Search

In October 1986, scientists and climatologists were gathered by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the International Council of Scientific Union (ICSU) at an international conference in Villach, Austria, to discuss the problem of anthropogenic interference in the Global Climate System (GCS).

Climate change adaptation is vital for Pacific SIDS. Long-term effects, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events such as high rainfall, droughts, tropical cyclones, and storm surges are affecting the people in this region. Coupled with non-climate drivers, such as inappropriate land use, overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined.

International treaties and national policies seek to enhance global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. While it is important to continue to strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation alone is not enough and will not be felt before the second half of the century. Global warming is already underway and adaptation strategies are now a matter of urgency, especially for the most vulnerable poor countries, which are even now being disproportionately affected.

Available online

Call Number: [EL]

Climate change will have significant impacts in both Australia and across the globe. Australia is one of the most arid continents in the world. It is vulnerable to risks such
as disruptions to water supply; increases in the severity of storms, floods and droughts, coastal erosion due to sea level rise; and to negative human health impacts, for example through an increase in the range and spread of disease.1 The impacts of

The European Commission has recently adopted the Thematic Strategy for soil protection (COM(2006)231 final), with the objective to ensure that Europe's soils remain healthy
and capable of supporting human activities and ecosystems. Climate change is identified as a common element in many soil threats. Therefore the Commission intends to assess the actual contribution of the protection of soil to climate change mitigation and the effects of climate change on soil productivity and the possible depletion of soil organic

This paper outlines a framework for adaptation to climate change for urban areas in low- and middle-income nations that is pro-poor and that enhances the capacity of low-income households and community organizations to contribute to such adaptation.

This paper is concerned with integrating adaptation to climate change with local development in the context of a climate change mitigation project for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. It is argued that integration will enhance locally appropriate and sustainable outcomes necessary for effective forest conservation in the context of rural Vanuatu.

As noted in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, climate change is one of the most important drivers of biodiversity loss" and is projected to further adversely affect the role of
biodiversity as a source of goods and services. The impacts of climate change on biodiversity have been of major concern to the Convention on Biological Diversity since 2002 when, following a request from the Conference of the Parties and the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group was established to carry

Adaptation to climate change is a complex topic that presents a number of challenges. Indeed, one important challenge lies in defining adaptation and understanding the full scope of its implications. Adaptation is currently the topic of numerous studies that offer a range of definitions. The IPCC offers a starting point by providing a broad definition of adaptation: adjustment in natural or human systems to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.

As early as 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the greatest single impact of climate change might be on human migration—with millions of people displaced by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption.3 Since then, successive reports have argued that environmental degradation, and in particular climate change, is poised to become a major driver of population displacement—a crisis in the making.

Available online

Call Number: [EL]

Physical Description: 64 p.

Principles for designing marine protected area (MPA) networks that address social, economic, and biological criteria are well established in the scientific literature. Climate change represents a new and serious threat to marine ecosystems, but, to date, few studies have specifically considered how to design MPA networks to be resilient to this emerging threat. Here, we compile the best available information on MPA network design and

This document outlines the analytical framework for an OECD project on Development and Climate Change. A three-tier framework is also described for the project case studies that will provide a country-level overview of principal climate change impacts and vulnerabilities, followed by an in-depth analysis at a sectoral or regional/local level on how climate responses could be mainstreamed into particular development policies and projects.

The World's oceans play a crucial role for life on the planet.
Healthy seas and the services they provide are key to the future
development of mankind. Our seas are highly dynamic, structured and complex systems. The seafloor consists of vast shelves
and plains with huge mountains, canyons and trenches which
dwarf similar structures on land. Ocean currents transport water
masses many times larger than all rivers on Earth combined.

Available online

Call Number: [EL]

ISBN/ISSN: 978-82-7701-048-9

The human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where over 60 per cent of the world's population, around four billion people, live. Over half of those live near the coast, making them directly vulnerable to sea-level rise. Disruption to the region's water cycle caused by climate change also threatens the security and productivity of the food systems upon which they depend. In acknowledgement, both of the key meetings in 2007 and 2008 to secure a global climate agreement will be in Asia.

Available electronically

Climate Change; Global Warming; Environmental Policy; Social Sciences; Religion; Entertainment; Advertising; Education; Business; Finance; Civil Society; Political Aspects; Recommendations

ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

Call Number: [EL]

ISBN/ISSN: 0-9707882-4-X

Physical Description: 189p.

This report presents the integrated case study for Fiji carried out under an OECD project on Development and Climate Change. The report is structured around a three-tier framework. First, recent climate trends and climate change scenarios for Fiji are assessed, and key sectoral impacts are identified and ranked along multiple indicators to establish priorities for adaptation. Second, donor portfolios are analyzed to examine the proportion of donor activities affected by climate risks.

More is known about birds’ response to climate change to date than for any other animal group, mostly as a result of many species- and location-specific analyses. Yet of the global or international-scale analyses of biodiversity and climate change, very few concentrate on birds in particular. This review seeks to provide a global survey of the climate threat to birds by compiling hundreds of individual studies to resolve the larger picture of impacts

A report to: World Wildlife Fund for Nature

Call Number: [EL]

Niue consists of a single uplifted coral atoll with a unique rugged coastline. It is situated in the Southwest Pacific Ocean within the Polynesian cultural zone. The population of Niue was 2.088 at the 1977 population census, and is a declining population due to outward migration. Niue lies on the edge of the southern tropical cyclone belt, and has two distinct seasons, a hot wet season from November to March and a cool dry season from April to November. The economy is largely dependent on overseas aid. with no realistic prospect of economic self-reliance.

Global change poses enormous challenges to those responsible for managing the world's forests. There is perhaps no other ecosystem that is so closely linked to, and affected by, human induced changes to climate - being regarded simultaneously as a victim, a villain and a potential saviour. Concentrations of carbon dioxide methane and other greenhouse gases are rising at an accelerating rate in the atmosphere, largely as a result of emissions from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.

The impacts of climate change on biodiversity and the degree to which autonomous and directed adaptation will lesson these impacts are likely to be complex and hard to predict. This will make the research information we gain particularly difficult to communicate to the people who will be required to act on this information, namely ecosystem managers, resource managers, the public and policy makers

climate change and biodiversity details

Call Number: [EL]