UNESCO Clearinghouse on GCED

21 Results found

Nature-based Solutions: Opportunities and Challenges for Scaling Up Year of publication: 2022 Author: Charlotte Hicks | Carolina Chambi | Hemant Tripathi | Katie Dawkins | Tania Salvaterra | Kollie Tokpah | Valerie Kapos | Hashim Zaman Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are important for the global sustainable development agenda because they offer the potential to address, in an effective way, diverse challenges such as climate change, food and water insecurity, disaster impacts, and threats to human health and wellbeing, while reducing environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Some of the challenges addressed by NbS, including biodiversity loss and climate action, cannot be fully tackled without this contribution. This does not mean that other actions, such as rapid decarbonization of our economies, are not also essential. This report: Outlines recent developments on NbS, with a focus on global, regional and national commitments, and key issues and concerns Builds on the new multilaterally agreed definition of NbS – agreed by the UN Environment Assembly in March 2022 – to set out key elements in the concept, provides examples of NbS, and discusses related approaches Provides recommendations for actions by governments, civil society and the private sector to substantially scale up the use of NbSThe report aims to inform NbS-related initiatives and discussions on NbS at global, regional, and national levels, with a focus on how NbS can be scaled up to more effectively address social, economic, and environmental challenges.

Emissions Gap Report 2024: No More Hot Air … Please! With a Massive Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality, Countries Draft New Climate Commitments Year of publication: 2024 Author: Anne Olhoft | John Christensen | William F. Lamb | Minal Pathak | Takeshi Kuramochi | Taryn Fransen | Joeri Rogelj | Michel den Elzen | Joana Portugal-Pereira | Neil rant | Jiang Kejun | Stephanie Roe | Chris Bataille | Kornelis Blok | Kelly Levin | Eleonore Soubeyran | Costanza Strinati Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) As climate impacts intensify globally, the Emissions Gap Report 2024: No more hot air … please! finds that nations must deliver dramatically stronger ambition and action in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions or the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years. The report is the 15th edition in a series that brings together many of the world’s top climate scientists to look at future trends in greenhouse gas emissions and provide potential solutions to the challenge of global warming.

Global Resources Outlook: 2024 Bend the Trend; Pathways to a Liveable Planet as Resource Use Spikes Year of publication: 2024 Author: Hans Bruyninckx, Steve Hatfield-Dodds, Stefanie Hellweg, Heinz Schandl Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | International Resource Panel (IRP) The world is in the midst of a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution and waste. The global economy is consuming ever more natural resources, while the world is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. The scientific community has never before been more aligned or more resolute on the need for urgent global transformation towards the sustainable use of resources. This 2024 edition of the Global Resources Outlook sheds light on how resources are essential to the effective implementation of the Agenda 2030 and multilateral environmental agreements to tackle the triple planetary crisis. The report brings together the best available data, modelling and assessments to analyse trends, impacts and distributional effects of resource use. It builds on more than 15 years of work by the International Resource Panel, including scientific assessments and inputs from countries, a vast network of stakeholders in the field and regional experts. The report illustrates how, since the 2019 edition of this report, rising trends in global resource use have continued or accelerated. The report also shows how demand for resources is expected to continue increasing in the coming decades. This means that, without urgent and concerted action, by 2060 resource extraction could rise by 60% from 2020 levels – driving increasing damage and risks. However, this fate is not sealed. The report also describes the potential to turn negative trends around and put humanity on a trajectory towards sustainability. For that, bold policy action is critical to phase out unsustainable activities, speed up responsible and innovative ways of meeting human needs and create conditions conducive to social acceptance and equity within the necessary transitions. This includes urgent action to embed resources in the delivery of multilateral environmental agreements, define sustainable resource use paths and roll out appropriate financial, trade and economic incentives. The pathway towards sustainability is increasingly steep and narrow, and the window of opportunity is closing. The science is clear: The key question is no longer whether a transformation towards global sustainable resource consumption and production is necessary, but how to make it happen now. Addressing this reality, based on evolving concepts of a just transition, is an essential part of any credible and justifiable way forward.

