New York, NY--Straight from the mind of “The March of the Penguins” creator comes a project you should definitely investigate. Luc Jacquet, the director and writer behind the informative, jaw-dropping, and downright adorable Oscar-winning film about Antarctica’s most famous residents, has envisioned and created a way for students—and students-at-heart—to learn about climate change in a way he can best teach it—through gorgeous film shot around the world.

Jacquet has created a multimedia project through his nonprofit Wild-Touch NGO. Called Ice & the Sky, it offers something for people of all ages curious about how our planet’s temperatures are changing – videos, animated films, storyboard diagrams, and interviews with leading scientists.“We have to break the walls between science, entertainment, and education and bring them all together.” All elements on the website can be used as teaching material, or viewed solo. 

We hosted Oscar-winning director Luc Jacquet (March of the Penguins) and his Wild-Touch team in our offices before the first screening in the United States of his latest film, Ice & the Sky. We're exploring ways to work together to tackle climate change.

Jacquet’s latest film, “Ice & the Sky,” focuses on French glaciologist Claude Lorius, who began researching in Antarctica in 1957 when he as 23. After 32 expeditions to frozen continent, the 82-year-old now looks back at his work—told through amazing archival footage—particularly at his breakthrough discovery of measuring carbon bubbles in ice, which reveal temperatures when they were formed. A collection of ice cores allowed the researchers to see the changes in temperatures throughout the ice ages and warmer periods, demonstrating that in the last 100 years, mankind’s role in releasing greenhouse gases has significantly altered the planet’s climate. Lorius was one of the first scientists to talk about global warming. “Ice & the Sky” closed the renowned Cannes film festival this year, and received a standing ovation nearly 10 minutes long.

Connect4 Climate was lucky enough to attend the first U.S. screening, held on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Jacquet spoke after the film, emphasizing his quest to help the younger generation understand what is happening and help them find solutions: “My duty is to do something for the planet. If everyone does something within their own professions we can move quickly.” Jacquet says his contribution to the climate movement is through the storytelling mechanism he knows best—film.

We will be sharing more details of Jacquet's exciting efforts soon. Stay tuned!

A iniciativa do Banco Mundial, Connect4Climate, junta-se à multiplataforma de entretenimento da Sony Pictures Television, Crackle, e à Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, para lançar o "Projeto Crackle Green", uma série de cinco curtas-metragens disponível na plataforma online brasileira da Crackle. Com o objectivo de promover o talento dos estudantes de cinema do Brasil e consciencializar a população sobre o meio ambiente e a sustentabilidade, a Crackle financiou cinco curtas-metragens apresentadas pelos alunos de cinema da UFF. Este é o primeiro passo para uma iniciativa global.

Um comité composto pela equipa de programação da Crackle e figuras internacionalmente reconhecidas da indústria do cinema, tais como o realizador Fernando Meirelles e os actores Alessandra Negrini e Rodrigo Santoro, selecionou os argumentos para as curtas. Segundo o realizador nomeado pela Academia, Fernando Meirelles, “O Projeto Crackle Green é uma oportunidade única para jovens cineastas se envolverem na defesa do ambiente e ajudarem a alterar os mecanismos de produção actuais da indústria cinematográfica.”

O Projeto Crackle Green pretende motivar o público a adoptar uma atitude mais consciente em relação às questões ambientais. As curtas-metragens (três documentários e duas ficções) abordam questões como as práticas do consumo sustentável, a preservação ambiental e o transporte sustentável.

“Crackle assenta numa intersecção entre media, entretenimento e conteúdo original de elevada qualidade. É um prazer ser parceiro da Universidade Federal Fulminense, da iniciativa do Banco Mundial, Connect4Climate, e do Departamento de Sustentabilidade da Sony Pictures Entertainment no lançamento de uma iniciativa de consciencialização ambiental que alia cinema, educação e tecnologia para um bem maior”, afirma José Rivera Font, GM & VP, América Latina Digital Networks da Sony Pictures Television. “Crackle é o meio perfeito para transmitir uma mensagem poderosa através de mais de quinze diferentes plataformas para a audiência brasileira, convidando-os a participar nos nossos esforços e juntos fazermos a diferença”.

