Climate change will increase the gaps between developed and developing countries, in terms of wealth, health and food security. This will make achieving goals to reduce poverty more difficult.Poor people with few assets
cannot easily recover from climate disasters or change how they make their
living. They rely heavily on agriculture, fisheries, rivers and forests. These
resources could change drastically with climate change, making these groups
much more vulnerable than wealthier people. Additional factors, such as health problems

This issue of ETFRN News contains more than 20 wide-ranging articles on forests and climate change. The topics covered include: (1) the international policies on tropical forests under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol; (2) country-level REDD experiences; (3) different forest management practices; (4) various climate change adaptation strategies for forest sector; (5) landscape restoration practices and (6) various forest carbon business approaches.

This report highlights two underutilized but fully implementable technologies that efficiently integrate heat and electricity systems, provide flexibility and enhance energy security. It examines what restricts co‑generation and efficient district heating and cooling systems that can help de-carbonize the energy system.

With more than half the Earth’s population now living in urban areas, some changes in the indoor and outdoor climates of cities are bound to occur. Climate scientists’ greatest concern is traditionally the urban heat island (UHI) effect – city areas where temperatures can be several degrees higher because there is lots of concrete and little blue or green infrastructure like lakes, rivers and parks. But another effect – air flow – can also cause serious health problems.

Ramboll Environ developed an innovative, sustainable and economically beneficial approach to addressing the impact of metal contamination on river sediments in the River Nent in Cumbria.