The 2014 World Day to Combat Desertification global observance event focused on the theme of ecosystem-based adaptation, with a rallying call “Land Belongs to the Future – Let’s Climate Proof It.” Approximately 400 representatives from government, intergovernmental and civil society organizations (CSOs) registered for the event, which took place on Tuesday, 17 June 2014, at World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, US. The event was also webcast, and speakers responded to questions from a global audience. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) organized the event, which was hosted by the World Bank in partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), TerrAfrica and Connect4Climate.

On the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the UNCCD, speakers at the global observance event considered the requirements for ecosystem-based adaptation to address issues related to desertification, land degradation and drought as well as shared successful cases of combating desertification in drylands. Keynote speakers discussed national efforts, and panelists presented research and lessons learned to address land degradation and foster adaptation and resilience. Two short films were screened, demonstrating additional projects and lessons learned. The Land for Life award winners were also announced. This briefing note summarizes the event’s proceedings.

When Connect 4Climate asked me to speak at the Alcantara Dialogues during Milan Design Week, I jumped at the chance. After all, this was likely to be an audience made up of highly creative people, not the usual crowd of hard-core environmentalists and policy wonks that often participate in such discussions. Several years ago, my dear friend Dragan Klaic – a leading figure in the European theater and culture community who passed away in 2011 – gave me some very good advice. He said that the arguments of environmentalists would not be enough to generate the kind of public mandate needed to address climate change. It’s the culture community, he said – musicians, performers, artists – that will reach people at an emotional level, and help them ’feel’ what climate change is all about.

Today’s youth have been dealt a deadly hand when it comes to the environment and our aging Mother Earth. They must live in a world where the generations before them have polluted the ground they walk on, the oceans that surround them and the air they breath. While some still deny the reality of global warming, climate change is inevitable due to the tremendous increases in carbon dioxide emissions into our atmosphere.

The burning of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) have grown more rapidly between 2000 and 2010 then they have in previous decades. The time to act is long overdue and many are calling for a global consortium to address this growing, toxic concern.

When Cyclone Pam arrived in the south Pacific Ocean bringing destruction, devastation, and new levels of anxiety to those it affected, I thought it was wrong to sit by and do nothing. I decided to use my business, Five Boys Clothing, as a mechanism for good.

I am half I-Kiribati (the term used to describe a person from the country of Kiribati) and still have relatives living in the far-flung, low-lying beautiful island of Kiribati and across the Pacific.

In the past few weeks, I and others from the I-Kiribati community have found it increasingly difficult to establish good communication channels with our families in Kiribati. What we have heard consistently over the past few months is that the “king tides” that naturally occur at this time of year have been the biggest that anyone who lives in the Oceana region have ever been known.

The author, Sophia Walsh (middle of the second row from the top), at age eight, with her family.
In accordance with I-Kiribati tradition the extended family mostly live as a Kainga – all the siblings live together, with their children and grandchildren, and now great grandchildren. Walsh now lives in England.

Because of Kiribati's geography, any small changes in sea level can have an enormous effect.

Kiribati is composed of three archipelagos in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Together, they span an area greater than the United States. Straddling the equator, Kiribati is the only nation in the world to have land in both the Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern Hemispheres. With the sole exception of one raised atoll, no where in Kiribati is more than two meters above the sea level.

The Tarawa atoll, capital of the republic of Kiribati. Credit: Mark Tranchant

Freak high tides creep up and across the island, spilling into ground-level wells and contaminating the water.

Due to the low lying position of the atolls of Kiribati, small changes in weather conditions have a big effect. Severe changes in weather conditions have a disastrous effect.  Global warming is causing severe and consistent damage to the islands, particularly with fresh water supplies because the rise in sea levels causes increased salinity in the ground water.

My family has one well that hasn't been contaminated, but there are many families in the Pacific region that are not so fortunate.

This week, Connect4Climates partner Sustainia announced their top-10 sustainability innovations for 2015. The 10 projects and technologies are the finalists for the Sustainia Award, an international honor that identifies and celebrates groundbreaking sustainability solutions from all over the world.

An Award Committee, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger, including Christiana Figueres, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Rajendra K. Pachauri and Connie Hedegaard, will now review the finalists. The solutions come from 9 different countries and cover everything from new ways of financing climate mitigation projects in cities, leasing models for baby clothes, citizen engagement projects for energy consumption and solar rechargeable hearing aids.

The winning solution will be presented on December 6th at an evening filled with inspiration and bold statements, during the UNFCCC COP21 climate conference in Paris. Under the theme of Leaders of a Sustainable World, Unite! Sustainia, the UN Global Compact, Connect4Climate, the World Banks global partnership program, and many partners are collaborating to present climate and sustainability solutions that will power up the evening.

