This report provides a detailed overview of the national circumstances, emission levels, mitigation potential and measures for the major developing countries of Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea.These countries account for more than 50% of non-Annex I parties’ emissions.

Environmental changes associated with climate change processes are significantly disrupting the Earth’s infrastructure and posing a risk to human well-being and health.

This African atlas is the first publication to use satellite photos to depict environmental change in each and every African country during the last thirty years. Through an array of satellite images, graphs, maps, and photographs, this Atlas presents a powerful testament to the adverse changes taking place on the African landscape as a result of intensified  natural and human impacts. The atlas is composed of three parts:

To provide quantitative information for the debate on the burden sharing of the European Union target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020 by 20 per cent, this report assesses the potential and costs for further mitigation of the non-carbon-dioxide (CO2) GHG emissions beyond the currently agreed policies. It addresses the non-CO2 gases included in the Kyoto protocol [i.e., methane (CH4); nitrous oxide (N2O); and the three F-gases: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

This report argues that taking a life cycle approach and securing good nutritional status for women across the life course will in the long term reduce child underweight and stunting. It argues that around 30% of all women aged 15 to 49 years are thought to be anaemic, and the highest proportions of these anaemic women live in Africa and South East Asia. The prevalence of anaemia in adolescent girls is thought to be even higher.

Global warming events and storms are expected to increase in the future, along with significant coastal population growth and development. This report finds that it will therefore be essential to effectively control marine pollution and coastal development in order to build resilience and enhance the ability of coral reefs to recover from severe weather events.

This paper considers the potential impacts of climate change on protected areas (PAs) and actions that can be taken to mitigate them. Recent research suggests that the types of environmental changes predicted in climatic models are now taking place. Studies of many animals and plants that show significant alterations in range or behaviour find that the most consistent explanation for these is climate change. These impacts may necessitate a fundamental rethinking in the approach to protection.

The urban poor suffer disproportionately from the effects of air pollution. Could changes in patterns of urban and domestic energy use reduce outdoor and indoor air pollution? How can recent advances in environmental economics contribute to pro-poor cost-benefit analysis of options to tackle the growing problem of foul air?

The paper assesses the extent to which local air pollution co-benefits can lower the cost of climate change mitigation policies in OECD and non-OECD countries and can offer economic incentives for developing countries to participate in a post- 2012 global agreement.

Although more dispersed urban development is inevitable in some rapidly growing regions of the world, the benefits of such development are unclear, and can represent economic transfers that reinforce existing social inequalities.However, work by the New Climate Economy shows that alternative development paths do exist, such as the ‘3C model’; compact, connected and coordinated urban development that can bring a wide range of economic and social benefits.