“Segundo o nosso presidente, Jim Yong Kim, ‘Nunca acabaremos com a pobreza se não combatermos as alterações climáticas’”, afirma Lucia Grenna, Directora do Programa Connect4Climate. “O Connect4Climate pretende promover uma discussão que conduza à acção na luta contra as alterações climáticas e à criação de  um movimento global. Com mais de 180 parceiros em todo o mundo a trabalhar em conjunto para alcançar as mais diversas audiências e resultados tangíveis, o Connect4Climate integra-se perfeitamente nesta iniciativa única. Contamos dar o máximo de visibilidade às curtas-metragens, levando vozes locais a uma audiência global”.

A forte presença da Crackle e as suas  aplicações gratuitas facilitam o acesso da população brasileira através de dispositivos móveis, smart TVs e internet pelo site http://www.crackle.com.br As pl.ataformas incluem Google Chrome, Google TV, Sony Bravia TV, Samsung TV, LG TV e os seus dispositivos Blu-Ray, Apple TV, PS3, PS4, XBOX 360, XBOX One, Windows 8, Blackberry, iOS, Android e Kindle Fire.

The Nordic Climate Facility (NCF) is holding a call for proposals for "Innovative low-cost climate solutions with a focus on local business development in eligible developing countries." If you have a an innovative idea or solution to climate change that you are working on and live in one of the low-income countries listed, then this is your opportunity to apply for funding.

Grant financing of up to EUR 500 000 can be granted to partnerships between relevant Nordic (i.e. Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland) institutions, organisations, companies, authorities and qualified local Partners in low-income countries.

Countries eligible for the grant financing programme include:  Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe; Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam; Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua.

This and other "green" funding competitions offer an opportunity to low-income countries to jump-start green economies. The best thing about this call for proposals is that it offers innovators in these low-income countries an opportunity to partner with Nordic climate specialists for knowledge transfer. So your idea doesn't have to be fully-baked, just viable enough to peek the interest of specialists who would want to help your bring it to fruition. So you get the money and mentoring from experienced practitioners in the field.

So get you thinking caps on, cook up some great low-cost solutions to climate change and apply for a piece of the EUR 500,000. You never know, your idea just might be the one they are looking to fund. Good luck.

Architecture surrounds us. We spend most of our time living in man-made surroundings and artificial landscapes. Therefore, we feel there is immense hidden impact architecture can make. Seen from this angle, architecture becomes a powerful social tool to significantly raise human living conditions and living standards with the objectives of sustainability, equality, dignity, and humanity.

Our aim is to reduce the gap between universities, professional associations, and those working in the field of architecture. We focus mainly on the topics of global architecture and sustainability, and are predominantly engaged in social projects in the non-profit sector.

Our current project, the Nkɔsoɔ House (which means "growth"), started as a submission to an architectural design competition offered by a partner organization, the Nka Foundation. The concept of the competition was to reinvent the African Mud Hut in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Our response focuses on demonstrating the forgotten potential of using earth for construction. We want to create a showcase for the grandeur of mud construction, to combat the stigma of mud as a poor building material, and to bring dignity back to ecological, vernacular design.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, buildings are responsible for 38% of all human greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other industry.  As such, we as architects, feel it is important to rethink our current construction practices and create a movement of change to alter how we build and therefore, how we live.

Low-carbon buildings, such as ours, are designed specifically with the reduction of greenhouse gases in mind. This refers not just to emissions during construction (including the transportation and manufacture of materials), but also during its use (heating, cooling, waste management), during renovations and repairs, and when the building needs to be demolished (the reuse, recycling of its materials).

The Nkɔsoɔ House will be built by hand using mud and earth found at on site, combined with other materials such as wood for framing, and metal roofing purchased from local vendors from the area. This reduces reliance on fossil fuels for long-distance transportation and heavy machinery during construction. For cooling, the building uses, thermal mass, shading and natural ventilation, and once the house is no longer in use, the bulk of the building materials can either be reused or returned safely back to the earth.