Besides a winning solution chosen by the Sustainia Award Committee, you can also be a part of the selection process. Starting this week, everyone can vote his or her favorite innovation among the 10 nominees. The finalist with the most public votes will bring home the Sustainia Community Award. Read about the 10 finalists at: sustainia.me/cop21.

The public choice winner will also be announced in Paris on December 6th. With the newly ratified Sustainable Development Goals and the negotiations for a new binding climate agreement at COP21, its enough with the talk and all about action. Lets support the solutions already available to us vote your favorite.

These solutions, initiatives and technologies already making a direct impact on the ground, are already now working in the market and will be needed in a world defined by climate change no matter the outcome of COP21. The Award Ceremony in Paris will gather innovators and performers from around the world to celebrate solutions for a clean resilient tomorrow.

The opportunities presented by the climate challenge will be highlighted. Innovations in the fashion, film and food industries will be announced, as will progress for sustainable cities. It will be an evening to celebrate a climate-friendly sustainable future. Join in the transition to a new economy, driven by sustainability solutions.

During an intensive sociology course over winter break, thirty students from U.S. colleges and universities took part in a workshop organized by the Connect4Climate group at the World Bank headquarters. The students came from many disciplines, and from all over the world. Few had any kind of a background in climate change issues. Here are some of their impressions of Connect4Climates mission and, in particular, the Sport4Climate initiative. The workshop occured on January 15 2015 to celebrate the launch of Action/2015, a global movement of thousands of organizations, coalitions and partnerships that reflect the diversity of injustice, inequalities, poverty and climate change all over the world.

Last December I was one of the lucky six chosen by the University Centre for Development Cooperation (Brussels) to attend the second week of the biggest climate change event of the year: the COP18. I was so looking forward to experience a U.N. international conference from close-by.

This time the 18th Conference of the Parties took place in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Isnt it ironic that the country with the highest ecological footprint per capita on earth, hosts a conference on climate change?

The first couple of days went by quite fast. I was impressed by the size and the organization of such an event. The Qatar National Convention Centre (where the COP was held) is huge: it hosted about 30,000 people (delegates, visitors, journalists, members of NGOs and volunteers). At least I got to stay fit from walking a couple of kilometers a day!

The real negotiations were not opened to observers like me, but there were plenty of side-events I was allowed in, like press conferences and information panels. Some very interesting topics were discussed, like sustainable energy resources, food security, impact of climate change on indigenous groups, etc.

I also attended a couple of actions organized by NGOs. I got the chance to interact with young people from all over the world, people who really care about the climate and would do a lot to try to save it. It was very inspiring to hear their point of view, to see how driven they were. It was also touching to see how, by the end of the COP, they had lost all hope for this COP: they realized there would be no ambitious climate agreement this year. Despite this, they were more determined than ever to keep on fighting for the climate, and to organize many more actions back home to make people realize that climate change is an urgent matter: we cannot afford to wait another ten years. Time is running out Werent typhoon Bopha and hurricane Sandy recent proof of this?

Talking to them was what made me understand that waiting for a global, ambitious agreement is not an option anymore. Maybe it is time for usthe civil societyto take action, instead of waiting for politicians to do so: a so - called bottom - up approach to fight climate change instead of ineffective climate negotiations.

Unexpectedly, attending the COP18 has radically changed my views on what seems to be the best way to tackle climate change. All over the globe, climate action movements are growing.  Thousands, maybe millions of people are ready to act. They are hopeful that together we can build a worldwide movement of solidarity and that we have the potential to actually make a change if we cooperate.  I too am now convinced of this.

More experiences of the 6 students at the COP18 can be read at the UCOS @ COP 18 blog.  

When I was working as a journalist in Peru in 1999, I saw the devastation of the 1997-98 El Nio first hand. Heading north from Lima, the flood damage to homes was clearly visible. Large sections of road were cut off by landslides, buildings were turned to rubble and cultivated fields were laid to waste.

Rising sea surface temperatures suggest that another El Nio is on its way. The UN's weather agency, the World Meteorological Organisation, says there is a 60% chance of it starting before September this year. An El Nio event usually happens every five years, but a severe one hits every 15 to 20 years. We are due for another.

The El Nio Southern Oscillation, to give it its full title, is characterised by higher water temperatures in equatorial regions of the Pacific Ocean, which leads to changes in wind patterns. This has widespread effects, from higher-than-normal rainfall in the Americas, to droughts in India and Australia, to heavy snowfall in the UK. If a severe El Nio hits this year it would bring heavy rainfall to South America in December. Much needs to be done to protect lives and livelihoods, and the next four months are critical.

