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About ten million residents of the Colombian capital Bogota are being subjected to water rationing as reservoir levels hit record lows. The measure is the most drastic to be introduced in decades, and will see the water cut every ten days for 24 hours. “I take a four-minute shower maximum and I avoid washing clothes,” one resident said. Follow the link…

Globally, a billion people live more than two kilometers from an all-weather road, 685 million people are without electricity, and nearly 3 billion people lack internet access. In addition, 2.6 billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water and 3.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation. To close these huge gaps, we need better access to land. This will not only…

In recent years, the interest in shifting from reactive to proactive drought management has been rising. This shift requires a better comprehension of drought, its impacts, and the corresponding vulnerability of systems to drought. Understanding and applying these concepts correctly is necessary to perform drought impact and vulnerability (I&V) assessments that, in turn, can serve as a guide for…

The people in countries most vulnerable to climate change are facing widespread devastation from the world’s changing climate. Despite contributing the least to climate change and with limited resources to combat the crisis, climate-vulnerable nations in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific, are hit with the heaviest burdens: from cyclones in Bangladesh, to floods in…

Biodiversity conservation is vital for sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and a livable planet. It sustains ecosystems that support human livelihoods, particularly in developing nations, by providing essential resources like food, clean water, and climate stability. Healthy ecosystems are crucial for agriculture, fishing, and forestry, which reduce poverty and foster sustainable…

This paper quantifies the impact of drought on household consumption for five main agroecological zones in Africa, developing vulnerability (or damage) functions of the relationship between rainfall deficits and poverty. Damage functions are a key element in models that quantify the risk of extreme weather and the impacts of climate change. Although these functions are commonly estimated for…