The Ashanti Region has a long history of earthen construction, but this tradition is getting lost due to a misconception of the material and lack of skilled tradesmen. A declining knowledge of sturdy, earth construction often leads to poorly built buildings which further tarnish the image of earth as the valuable material it can be. Although it is estimated that nearly half of the population of the world lives in buildings constructed from earth, it still carries a stigma associated with it - that it is a fragile material, meant only for poor, rural communities. It is easily recognizable to see in many rural areas - as villagers increase their incomes, their housing types change from simple earthen structures, to fired brick or concrete block. Also visible, is the toll this takes on their surrounding communities: most tellingly deforestation and pollution.

By means of an international workshop to build the Nkɔsoɔ House, we are attempting to stimulate the local architecture and the local economy by providing a case study house for capacity building in the local community. Bringing together people from different countries, cultures, levels of knowledge, and backgrounds, we strive to provide a platform to create international experiences and to build a network (both professional and non-professional) beyond borders.

We aim to raise awareness of two types of low energy intensive building techniques: rammed earth and sun dried adobe brick. Rammed earth construction involves compressing a mixture of damp clay, sand, and gravel into a removable formwork. The mixture is poured in to the formwork in layers and then compacted using manual or machine driven tampers. Adobe, one of the earliest known materials used all over the world, refers to a mixture of earth (sand, silt, and clay) and an organic fiber such as straw. Generally, the mixture is pressed into a brick form and then out in the sun to dry. We will be using a manually powered compression block machine to form our bricks. This will help keep the bricks uniform in size and almost doubles their compression strength.

In addition to using low energy construction techniques, we have optimized our design for the local climate using building orientation, shading, wall construction that uses the solar chimney effect, and a double layer roof design that allows for increased air circulation. Rammed earth construction has the benefit of high thermal mass (it absorbs heat during the day and releases it at night) to help cool the building, and can effectively control humidity.

Our workshop will have an impact on several levels:

1. Economically, it highlight local community building materials and building techniques at hand that allow for improved living standards without huge financial investments.
2. Ecologically, the case study house embodies a model building constructed out of local, natural, and renewable materials. By optimizing the building layout for the climatic context, it helps to reduce energy consumption and increase interior comfort.
3. Socially, the case study house translates traditional building techniques into contemporary architecture giving people dignity and vision, by negating the stigma of mud as a building material for the poor.

Combining international participants and involving members of the local community, the workshop helps to bring people together and fosters international understanding, as well as sharing ideas and knowledge about modern earthen construction techniques.

Taken as a whole, the project on hand embodies a comprehensive sustainability approach providing a social, ecological and economical response to local needs and local potentials.

RAUMGESCHICHTEN e.V. is a newly formed, non-profit organization working in the field of international urbanism and social architecture. We are a group of 10 members of various educational backgrounds from Germany, Egypt, India, and USA who all share a strong commitment to sustainable global architecture.

To learn more about our project, visit our blog at http://raumgeschichten.blogspot.de/. If you'd like to help support our project financially, please go to www.betterplace.org/p31124

The report, Hearth and Hiraeth: Constructing Climate Change Narratives around National Identity draws on the findings of a major programme led by Connect4Climate's partner COIN for the Welsh Government. This programme developed language and narratives that could work with all social groups and be applied in all its communications.

The two-year programme built on the latest research into climate change attitudes and a detailed analysis of cultural values. It conducted rigorous testing of messages in groups that had been recruited according to a values-based segmentation model. It is one of the first programmes in the world to apply the research into values-based climate communications across an entire country.

[video:https://vimeo.com/98563072]

 

Roughly one person every second is displaced by a climate- or weather-related disaster and in the last six years, 140.5 million people - two percent of the Earth’s population - has been displaced by such disasters alone. With millions of people forced to move each year by rapid-onset climate-related hazards and slow-onset environmental degradation, social well-being, human rights, economies and even state stability are at risk.

To coincide with UN Human Rights Day, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is highlighting the need for climate change to be viewed through a human rights lens. Climate change is magnifying the existing vulnerabilities of affected communities and eroding their capacity to cope with change. The global community is failing to provide the protection, assistance and access to durable solutions that those on the frontlines of climate change require and deserve.

In a new report released today, ‘Falling through the Cracks’, the EJF examines the various legal and policy frameworks governing climate-induced displacement at the international level. EJF has found that the ‘protection gap’ is more like a series of holes - suggesting the need for a new global framework, which is broad in scope and sensitive to the needs of multiple populations of concern.

