Climate Change

Africa is at a “tipping point” as global warming increases, and urgent action needs to be taken across the continent now, to mitigate risks and safeguard a decade of social and economic gains, according to a new report launched on Thursday by the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) at the COP24 climate conference, in Katowice, Poland.

Businesses across the world should no longer be viewed solely as greenhouse gas emissions culprits, but more as indispensable partners for climate action, who stand to increase profits from “going green”. That was the key message as the United Nations COP24 climate change conference went into its second week in Katowice, Poland.

As hundreds of decision-makers are gathering in Marrakech to agree new standards for global migration, the United Nations climate change conference ‘COP24’ is looking at concrete ways to help countries tackle large-scale displacement caused by the impacts of climate change, including water scarcity, flooding, storms and rising sea levels. 

The Paris Agreement on climate change remains a momentous diplomatic success, universally supported by all countries when it was adopted in 2015 at a United Nations conference, and as of today, it has been ratified by 141 nations, surpassing the threshold for its entry into force.

As the United Nations Climate Conference under way in Marrakech, Morocco, (COP 22) is discussing implementation of the Paris Agreement, the UN is also seeking to build climate resilience through the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s resilience initiative called A2R (Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape), launched a year ago.

In a new report analyzing the global climate between 2011-2015, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) – the United Nations system’s weather agency – found an increasingly visible human footprint on extreme weather and climate events with dangerous and costly impacts.

As Fiji and Governments of more than 100 other United Nations Member States are preparing this week for the historic signing of the Paris Agreement, back in Fiji, residents of the South Pacific country are clearing debris and trying to recover from one of the region's fiercest storms.