Climate Change

From Wikiprogress.org

Jump to:navigation, search

About

Global climate change threatens to disrupt the well-being of society, deter economic development and alter the natural environment, making it a key policy concern of the 21st century. It is defined as "(...) a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods" by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).^[1]

Governments around the world agree on the need to achieve cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the coming decades, to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and to ensure financial and technical support that will enable developing countries to act. They are working towards an international agreement to achieve these goals under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).^[2]

OECD work on climate change

The OECD has been working on climate change economics and policy since the late 1980s. In the wake of the recent economic crisis, the OECD is also looking at how measures taken by governments to spur economic growth can best be formulated so that they support – and do not work against – the objectives of moving towards a green, low-carbon economy.

The OECD works closely with governments to assist them to identify and implement least-cost policies to reduce GHG emissions in order to limit climate change, as well as to integrate consideration of climate change into all relevant sectors and policy areas. As OECD countries are the major international donors, the OECD has a critical role in tracking climate finance, and in examining how public finance can be scaled-up and best targeted to help leverage private financial flows.

Given the global nature of the climate change challenge, and its widespread economic, social and environmental impacts, the OECD is in a unique position to help countries put climate policy on a solid economic footing consistent with frameworks for development.

Recent OECD work on Climate Change

Major initiatives

1. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

2. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) works to create a large scale awareness in the US of, among other things, the challenges of climate change. In particular, the organization will promote studies on how economic growth affects climate change and will try to find possible ways to reduce global warming.

3. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change brings together business leaders, policy makers, scientists, and other experts to bring a new approach to a complex and often controversial issue. Their approach is based on sound science, straight talk, and a belief that we can work together to protect the weather while sustaining economic growth.

4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The IPCC is a scientific intergovernmental body set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Hundreds of scientists all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC as authors, contributors, and reviewers. As United Nations body, the IPCC work aims at the promotion of the United Nations human development goals.

Papers and publications

UNDP 2011 Cambodia Human Development Report (CHDR): The report byUNDP Cambodia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, clearly identifies climate change as a threat to human development gains and a source of increasing vulnerability for the poor and near poor. The first comprehensive study of its kind in [http://www.wikiprogress.org/index.php/Cambodia Cambodia}, the report, titled “Building Resilience: The Future of Rural Livelihoods in the Face of Climate Change”, pinpoints the human development challenges facing the country’s rural populations as they strive to improve their livelihoods while dealing with the effects of climate change.

Bhutan National Human Development Report 2011 Impressive economic and human development gains that contribute to the Gross National Happiness of Bhutan are threatened by changing climate conditions with the country’s poorest people likely to suffer the worst impact, according to the third National Human Development Report “Rising to the Climate Challenge” released on 1 September in Thimphu.