Earth To Paris, a coalition of partners helping to drive awareness about the connection between people and planet as well as the need for strong climate action, announced it will host “Earth To Paris—Le Hub” a two-day, high-impact, live-streamed summit on 7 and 8 December in Paris during COP21 — the United Nations climate conference to deliver a new universal climate change agreement.

Earth To Paris—Le Hub will provide the opportunity for cross-sector, solutions-oriented engagement in climate change conversations around COP21; a platform for amplifying the conversation across social and digital media; and series of activations through inspiring calls to take bold, meaningful action to address climate change. Experts, advocates, CEOs, and other leaders in Paris will discuss creative and impactful solutions to climate change, while participants around the world take part through multi-language livestreamed video and real-time interactions across multiple social media platforms using the unifying hashtag #EarthToParis.

A unique mix of speakers will share their visions for the future. The first tranche of speakers-- with more to come--includes:

•     Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris
•     Helen Clark, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
•     Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF
•     Irina Bokova, Director-General, UNESCO
•     Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Prime Minister of Norway; Special Envoy, United Nations; Deputy Chair, The Elders; Board Member, United Nations Foundation
•     Esther Agbarakwe, Digital story-teller and +SocialGood Advisor
•     Dr. Paul Bunje, ‎Senior Director of Oceans, XPRIZE Foundation
•     Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, United Nations Foundation
•     Rocky Dawuni, Singer, songwriter, Ambassador for United Nations Foundation-hosted Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
•     Dr. Sylvia Earle, Marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
•     Andrew Freedman, Science editor, Mashable
•     Livia Firth, Film producer; Executive producer, The True Cost
•     Blanca Juti, Chief Brand Officer, Rovio Entertainment Ltd.
•     Dr. Jane Goodall, Primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist; United Nations Messenger of Peace
•     Runa Khan, Executive Director, Friendship Bangladesh
•     Ismaël le Mouël, Co-founder & President at HelloAsso; Founder, Social Good Week Paris; +SocialGood Advisor
•     Anne-Sophie Novel, Economist, journalist, and organizer of Place to B COP 21
•     Dr. M. Sanjayan, Conservation scientist, writer, and Emmy-nominated television news contributor
•     Max Schorr, Co-Founder and Director, GOOD Magazine
•     Jakob Trollbäck, Founder, Trollbäck + Company
•     Ted Turner, Founder and Chairman of United Nations Foundation and Turner Enterprises, Inc.
•     Timothy E. Wirth, Former United States Senator; Vice Chair, United Nations Foundation Board of Directors

COP21 is an extraordinary opportunity for the international community to rise to meet the threat of climate change. With the world recently adopting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a new set of global goals to end poverty in all its forms, fight inequalities and tackle climate change by 2030, Earth to Paris—Le Hub is primed to capture and build on the desire for leaders, businesses, organizations and individuals from the world to come together and call for real change.

The first day of Earth To Paris—Le Hub, 7 December, will convene at the Petit Palais in partnership with the City of Paris, and the second day, 8 December, will be held at UNESCO headquarters.

More information, including background and partner information and a live-stream of Earth to Paris—Le Hub, can be found at www.EarthToParis.org. Download the overview page.

The authors explore the many successful strategies and measures for climate resilience and low carbon development that communities and leaders have pursued at the subnational level. They draw on the rich and practical experiences of CDKN’s project partners and the broader ICLEI network.

They argue that the battle for climate compatible development will be won or lost in provinces, districts and cities. There are distinct challenges at subnational level– for example, future climate data for local and subnational levels is more uncertain than at larger scales, and subnational decision-makers face intense local pressure to act on the negative impacts of climate extremes and disasters. There are also unique opportunities. Subnational decision-makers often have a sound understanding of climate trends in their area, based on first-hand experience and local and indigenous knowledge. They have a good sense of solutions that are effective in the local context and they have the ability to mobilise local resources for implementation, including people’s time and knowledge.

Effective strategies for subnational climate compatible development respond to these challenges and build on these opportunities. Such strategies:

● use flexible modes of decision-making available at the subnational level to go beyond national mandates for climate compatible development and to innovate solutions.