In Peru, local governments have identified flood control channels and embankment projects that would help minimise losses. A recent report published by UNDP and ODI says local governments should come up with their own risk management projects and seek support to implement them. But national government bureaucracy in Peru is holding things up. In the border province of Piura, 115 small projects have been identified to prevent flooding and landslides, but none have received funding yet, and local officials are getting nervous. There are even calls for the National Public Investment System to relax its rules to allow projects to start immediately.

In neighbouring Ecuador there are problems that may take longer to fix. Disaster risks are not addressed in 90% of Ecuadors municipal development plans, said a source in a provincial planning department. This means that buildings keep going up in high-risk areas.

Despite these issues, much has changed in South America since 1998. I would expect the impact of a severe El Nio to be less damaging. Banks across South America are in better financial shape this year to deal with the costs than in the past, according to Moody's Investors Service. Over the last decade, economic growth, poverty reduction and disaster risk governance reforms have made Peru and Ecuador more resilient to climate extremes. At the Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas last month, Ecuador's Minister of Defence, Mara Fernanda Espinosa, spoke of "constant improvements in practices, laws and standards for risk reduction".

Scientists now know a lot more about El Nio and can give advance warning of the kind of event that is expected. I spoke to UNDP Perus Alfredo Zerga, who said that a great deal can be done to prepare for a severe El Nio now. Families can find out if their home is in a flood-prone area as all local governments have risk maps, and they can identify points that are higher than the surrounding topography. These actions will certainly help save lives.

So how will South America fare when the next severe El Nio hits? Thanks to strong economic performance, political will and decentralisation of risk management, we have come a long way since 1999. But populations are still at risk and urgent action is needed.

In Luca Florez's Action4Climate documentary Back to Paoyhan, a shipibo shaman visits his home community in the Peruvian Amazon after the flood.

Watch below.

[video:https://vimeo.com/95548021]

A commuter walking on Sandton's West Street, half of which has been closed to cars. Credit: Simphiwe Nkwali (City of Johannesburg)

Johannesburg may be a city built on the profits of gold, but Mpho Parks Tau, Mayor of South Africa’s largest city, has a green dream. His dream is to make “public transport, walking and cycling more accessible, safe, attractive and cool.”

"For our economy to grow and flourish, we need to decongest our roads and have fewer people spending time in their cars stuck in traffic," he said at the launch of Africa’s first EcoMobility World Festival on Oct.4.

During the festival, Sandton central business district–also known as Africa’s richest square mile–is partially closed to private cars and converted into an ecomobile zone, not just for a car-free day as in Paris, but the entire month. Leading by example, the dynamic 45-year old mayor encourages the city’s 4.8 million residents to go ecomobile as well and "show that is possible for the residents of Joburg to break away from the habit of using private vehicles."

Transport accounts for 31% of South Africa’s energy consumption and 16% of its CO2 emissions. A relevant share of it comes from transport in urban areas. The promotion of ecomobility, which means prioritizing walking, cycling, public transport and shared mobility, is a key part of the city’s action on climate change, air pollution and social inequalities.

The city’s forward-thinking initiative puts Johannesburg on the world map of city-driven climate change action. The opening of a new bike path between Sandton and the township of Alexandra and the “Streets Alive – Jozi W-R-1” parade underlined the link between ecomobility and social inclusion.

“Cycling should become a way of life, our municipalities must become sustainable,” said South Africa’s Transport Minister Dipuo Peters, announcing further national policies in support of ecomobility. South Africa is not only Africa’s largest economy, but also the continent’s biggest polluter, ranking among the 15 largest CO2 emitters worldwide.

“We contribute to climate change systematically through carbon emissions, and the reliance by Joburg commuters on single-passenger vehicles is an inefficiency we must confront,” Mayor Parks Tau declared in his State of the City address in May.

Johannesburg's Executive Mayor Parks Tau (with green helmet) amongst riders of bicycles and other ecomobility vehicles heading off from Sandton CBD, Adfrica's richest square mile, to the low-income township of Alexandra. Credit: Simphiwe Nkwali (City of Johannesburg)

[video:https://vimeo.com/106893756]

 

Connect4Climate joined the People's Climate March with Rachel Kyte, former Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change at the World Bank Group.

Days before world leaders gathered at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, the People’s Climate March inspired more than half a million people to participate in public demonstrations. “Action, Not Words,” was the core message of marches and solidarity events worldwide, calling for leaders to take ambitious and immediate action to mitigate climate change.

166 countries

2,808 solidarity events

630,000+ social media posts about the NYC march alone

600,000+ people marching