate change. This has been confirmed following release of the 4th IPCC Assessment report. Africa will be worst hit by the effects of climate change. Sierra Leone not exempted.

The agricultural sector contributes about 47.9% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and agriculture is the largest employer of labour with 80% of the population working in the sector. The dominant role of agriculture makes it obvious that even minor climate deteriorations can cause devastating socioeconomic consequences.

Read the full article: allAfrica

Southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at a much higher risk of dieback (Science Daily)

Read at :

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131021153204.htm

Risk of Amazon Rainforest Dieback Is Higher Than IPCC Projects, Study Suggests

Oct. 21, 2013 — A new study suggests the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at a much higher risk of dieback due to stronger seasonal drying than projections made by the climate models used in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If severe enough, the loss of rainforest could cause the release of large volumes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It could also disrupt plant and animal communities in one of the regions of highest biodiversity in the world.

Using ground-based rainfall measurements from the past three decades, a research team led by Rong Fu, professor at The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, found that since 1979, the dry season in southern Amazonia has lasted about a week longer per decade. At the same time, the annual fire season has become longer. The researchers say the most likely explanation for the lengthening dry season is global warming.

(continued)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has fallen far from grace (MediaGlobal)

Read at :

http://mediaglobal.org/article/2010-09-11/can_one_review_panel_save_the_reputation_of_the_international_panel_on_climate_change

Can one review panel save the reputation of the International Panel on Climate Change?

By Amanda Wheat

11 September 2010 [MediaGlobal]: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has fallen far from grace since its inception in 1989. Its fourth assessment on the state of the environment won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize alongside former Vice President Al Gore. But climate skeptics have recently attacked the IPCC for erroneous claims and unsound research. Now, the Interacademy Panel (IAC) has taken on the task of an in-depth analysis of the inner workings of the IPCC and the results may decide the way climate change is tackled for years to come.

There are two recent controversies that have plagued the IPCC in the areas of evidence and leadership. What caught the eye of most skeptics was the fourth assessment’s bold prediction that Himalayan glaciers would cease to exist by 2035, a mistake that tarnished the entire 3,000-page report. It came to light that these claims were based on what is called “grey material,” or material not yet peer-reviewed and therefore unacceptable on a broad scientific basis.

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What happened in Copenhagen? (Google / Al-Ahram)

Read at : Google Alert – desertification

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/978/envrnmnt.htm

What happened in Copenhagen?

Denying democracy is what ultimately led to the debacle of ineffective action on global climate change, write Curtis Doebbler and Margreet Wewerinke

What started as a festive effort to do something good for our planet ended in a heap of acrimonious recriminations and a meaningless declaration that does little to slow our planet’s journey down a path of mutually assured destruction. How did it all fail?

The setting was ideal. The Danish hosts had planned the event so well as to entice over half the world’s leaders to come to the otherwise unceremonious Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the simultaneously held Fifth Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.

MEA Bulletin – Issue No. 80 (MEA / IISD)

Read at : Earth Negotiations Bulletin <enb@iisd.org>

MEA Bulletin – Issue No. 80

IISD RS is pleased to announce that the newest issue of MEA Bulletin is now available. To access the 80th issue directly, visit: http://www.iisd.ca/mea-l/meabulletin80.pdf . To read past issues and to sign up to receive the PDF version, visit: http://www.iisd.ca/email/mea-l.htm

The 80th issue of MEA Bulletin includes reports on the Barcelona Climate Change Talks, the 31st session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the 21st Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and the special session of the ninth session of the UN Forum on Forests, among other meetings.

The guest article, which was authored by Saskia Marijnissen, UNOPS, Technical Advisor UNDP/GEF Project on Lake Tanganyika, and Henry Mwima, Executive Director Lake Tanganyika Authority, reports on the signing of the Headquarters Agreement of the Lake Tanganyika Authority.

MEA Bulletin is a publication created by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Division of Environmental Law and Conventions (UNEP DELC).

CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Capture Effort Collects Critics (IPS)

Read at / IPS

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48926

CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Capture Effort Collects Critics

By Julio Godoy*

BERLIN, Oct 20 (Tierramérica) – The capture and underground storage of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, is a dubious method of effectively reducing the pollution that causes global warming, experts warn.

Scientists, environmentalists and local communities continue to object to the method, which consists of compressing and liquefying carbon dioxide before sending it to underground deposits, and which has been applied for some time to recover petroleum and gas from partially exhausted oil wells.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) looked at these techniques in 2007, and more closely in 2005, when its Working Group III published a 443-page report.

Germany’s federal government was forced last summer to halt the process for approving a law authorising the capture and deposit of carbon, after facing opposition from local communities in the regions preliminarily selected for experimenting with the technique.

Rejection of the process has been fuelled by scientific reports and environmental groups. In 2006, geologist Gabriela von Goerne, of the German branch of Greenpeace, said such methods should only be used as a last option in the fight against global warming.

G8 LEADERS ‘IGNORED’ UN’S SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS ON CLIMATE CHANGE (UNNews)

G8 LEADERS ‘IGNORED’ UN’S SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS ON CLIMATE CHANGE, SAYS OFFICIAL

New York, Jul 20 2009  7:00PM

The world’s largest economies have “clearly ignored” the findings of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning United Nations scientific body that evaluates climate change when formulating their recent proposals on slashing greenhouse gases, a top official said today.

It was a “big step” for leaders of over one dozen developed nations attending the Major Economies Forum (MEF) – including the Group of Eight (G8) nations and others – on 9 July meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, to recognize that the global average temperature should not increase by more than 2 degrees centigrade, Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<“http://www.ipcc.ch/”>IPCC), told reporters in New York today.