● raise the awareness of climate ‘champions’ in subnational government and bolster their climate leadership.

● build a strong case for action through effective, locally relevant communications about climate change impacts and the benefits of low-carbon, climate-resilient development.

● mobilise local expertise and support including in-kind resources, and forge alliances among civil society, businesses, researchers (including climate scientists), government decision-makers and civil servants.

● secure additional resources from outside the locality where necessary.

CDKN’s and ICLEI’s programme experience demonstrates that these strategies yield promising results at the subnational level. However, the scale of the global climate challenge is huge. Alone, individual subnational initiatives do not achieve enough. It will take a global transformation in the way that society approaches development if we are to achieve a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. Successful subnational climate compatible strategies must be rapidly scaled up and scaled out to meet this challenge.

The paper will be launched at CDKN’s session ‘Tackling Poverty and Climate Change in Cities‘ at the World Urban Forum in Medellin, Colombia on 10 April 2014.

Download the full copy of the paper: Close to home: Subnational strategies for climate compatible development.

Twenty-three African experts, including academics and journalists, took time to review the UNESCO publication entitled “Reporting on Climate Change in Africa: A Practical Guide for Journalists”. The Connect4Climate Visualising A Warming World Africa maps designed by Laura Canali have been reproduced in the publication.

According to Fackson Banda, programme specialist at UNESCO Headquarters, “The publication is meant to contribute towards developing transnational and interdisciplinary climate literacy among media professionals and especially journalists, in an attempt to demystify efforts at climate change mitigation and adaptation”.

The review workshop on the publication brought together various African experts from Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Co-authored by the International Institute for Environment and Development and INTERNEWS, the manuscript stimulated intense debate focused on the “interdisciplinary” basis of climate change knowledge, and how it could be appropriated by journalists in the “African” context.

The publication responds to a very real need in African journalists’ reporting of the complex phenomenon of climate change. Climate change poses a clear danger to lives and livelihoods across Africa. Journalists there have critical roles to play in explaining the cause and effects of climate change, in describing what countries and communities can do to adapt to the impacts ahead, and in reporting on what governments and companies do, or do not do, to respond to these threats.

Yet research on public understanding of climate change and surveys of journalists reveal that across Africa the media can and should do more to tell the story of climate change. UNESCO produced this book to help fill this important gap.

The authors of this guide represent the organizations that have trained hundreds of journalists around the world to report more effectively on climate change. They consulted 44 journalists from 17 African countries and 38 climate-change specialists, who provided their insights into what was missing from African media coverage and how this book should help to fill those gaps.

The publication is available on UNESCO's website and on our climate resources page

 

Climate Change is one of the most important challenges facing the world in this century in all the four dimensions of sustainable development (ecological, economic, social and cultural). Europe takes a leading role in the necessary response to these challenges. Severe impacts are unavoidable and European adaptation strategies must be supported by a coherent base of knowledge on its key vulnerabilities and response options. Such a base can only be generated by European, national and regional policy-relevant research.

CIRCLE-2 is focused on the interface between Climate Change science and policy. Through the promotion of networking activities it aims to maximise the degree to which research outcomes address both national and European climate policy needs.

The CIRCLE-2 Climate Adaptation INFOBASE, is a publicly accessible, online database on Climate Adaptation research. The INFOBASE includes relevant information on European research projects funded at national and local levels as well as transnational projects funded within the framework of CIRCLE1 and CIRCLE-2 ERA-Net. The INFOBASE is limited to projects with a completion date subsequent to 2005, and by the end of CIRCLE-2 (set to 2014) it will cover a timeframe of 10 years (2005-2014) of European Climate Adaptation research.

The INFOBASE aims to contribute to the mapping of national, local and transnational CCIVA projects in a larger Europe, as well as other countries that want to contribute. The information at InfoBase will allow to address the fundamental gaps in the understanding of how Climate Adaptation science has evolved over the past decade and to provide policy-makers, the scientific community and research managers, with relevant facts and figures on the larger Europe research landscape on climate change adaptation.

If you are aware of climate adaptation research projects in your country please insert them using the INFOBASE user interface or contact the CIRCLE-2 coordination at circle2infobase@fc.ul.pt