All publications and documents

The five-year period from 2011 to 2015 has been the warmest five-year period on record globally, with 2015 being the warmest year on record to date.The period 2011–2015 was also the warmest on record for every continent except Africa. During this period, concentrations of the major greenhouse gases continued to rise and reached record levels for the instrumental period. The record high…

In recent years, the efforts made by UN agencies, funds and programmes have expanded from an initial focus on greenhouse gas emissions to include other environmental impacts. This has been supported by a more systematic approach which sees the inclusion of environmental sustainability goals in the programming of facilities and operations. The overall sequence is based on three fundamental…

This report is aimed at readers who seek to build economic evidence in support of the inclusion of actions on agriculture in climate change plans and programmes, particularly at the national level under the umbrella of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the December 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to restrict a rise in global temperatures and manage risks. Agriculture is a…

The Global Climate Risk Index 2017 analyses to what extent countries have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.). The most recent data available – from 2015 and 1996–2015 – were taken into account. The countries affected most in 2015 were Mozambique, Dominica as well as Malawi. For the period from 1996 to 2015 Honduras, Myanmar and…

A new report released today by the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) reveals that drylands, which cover some 40 per cent of the earth’s land surface, are critical in order to buffer the negative impacts of climate change, land degradation, and drought. “Drylands are absolutely key to global food security for the whole planet,” said IFAD President,…

he assessment outlined in this report forms part of the ‘Strengthening Agricultural Water Efficiency and Productivity on the African and Global Level’ project, which aims at reducing hunger and poverty in three African countries (Burkina Faso, Morocco and Uganda) by focusing on the improvement of AWM and mainstreaming AWM in national frameworks and processes. In particular, this report…