The increased pressures on the world’s natural resources and ecological systems in the past century, has been accompanied by rapid urban population growth. Urban centres themselves have ecological reputations since they drive unsustainable environmental change. They also lead to high levels of resource use and waste generation, causing serious ecological consequences locally, regionally and globally, especially in terms of climate change. But there is good evidence that urban areas can combine high living standards with relatively low GHG emissions and lower resource demands.
Limiting land conversion & deforestation
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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:
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Over 70 percent of Africa’s population depends on forests: for fuel wood, construction materials, medicine, food, and revenue from forest products. Governments and conservationists recognise Africa’s forests for their high biodiversity and environmental benefits. However, forests face increasing threats including the impacts of climate change, which will change temperature and rainfall patterns and put further stress on the continents forests.
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Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation account for about 25% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions but cannot be credited under current climate change agreements. In the discussions around the architecture of the post-2012 climate regime, the possibility of including credits for reduced emissions from deforestation arises. The paper reviews two approaches for this, compensated reductions (CR) as proposed by Santilli et al.
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This report examines the evidence on the economic impacts of climate change and explores the economics of stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It also considers the complex policy challenges involved in managing the transition to a low-carbon economy and in ensuring that societies can adapt to the consequences of climate change that can no longer be avoided. The scientific evidence points to increasing risks of serious, irreversible impacts from climate change associated with business-as-usual (BAU) paths for emissions.
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Pathways to a low-carbon economy: version 2 of the global greenhouse gas abatement cost curve report
Publication dateObjectiveSectorsThe report presents GHG abatement opportunities for 10 sectors, 21 regions and five time-frames (from 2005 to 2030) from an economic perspective. It updates the previous version of their GHG abatement cost curve. It included all known anthropogenic GHG. It explores an updated view of the BAU emissions development, the trajectory of energy prices, and the development and deployment of low-carbon technology. The base year for the report is 2005.
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Deforestation and forest degradation account for 20 percent of annual total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The vast majority of these forestry emissions come from deforestation in developing countries. Currently, there is significant dialogue at the international level about how to integrate reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) into the existing climate change regime through market-based incentives. This paper examines the issues that arise when trying to create an economically and environmentally robust market-based REDD policy.
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This paper discusses the existence of climate change as a new security threat. It particularly examins the issues with respect to implications for Africa. The authors argue that climate change represents the latest in a series of environmental drivers of human conflict that have been identified in recent decades. This follows others including drought, desertification, land degradation, failing water supplies, deforestation, fisheries depletion, and even ozone depletion. Key points include:
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The Amazon forest greatly influences the global climate and may be coming under increasing threat due to climate change. This report explores the relationship between the Amazon, climate, and the changes in this relationship that are underway as a result of forest destruction and the release of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The paper seeks to interpret the best information available to determine how close we are to a point of no return for a major forest “dieback” in the Amazon, and to identify some steps that might be taken to counter this process.
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Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model this report identifies the links among economic growth, poverty alleviation, and natural resource degradation in Brazil.