'Warming of the Climate System Is Unequivocal': Highlights of the Fourth IPCC Assessment Report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988 to recognize the problem of potential global climate change.
Now Is the Time: We Must Find a Global Response to This Most Global of Problems
The lines were drawn as the industrialized nations of the Group of Eight gathered in Heiligendamm, Germany on 6 June 2007. The forces mustered to fight global warming were divided into competing camps.
The Greatest Threat To Global Security: Climate Change Is Not Merely An Environmental Problem
Climate change is transforming the way we think about security. This will not be the first time people have fought over land, water and resources, but this time it will be on a scale that dwarfs the conflicts of the past, said the Congolese representative at the UN Security Council debate in April 2007. The French called it the number one threat to mankind.
Climate Change In The Arctic: An Inuit Reality
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) characterizes the circumpolar Arctic as the world's climate change barometer. The 160,000 Inuit who live in northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Chukotka in Russia have witnessed the changing of the natural environment as a result of global warming for almost 20 years.
Guiding Principles Needed: Towards A Global Strategy for Climate Change
Ever since I attended the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in 1997, I have been fascinated by the development of the international debate on this issue. There are few forces that can literally reshape the global landscape as climate change can. Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, lakes that are drying up and rainforests that become savannahs are just some of the changes that are wrought by climate change.
Costa Rica's Commitment: On the Path to Becoming Carbon-Neutral
Current scientific evidence increasingly shows that the benefits of strong early action far outweigh the costs of inaction. If we do not drastically and promptly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions now, we are risking a catastrophic disruption of the complex of interlinked environmental, economic, health, moral, political and social systems that sustain civilization as we know it.
The UN Role In Climate Change Action: Taking The Lead Towards A Global Response
Over the coming weeks and months, the three Special Envoys on climate change appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be making whistle-stop tours of key capital cities to build a solid and sustainable consensus on action over climate change.
We Cannot Lose Our Green And Our Blue: Climate Change Threatens Our Urban Environment
Global climatic change will affect all aspects of social life in the twenty-first century. The measures necessary to confront the challenges brought about by global warming and to mitigate its impact go far beyond the indispensable technological transition in the production process and changes in consumption habits of individuals. The future of cities and what we now call urban will also undergo transformations.
Devastating For The World's Poor: Climate Change Threatens The Development Gains Already Achieved
Climate change has emerged as one of the biggest environmental challenges facing the world. Twenty years ago at the United Nations, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway's former Prime Minister and former Director-General of the World Health Organization, first drew global attention to the threats posed by climate change to the earth and its inhabitants.
Cool Globes: Increase Awareness and Inspire Action Against Global Warming
In 2001, I read a Time magazine article on climate change, which stated that in the next 100 years the Earth's temperature could rise by 3? to 11? Celsius. It then dawned on me that this was within my children's lifetime. How would these changes impact the world they live in? Will they be left to deal with the consequences of our behaviours?
The Health Effects Of Global Warming: Developing Countries Are The Most Vulnerable
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that the increase in global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) is primarily due to fossil fuel use and, in a smaller but still significant level, to land-use change.
Before The Next Disaster Strikes: The Humanitarian Impact Of Climate Change
Climate change is an issue so large in scope and so potentially overwhelming in importance that it might be helpful for us to pause and focus our attention on practical steps we can take to adapt to a warming planet and reduce its negative impacts.
A Future To Look Forward To: Youth and Students Campaign for a Sustainable Future
The Sustainable Future Campaign is a programme designed by an international team, in coordination with the United Nations Youth and Student Association of Austria, to provide educational platforms to engage global youth and encourage environmental development efforts.
Interaction of Climate Change and Land Degradation: The Experience in the Arab Region
The Arab region is comprised of 21 countries, extending from North Africa to South West Asia, over an estimated total area of 14.1 million square kilometres. Its vast terrain includes physiographic features of plains, plateaus, dry valleys and relatively limited highlands and mountainous areas.
Climate Change Around The World: A View From The UN Regional Commissions
The most recent meeting of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD 15) examined global climate change, along with energy, air and industrial development, as a comprehensive cluster of issues. The risk of climate change commands the most widespread preoccupation of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Governments throughout the world.