All publications and documents

On climate and adaptation 1. Adaptation to climate change safeguards people from higher temperatures, rising seas, fiercer storms, unpredictable rainfall and more acidic oceans. Some people are more vulnerable to these effects, such as those living in poverty. 2. Small island developing States are particularly vulnerable without adaptation to storms and sea-level rise. For some of…

On climate and nature 1. Healthy ecosystems can provide 37 per cent of the mitigation needed to limit global temperature rise. Damaged ecosystems release carbon instead of storing it. 2. Approximately 25 per cent of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions come from land clearing, crop production and fertilization, with animal-based food contributing 75 per cent of that. 3. With…

A United Nations study of world science is a wake-up call that richer countries must also shift science towards the SDGs. With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders pledged to end poverty and hunger, protect biodiversity and the climate, and get all children into schools by 2030. How have researchers and funders responded? Has there been a shift in research…

The G20 Environment Ministers’ Meeting ended today in Naples with the approval of an important joint communiqué, the outcome of weeks of negotiations. The document is based on three macro areas. 1) Biodiversity: protection of natural capital and restoration of ecosystems with solutions based on nature, defense and restoration of the soil, protection of water resources,…

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas, say an international group of ecologists who examined the success of seeding drylands with key native plant species. The study examining the success of these attempts—Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland…

Negotiations began on Monday to approve a UN science report which will anchor high level summits later this year, charged with boosting climate action worldwide. The assessment comes as record-breaking heat waves, devasting floods and drought struck across three continents in recent weeks. “This report has been prepared in exceptional circumstances, and this is an unprecedented IPCC…