YouthXchange: guide sur le changement climatique et les modes de vie Year of publication: 2015 Author: Adam Cade | Rob Bowden Corporate author: UNESCO | United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Climate Change and Lifestyles is the first in a series of guidebooks supporting the UNESCO/ UNEP YouthXchange (YXC) Initiative, which was created in 2001 to promote sustainable lifestyles among youth (15-24 years) through education, dialogue, awareness raising and capacity building. The series is being produced for young people and people working with youth, such as educators, teachers, trainers and youth leaders in both developed and developing countries. Almost half of the world’s population is under the age of 25, and nearly 90 per cent of them live in developing countries. Youth is a critical stakeholder in the global economy and will be the main actor and motor for change in the near future. Thus, the energy, motivation and creativity of youth are essential assets to stimulating change. Aims of the YXC Guidebook on Climate Change and Lifestyles:• Explore the links between lifestyles and climate change; • Help young people consider the actions they should take towards more sustainable lifestyles;• Support courses and actions that promote greater understanding of climate change and lifestyles among youth. The guidebook:• Considers the causes and effects of climate change and its human impacts and responses, while connecting them to lifestyle choices and the technical and social infrastructures of a society;• Provides scientific, political, economic, social, ethical and cultural perspectives on climate change;• Explains complex issues in accessible language supported by facts, graphics, images, examples and web links;• Develops the critical skills young people need to make personal choices to address the challenges of climate change.

Environmental Education Toolkit Guide for Latin America and the Caribbean Year of publication: 2023 Author: Eloísa Tréllez Solís Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) The Environmental Education Toolkit is aimed primarily at teachers, multipliers and facilitators in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and aims to promote interdisciplinary approaches, with a view to the transversality of environmental education. In the new context of a post-COVID-19 health emergency world, this approach becomes more relevant and necessary to achieve a better vision and understanding of the relationships between humans and nature; between societies, cultures and with the ecosystems on which they depend. In the chapters that make up this publication, an approach is proposed through a methodological proposal for reflection and action, the Interdisciplinary Roundtables for Environmental Education towards Sustainability, whose main objective is to strengthen and complement the environmental education processes that are carried out both in educational centers and in community groups, from an interdisciplinary, transversal perspective and with systemic thinking.

Why Climate Change Matters for Human Security Year of publication: 2022 Author: Janani Vivekananda Corporate author: United Nations University | United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) This paper outlines the state of knowledge regarding security risks related to climate change, synthesizing the existing scientific evidence to set out five broad pathways of risk. Climate change itself is rarely a direct cause of conflict. Yet, there is ample evidence that its effects exacerbate important drivers and contextual factors of conflict and fragility, thereby challenging the stability of states and societies. Climate change impacts such as coral bleaching, diversity loss, and erratic rainfall can stress livelihoods and drive displacement, increase resource conflicts, and challenge the security and stability of people and states worldwide. Managing these security risks requires action across the entire impact chain: work to mitigate climate change; reducing its consequences on ecosystems; adapting socioeconomic systems; better management of climate-induced heightened resource competition; and strengthening governance and conflict management institutions. And every dimension of the response must be conflict-sensitive and climate proof. Without the right responses, climate change will mean more fragility, less peace and less security. But this paper sets out illustrative examples of how, with a greater understanding of how climate change interacts with social, political, economic and environmental drivers of conflict and fragility, we will be better placed to make the kind of risk-informed decisions is integral to achieving international peace and security.

