Posts tagged with 'adaptation'
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 ...
Greening the Jukskei River: Scaling Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Johannesburg, South Africa
Greening the Jukskei River: Scaling Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Johannesburg, South Africa
Alexandra Township is a 20-square-block enclave in the heart of Johannesburg, South Africa’s northern suburbs. Established in 1902, the township was built to house 750,000 residents. Today, it is home to more than 1.2 million. Despite efforts to increase waste ...
Unique and Irreplaceable Cities Making the Urban Amazon Visible
Unique and Irreplaceable Cities Making the Urban Amazon Visible
Amazonian cities are diverse in opportunities and needs. The region’s biodiversity is among the world’s most important, but its cities’ sustainability challenges are less well-known. These jurisdictions require financial support and capacity building to create sustainable, conservation-oriented, equitable, urban green ...
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 ...
Better Buildings Are Taking on the Climate Challenge 
Better Buildings Are Taking on the Climate Challenge 
In March 2024, the inaugural Buildings and Climate Global Forum convened more than 1,000 participants to spur action towards built environment decarbonization and resilience. The first-of-its-kind forum was welcome, as the sector needs a shakeup.   The big issue on the table was ...
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, ...
Local Climate Action at the Forefront: How the UNEA-6 Cities & Regions Summit Elevated Subnational Governments
Local Climate Action at the Forefront: How the UNEA-6 Cities & Regions Summit Elevated Subnational Governments
“What you do in your cities resonates across the world. When you make your cities green and sustainable, you are not just local heroes, you are global heroes.” Those were the inspiring words that Inger Anderson, Director of the UN ...
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 ...
Next-Generation Climate Targets: A 5-Point Plan for NDCs
Next-Generation Climate Targets: A 5-Point Plan for NDCs
By early 2025, countries are due to unveil new national climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). These commitments form the foundation of international climate action, establishing emissions-reduction targets and other measures that countries promise ...
5 Opportunities for Micro-Greening in Low-Income Urban Settlements
5 Opportunities for Micro-Greening in Low-Income Urban Settlements
Climate-change-induced events such as heat waves and floods severely impact quality of life in urban areas. It can be financially disruptive and even fatal, disproportionately impacting settlements most vulnerable to climate risks. Greening of open spaces can be an important ...
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 ...
Ramping Up Use of Electric Vehicles Across Africa
Ramping Up Use of Electric Vehicles Across Africa
At COP28, global climate leaders congregated in Dubai for the annual opportunity to review countries’ progress on emissions reductions and to increase climate ambition. One of the conference’s focal points was how to rapidly and equitably transition away from fossil ...
E-Buses: Operational Tests and Customer Surveys Facilitate Transition and Highlight Benefits
E-Buses: Operational Tests and Customer Surveys Facilitate Transition and Highlight Benefits
The adoption of any new technology involves some degree of adaptation, and battery electric buses (e-buses) are no exception. After decades of experience with diesel vehicles, cities and operators need to understand the technical and operational specifications of e-buses to ...
How 'Complete Streets' Are Creating Safer, More Sustainable Cities in Brazil
How ‘Complete Streets’ Are Creating Safer, More Sustainable Cities in Brazil
Urban development in many cities around the world prioritizes making space for cars over pedestrians, cyclists or public transportation. In Brazil, this design led to an average of more than 30,000 annual road crash fatalities nationwide by the turn of the century, ...
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