Posts in the 'Climate Action' category
A New Era of Local-to-Global Climate Action: 10 Things ICLEI Is Watching in 2025
A New Era of Local-to-Global Climate Action: 10 Things ICLEI Is Watching in 2025
COP30 in Belém, Brazil, will be the most substantial and strategic mechanism for local and subnational governments to influence and impact national and global sustainability agendas in 2025. As we gear up for the mid-year Bonn Climate Conference, it is ...
How Cities Can Beat the (Extreme) Heat
How Cities Can Beat the (Extreme) Heat
In January 2024, the Central Business District of Cape Town, South Africa, endured a historically brutal day of heat: temperatures climbed to 44 degrees C – the highest ever measured in the city. But on that same day, people in other parts ...
Europe’s Cities Should Prepare for Hotter, More Hazardous Days Ahead
Europe’s Cities Should Prepare for Hotter, More Hazardous Days Ahead
Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent, which is severely impacting cities and leading to tens of thousands of deaths, rising hospitalizations, school closures and people adjusting their lives to avoid inhospitable outdoor conditions.  The oppressive heat is being felt across the ...
Public Participation Is the ‘Missing Link’ in Effective Urban Heat Mitigation
Public Participation Is the ‘Missing Link’ in Effective Urban Heat Mitigation
In Mathare – a collection of informal settlements northeast of Nairobi, Kenya, housing more than 500,000 residents – heat is reshaping daily existence. Most buildings in Mathare are constructed from materials like corrugated metal, which trap and magnify heat, forcing ...
The ACWA Platform: Guiding Africa’s Cities Towards a Water-Resilient Future
The ACWA Platform: Guiding Africa’s Cities Towards a Water-Resilient Future
In a time of polycrises – from economic and political instability to health and environmental emergencies – water is a resource that cannot be relegated to the background. Especially in urban environments, water demand is ever-increasing and in too many ...
Amidst Record-Breaking Fires, Will Brazil Confront Its Climate Challenges?
Amidst Record-Breaking Fires, Will Brazil Confront Its Climate Challenges?
Brazilians are currently living in a dystopian landscape. Thick smoke, oppressive heat and eerily orange sunsets blanket both major cities and small villages. Hundreds of cities are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution while thousands of hectares of forest burn. ...
What Would Cities Look Like With 3 Degrees C of Warming vs. 1.5? Far More Hazardous and Vastly Unequal
What Would Cities Look Like With 3 Degrees C of Warming vs. 1.5? Far More Hazardous and Vastly Unequal
The world recently experienced a 13-month streak of record-breaking global temperatures. And as blistering heat waves punish communities across several continents, 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record. Global average temperatures are now perilously close to exceeding 1.5 ...
A Community Program Is Transforming New York Schoolyards Into Climate-Resilient Spaces
A Community Program Is Transforming New York Schoolyards Into Climate-Resilient Spaces
In Brooklyn, one of New York City’s five boroughs, a new schoolyard features newly-planted native trees offering shade and bright playground equipment that sits adjacent to a track and turf field. Colorful murals celebrating the diversity of its Boreum Hill ...
Empowering Residents Helped Buenos Aires Transform Rodrigo Bueno Into a Climate-Resilient Community
Empowering Residents Helped Buenos Aires Transform Rodrigo Bueno Into a Climate-Resilient Community
On the eastern edge of Buenos Aires, residents of the Rodrigo Bueno neighborhood take a break from pick-up soccer games and stretch out on grassy knolls. Further down the road, a kitchen buzzes with locals testing new recipes to feature ...
Rebuilding Kenya Stronger: Here's What's Needed to Rebound After Catastrophic Floods
Rebuilding Kenya Stronger: Here’s What’s Needed to Rebound After Catastrophic Floods
In Kenya and throughout east Africa, flooding this past April and May wreaked havoc, leaving a path of deadly destruction. The unprecedented deluge of heavy rainfall resulted in a catastrophe that many in Kenya have never witnessed. According to a June ...
The Importance of Differential Vulnerability in Resilience Planning
The Importance of Differential Vulnerability in Resilience Planning
India is the seventh most climate-vulnerable country in the world, with nine of its states among the top 50 most vulnerable regions globally. The country’s cities are at the forefront of the climate crisis with more than 80% of the urban population living in ...
Tragic Flooding in Brazil; A Wake-Up Call for the World
Tragic Flooding in Brazil; A Wake-Up Call for the World
After a week of record-breaking rainfall in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil is experiencing an environmental and humanitarian tragedy. The death toll from the floods is in the dozens. The number of missing persons has surpassed 100. Hundreds are injured, ...
The Impacts of El Niño Go Far Beyond Water
The Impacts of El Niño Go Far Beyond Water
Over the past several months, the climate pattern El Niño has disrupted different regions and sectors across the world. Zimbabwe recently declared a state of disaster, due largely to El Niño-induced drought. The city government in Bogotá, Colombia, announced water rationing as reservoir levels ...
How Improved Housing in Under-Served Communities Can Strengthen Climate Resilience
How Improved Housing in Under-Served Communities Can Strengthen Climate Resilience
In the crowded slums of Zambia, Africa, members of the Zambia Youth Federation, a social movement of the urban poor, conducted climate change research and presented it in an emotional spoken word poem. Their message let policymakers know how climate ...
4 Climate Stories That Will Define 2024
4 Climate Stories That Will Define 2024
Last year shattered global heat records. The world witnessed the effects of rising temperatures in the form of devastating wildfires, severe flooding, extreme heatwaves and more. Poor countries and communities who have contributed the least to causing the climate crisis ...
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