Climate change starter's guidebook: an issues guide for education planners and practitioners Year of publication: 2011 Author: Alejandro Deeb | Amber French | Julia Heiss | Jason Jabbour | Dominique LaRochelle | Arkadiy Levintanus | Anna Kontorov | Rummukainen Markku | Gerardo Sanchez Martinez | Rosalyn McKeown | Nicolay Paus | Antoine Pecoud | Guillaume Pénisson | Daniel Puig | Vanessa Retana | Serban Scrieciu | Morgan Strecker | Vimonmas Vachatimanont | Benjamin Witte | Noriko Yamada. Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) The Climate Change Starter’s Guide provides an introduction and overview for education planners and practitioners on the wide range of issues relating to climate change and climate change education, including causes, impacts, mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as some broad political and economic principles. The aim of this guide is to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education into school curricula. It has been created to enable education planners and practitioners to understand the issues at hand, to review and analyse their relevance to particular national and local contexts, and to facilitate the development of education policies, curricula, programmes and lesson plans. The guide covers four major thematic areas: 1. the science of climate change, which explains the causes and observed changes; 2. the social and human aspects of climate change including gender, health, migration, poverty and ethics; 3. policy responses to climate change including measures for mitigation and adaptation; and 4. education approaches including education for sustainable development, disaster reduction and sustainable lifestyles. A selection of key resources in the form of publication titles or websites for further reading is provided after each of the thematic sections. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provides its expertise and know-how in areas such as education, culture, and the social sciences. In particular, UNESCO emphasises the role of education in support of climate change adaptation and mitigation in providing skills and capacities but also through shaping the values, attitudes and behaviours needed to put the world on a more sustainable path. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) works with countries to strengthen their ability to adapt to climate change, move towards low-carbon growth, reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, improve understanding of climate science, and raise public awareness of the changing climate. UNEP is supporting countries to seize the opportunities of moving towards low-carbon growth, while improving human health and well-being, generating green jobs and moving towards a green economy. With this publication, the two organizations have embarked on a collaboration on climate change education that we are committed to building upon and expanding in the period ahead.

YouthXchange: green skills and lifestyles guidebook Year of publication: 2016 Author: Ryder. Guy, Steiner. Achim Corporate author: UNESCO | United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | UNESCO. Director-General, 2009-2017 (Bokova, I.G.) The YouthXchange Green Skills and Lifestyles Guidebook fills this gap. Developed by UNEP and UNESCO, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), this Guidebook helps young people connect the talk about the green economy, green societies and green jobs to theirlifestyles. It focuses on the skills required to make these transitions – providing case studies and insight on green jobs and the skills they will require in terms of social innovation and entrepreneurship, the role of different stakeholders (government and private sector) and life skills. Young men and women are already driving change across the world. We must provide them with the skills they need to create new lifestyles and develop green jobs. Building a green future must start with training and education. It must start by listening to young people, by engaging their creativity and acting together.

YouthXchange guidebook series: climate change and lifestyles Year of publication: 2011 Author: Adam Cade | Rob Bowden Corporate author: UNESCO | United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Climate Change and Lifestyles is the first in a series of guidebooks supporting the UNESCO/ UNEP YouthXchange (YXC) Initiative, which was created in 2001 to promote sustainable lifestyles among youth (15-24 years) through education, dialogue, awareness raising and capacity building. The series is being produced for young people and people working with youth, such as educators, teachers, trainers and youth leaders in both developed and developing countries. Almost half of the world’s population is under the age of 25, and nearly 90 per cent of them live in developing countries. Youth is a critical stakeholder in the global economy and will be the main actor and motor for change in the near future. Thus, the energy, motivation and creativity of youth are essential assets to stimulating change. Aims of the YXC Guidebook on Climate Change and Lifestyles: • Explore the links between lifestyles and climate change; • Help young people consider the actions they should take towards more sustainable lifestyles; • Support courses and actions that promote greater understanding of climate change and lifestyles among youth. The guidebook: • Considers the causes and effects of climate change and its human impacts and responses, while connecting them to lifestyle choices and the technical and social infrastructures of a society; • Provides scientific, political, economic, social, ethical and cultural perspectives on climate change; • Explains complex issues in accessible language supported by facts, graphics, images, examples and web links; • Develops the critical skills young people need to make personal choices to address the challenges of climate change.

OzonAction Education Pack: A Guide for Primary School Teachers Year of publication: 2006 Author: Fabienne Pierre Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) This education pack contains an entire teaching and learning programme, based on basic knowledge, practical skills and participation, for students to learn about concrete and simple solutions to protect the ozone layer and safely enjoy the sun.