Although urban centers are often ill-prepared to meet the basic needs of rapidly expanding populations, the urban poor are incredibly resourceful people, with their own networks and the proven capacity to save and invest in the betterment of their communities. Climate change can stimulate action that improves and transforms the most vulnerable urban communities.

This video, narrated by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angélique Kidjo, tells the stories of the winners of the 2015 Momentum for Change Awards, under the Urban Poor category.

It is crucial for international and national aspects of any forest conservation regime, programme and project to fully involve women, indigenous peoples and small farmers. This publication looks at the strategies of non-governmental and indigenous peoples’ organisations to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Panama and Uganda. It also outlines the likely impacts of REDD on these countries. The document also contains links to reports by NGOs in Nepal, Paraguay and Brazil.

Water is fundamental to the well being of women and men both in the household and productive activities and is key to poverty reduction and development. Water is also a strategic resource in that its control is a source of power. Interventions that change the control, use of and access to water resources inevitably raise gender issues and opportunities. This report provides key considerations and recommendations in this area drawing on lessons learnt from case studies in Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and Sudan.

Many developing countries are faced with a lack of consolidated information on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and this information has never been put together before in a comprehensive form.

The project on High Performance Commercial Buildings in India, which has been undertaken under the aegis of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, aims at establishing relevance and impacts of low-energy passive strategies and measures on improving energy performance of commercial buildings in five climatic zones of India.

The main goal of the project is to assess the enabling conditions for effective community-based adaptation to the impact of extreme events at the community level. By focusing on community-based adaptation, this project aims at identifying adaptation options in a participatory manner, assessing how community-based adaptation works and clarifying under what conditions community-based adaptation can effectively be implemented.

The project aims to evaluate options by which the Indian economy can move towards an inclusive green growth paradigm of development. The evaluation aims to combine the rigorous scientific and economic studies done at the national and state levels (Punjab and Himachal Pradesh). The study has been able to generate, unique high resolution, actionable climate and spatial information for policy making in the two states.

SAMEEEKSHA is a collaborative platform aimed at pooling the knowledge and synergizing the efforts of various organizations and institutions – Indian and international, public and private – that are working towards the common goal of facilitating the development of the SME sector in India through the promotion and adoption of clean, energy efficient technologies and practices.

Almost as much energy is used for refrigeration, air conditioning and insulation worldwide as for transport or heating. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the GIZ ‘Proklima’ project has now been working for some 15 years to help introduce environment- and climate-friendly alternatives to ozonedepleting industrial gases (such as chlorofluorocarbon, CFCs) in partner countries. Proklima thus supports developing and emerging countries in fulfilling their obligations arising from the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Initiated by the detection of the so called “ozone hole” over the Antarctic, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer came into force in 1987. The Protocol regulates the phase-out of production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) in refrigeration and air conditioning. This phase-out has led to the introduction of new, environmental-friendly technologies in industrialized countries.