Climate change blogs
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Locally led adaption to climate change: the start of a 10-year learning journey
12 January 2021In early 2021, a fast-growing group of experts will meet in Gobeshona to define a 10-year learning agenda to advance principles for critical locally led adaption to climate change. Saleemul Huq and Clare Shakya explain the importance of this group and the journey ahead
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Loss and damage from climate change has pushed Sierra Leoneans far beyond their ability to adapt
2 December 2020Over the last 15 years, residents of Freetown, Sierra Leone have witnessed first-hand the escalating trail of destruction left in the wake of floods, sea rises, mudslides, landslides and more
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A green recovery from COVID-19? Not without climate, nature and development solutions
26 November 2020COVID-19 has made the world stop and think. What kind of future do we want? And what recovery measures will get us there? An IIED event at London Climate Action Week this month made the case for an inclusive and equitable green recovery that places climate, nature and development at its heart
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How climate change losses could open the Solomon Islands’ old wounds
25 November 2020Forced relocation is on the horizon as communities in the Solomon Islands face loss of freshwater and land. Guest blogger Solomon Yeo fears this could spark fresh tensions between ethnic groups – and lead the country to revisit its dark history
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Engulfed by the sea: the loss and damage from climate change
18 November 2020People from the Solomon Islands are experiencing profound loss and damage from climate change every day. Guest blogger Gladys Habu calls on the global community to recognise these losses, and act
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What does the Biden win mean for climate action?
12 November 2020On climate finance, faster emissions cuts and setting the climate action traffic signal for business from red to green, a Biden administration could produce big shifts
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Urban flooding: the case of Karachi
27 October 2020Governments are quick to blame devastating floods on climate change. But many reasons for these floods are to do with what governments have not done. Arif Hasan reviews why disastrous floods are taking place in Karachi and what is needed for this to change
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Can the Adaptation Committee find opportunity in adversity?
21 October 2020The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a pause in climate negotiations, but it need not be time wasted. Binyam Gebreyes and Emilie Beauchamp consider how the Adaptation Committee is seizing the moment to tackle existing challenges, and how it could go further
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Choosing a sustainable way out of the pandemic’s economic chaos
12 October 2020With debt swaps governments and finance institutions can address the triple crises of debt, climate change and the destruction of nature
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Are India’s social protection schemes ‘future fit’?
9 October 2020COVID-19 has highlighted the value of India’s social protection schemes for the extreme poor. With some tweaking, these schemes can be true game changers
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Local must lead action to tackle world’s multiple interconnected challenges
8 October 2020Sam Greene distils key messages drawn from lively online dialogue with the 500-plus participants from over 70 countries who joined the 14th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to climate change
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Loss and damage in Rwanda: a young climate activist reports
3 September 2020On 9 September 2020, IIED and ICCCAD are hosting a webinar on climate-related loss and damage in the least developed countries. Ineza Umuhoza Grace reports on how climate change is impacting Rwanda
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CBA14: explore with us how nature-based solutions support local action for adaptation
21 August 2020The ‘nature-based solutions’ track at next month’s 14th CBA event will explore how nature’s ‘services’ can support local communities to manage the impacts of climate change
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The Green Climate Fund: time to shift focus to locally led adaptation
17 August 2020The Green Climate Fund needs to consider how it can better channel funds directly to countries, helping build strong accredited entities that can support adaptation in adaptation initiatives
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LDCs and the Paris Agreement: getting to grips with tougher climate reporting
12 August 2020Implementing the Paris Agreement brings new reporting challenges for LDCs. A recent IIED webinar explored ways forward for these countries to meet the treaty’s stringent transparency requirements
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‘Building back better’ means ‘building back fairer’ after COVID-19
31 July 2020Karen Wong and Shahrin Mannan draw together insights from grassroots networks on moving towards a fairer world post-COVID-19
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Why we need to plug the climate information gap in social protection schemes
15 July 2020Being prepared to respond to hazards can dramatically reduce risks of livelihood loss for India’s rural poor
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Carbon offsetting: who’s really winning?
7 July 2020To tackle climate change and poverty, we need to look past win-win solutions and start asking tough questions
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CBA14: Same great conference, entirely new environment
7 July 2020The 2020 international conference on community-based adaptation will be digital – but it will still have community at the centre
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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