Climate change blogs
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Three things climate funds can learn from the COVID-19 response
25 June 2020COVID-19 relief packages have used social protection programmes as vehicles for getting finance directly to those in greatest need; the big climate funders could do the same by investing in these programmes that reach out to the extreme poor
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Working with nature to build back better from COVID-19: inspirations from farmers in China
23 June 2020Yufen Chuang and Xiaoting Hou Jones reflect on why working with nature to adapt to climate change can offer valuable lessons on how to build back better from COVID-19
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The UK’s backward step on global development
17 June 2020The UK government’s decision to merge DFID with the Foreign Office is a clear sign that tackling poverty in developing countries is no longer a priority. But there is still time to show that its interests benefit from working internationally in partnership to tackle inequality, fragility, climate and nature loss
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Finding solutions in nature for climate change
29 May 2020On the International Day of Biological Diversity, IIED hosted a multi-stakeholder webinar on how to work with nature to mitigate and adapt to climate change and halt biodiversity loss. IIED senior researcher Xiaoting Hou Jones chaired the event, and here she shares some highlights from the discussions
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Empowering women and youth for transformative climate and environment justice
14 May 2020At the beginning of March, Tracy Kajumba was a panellist at the OECD Global Forum on Environment. Here she reflects further on how women and youth can be enabled to strengthen environmental justice
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Coming through the pandemic the right way up
1 May 2020COVID-19 risks exacerbating inequality and ecological destruction, but it may also bring lessons of environmental and social justice that shift values, strengthen solidarity and encourage people to mobilise for change
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Transitioning to a better global ‘new normal’
22 April 2020COVID-19 has changed our world. To mark Earth Day 2020, and the global call to act on climate change, we ask: what lessons can we apply from the pandemic response to help tackle other global crises, including the climate emergency?
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Developing a vision for The Gambia’s future
20 April 2020The Paris Agreement invites all countries to submit mid-century low-carbon, climate-resilient development strategies by 2020. Gabrielle Swaby chronicles The Gambia’s progress towards fulfilling this commitment
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Climate change, conflict, migration, and land grabs: 35 years of village life in Mali
19 March 2020Camilla Toulmin’s book spanning the last 35 years explores the many forces and pressures facing people and their families in Dlonguébougou, Mali
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Allyship not ownership: how NGOs can back social movements
17 March 2020The Green Economy Coalition's Ben Martin continues our series exploring the importance of public climate movements and what this could mean for organisations working on sustainable development. He argues that NGOs are best placed to take a supportive back seat role, not to be backseat drivers
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Coronavirus and climate change are two crises that need humanity to unite
13 March 2020IIED director Andrew Norton looks at some of the emerging impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, and discusses the possible longer-term effects of the pandemic
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Supporting more than equal numbers in international climate debates
8 March 2020For International Women’s Day, Brianna Craft and Samantha McCraine detail efforts to bring more women to the UN climate change negotiations
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Women ally with nature to adapt to climate change
6 March 2020To mark International Women’s Day 2020, IIED is profiling seven women in Chile, China and South Africa working to protect and restore nature, promote a more sustainable use of natural resources and adapt to climate change
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Is adaptation the missing ingredient from the new UN biodiversity action plan?
24 February 2020This week governments from across the world will meet in Rome to discuss the first draft of a new global action plan to tackle biodiversity loss. Dilys Roe asks whether there is something missing from the agenda
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City leaders need to rise to the climate change challenge
8 February 2020City leaders from around the world are meeting in Abu Dhabi for the 10th World Urban Forum on sustainable urbanisation (8-13 February). IIED director Andrew Norton and Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of UN-Habitat, highlight the need for leaders to work with residents of informal settlements in order to prepare for the impacts of climate change
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Climate activism and cities: a shared agenda
7 February 2020In the second blog in our series considering the role social movements play in promoting climate action, Anna Walnycki reflects on where the climate movement and inclusive cities agenda meet, and why climate activists should look South to learn from long-standing urban community actors
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Jobs, nature and the Green New Deal: lessons from the global South
30 January 2020A new article in the 'Journal of Philosophical Transactions B' explores how experiences from large-scale social protection programmes in the global South could help us link two important elements of ideas for a Green New Deal, creating local jobs for a just transition while increasing ecosystem stewardship
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Community voices – the climate needs you in COP26 countdown
28 January 2020The 14th community-based adaption event (CBA14) will call on local communities to use their collective power to hold climate decision makers to account
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Is Davos signalling the end of business as usual?
21 January 2020As world leaders in politics and business gather in Davos, IIED director Andrew Norton considers progress on the event’s ‘business with purpose’ agenda and asks how a progressive sustainability manifesto can omit climate change
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2020: the year to get money where it matters
20 January 2020More new initiatives, such as the Global Commission on Adaptation’s Locally Led Adaptation Action Track, are beginning to recognise the critical role of poor and marginalised people in tackling the climate emergency. From the Gobeshona conference, Andrew Norton and Saleemul Huq explain why a reimagined climate finance system that gets money into the hands of those people must be high on the 2020 ‘super year’ agenda
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How can we incorporate local knowledge into climate planning and policy? …Maps!
17 January 2020In Kenya, participatory mapping makes it possible for indigenous knowledge to be included in planning and policy where for too long it was excluded, showing technology can bring people’s voices to power
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COP25 policy and activism: we deserved better
13 January 2020In the first of a new series considering the important role social movements play in prompting climate action and protecting nature, Sejal Patel reflects on COP25, both as a researcher seeking to influence policy and as an individual passionate about climate justice
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COP25: the morning after
13 January 2020Ahead of this week's IIED-hosted event discussing what COP25 outcomes mean for the climate crisis, Subhi Barakat highlights stepping stones for more ambitious climate action that emerged from these negotiations, where delays and denial frustrated progress
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How can we avoid another ‘lost decade’ in the climate fight?
6 January 2020As 2020 begins, IIED director Andrew Norton considers what it will take to galvanise meaningful action on climate change against a ticking clock and political reticence
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Climate change is advancing in Nigeria: we can’t keep running
17 December 2019Youth-led climate strikes across the world have injected remarkable momentum into demands for climate action. But according to guest blogger Ridwan Bello, if young people in Nigeria are to join this global push, they need more knowledge about the causes and impacts of climate change