The climate emergency is a direct consequence of carbon-heavy land-use and agriculture, transport, buildings and industrial processes and polluting energy sources. Without profound changes to these sectors and a drastic cut to carbon footprints, there is little hope of protecting the planet from the devastating effects of a warmer world.
Below are climate-related news and events from the United Nations and partners.
“We’ve taken modest steps forward here in Bonn,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell in his closing speech. “[But] too many items are still on the table . . . We’ve left ourselves with a very steep mountain to climb to achieve ambitious outcomes in Baku.”
Areas of progress in Bonn include:
Read more in this Press Release.
While cities are significant contributors to climate change due to their rapid growth and high emissions, they also serve as hubs for innovation and solutions. In fact, cities provide extensive opportunities for implementing sustainable practices and reducing GHG emissions.
Cities have a crucial role in anticipating and coping with climate challenges. By prioritizing increased climate investments, ambitious urban planning and robust policies, cities can play a pivotal role in translating global climate targets into locally achievable solutions.
At the 60th session of the Bonn Climate Change Conference, creating enabling environments for ambitious and implementable Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) 3.0 was a key priority.
Related to transport related NDCs, countries committed to boosting walking and cycling in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) can now count on two innovative tools recently launched by the Partnership for Active Travel and Health (PATH) coalition, of which the UNEP Share the Road Programme is a founding member.
Hosted by the Technology Mechanism, the event "Innovation and Technology in Support of Risk-Informed Climate Adaptation and Early Warnings for All" spotlighted what role technology and innovation play in climate resilience and risk-aware investment in vulnerable regions. Nearly half of all countries have incorporated early warning systems into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), underscoring their importance in climate adaptation.
The event stressed the need to tailor technology solutions to local contexts, blending traditional and modern methods for more effective early warning systems. Addressing disparities in disaster risk knowledge, particularly in least developed countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), remains a key challenge. Collaborative efforts, including public-private partnerships, are essential for promoting open data and knowledge sharing.
The event concluded with a call for sustained collaboration, strategic investment, and capacity building to advance technology-driven solutions for climate resilience and informed decision-making.
Pledges to reduce deforestation and pledges to financially support this transition from developed countries are insufficient to halt deforestation by 2030.
The report finds that commitments within the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from the twenty countries with the highest emissions from tropical deforestation are not enough to meet the goal to halt deforestation by 2030. Only eight countries include explicit, quantified targets to reduce deforestation. All fall short of the global ambition to halt deforestation by 2030.
The report provides recommendations to strengthen and enhance forest-based targets in NDCs and other policies and scale up immediate and substantive financial and technical support for forest-rich countries.
At the fifth annual AI for Good Global Summit held in Geneva, UNEP's work took center stage on AI and the environment to help tackle the triple planetary crisis, which includes achieving climate stability, harmony with nature, and a pollution-free planet.
“Across all these domains, we work with two things in mind, we call them the two sides of the coin, how do we deploy technology to achieve these goals, and on the other side, how do we make technology itself environmentally sustainable and responsible,” said Golestan Sally Radwan, Chief Digital Officer at UNEP, during her presentation.
One of these efforts is EnvironmentGPT, a ground-breaking application of Large Language Model technology for environmental purposes.
More highlights from UN officials and other participants.
See also: AI for Good Global Summit 2024 YouTube playlist (with interviews).
On the sidelines of the 60th session of the Bonn Climate Change Conference, the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Knowledge Day highlighted the critical importance of EbA. This event underscored the value of EbA as a cross-cutting approach capable of uniting the actions of various climate conventions.
Local practitioners are pivotal in implementing EbA, requiring robust collaboration with non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, Indigenous Peoples' organisations, and local governments to ensure that projects are contextually relevant. To make a compelling case for investment, EbA projects must strengthen their climate rationale, focus on cost-effective solutions, and utilise quantifiable data.
Despite the urgency posed by climate change, adaptation efforts, including EbA, are lagging behind, prompting a need to reassess current strategies. Pooling resources from different conventions can help test and scale EbA actions, thereby mitigating risks and reducing maladaptation instances.
Leveraging technology, such as artificial intelligence, can significantly enhance EbA implementation by improving risk assessment, reporting quality, language accessibility, data collection, and the protection of vulnerable communities and intellectual property.
Addressing barriers to funding access for local practitioners and fostering multistakeholder collaboration are essential for advancing EbA in alignment with Rio Convention goals. By enhancing collaboration and resource allocation, we can ensure that EbA plays a central role in meeting the connected goals on land, nature and climate.
Loss and damage and transparent reporting of loss and damage, were central to UNEP, the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC), and the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency's agenda during the 60th session of the Bonn Climate Change Conference. Innovative monitoring and evaluation technologies for tracking and reporting losses and damages were also on display. The exchange focused on sharing experiences with innovative solutions, possibilities, impediments and problems for institutionalising loss and damage within government institutions.
The main outcome of the technical exchange was the creation of a collaborative action plan defining specific initiatives for capacity building, technical support, and international cooperation on loss and damage. UNEP-CCC will create a network for non-annex I countries to exchange technical information and enhance transparency in loss and damage.
