Publications: ICARDA Annual Report Stresses Innovations on Climate Resilience (29 Aug 2013)

ICARDA Annual Report Stresses Innovations on Climate Resilience

29 August 2013: The 2012 Annual Report of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) notes that despite significant challenges due to the on-going conflict in Syria, the Center has made significant achievements in translating research into action and policy impact, highlighting its leadership in the high-level international conference on Food Security in the Dry Lands, as well as enhanced partnerships with Canada and South Asia.

The report underscores work on climate change mitigation in India, improved seed systems in Ethiopia, climate change adaptation in Palestine, conservation agriculture in North Africa, and science for adaptation in Central Asia and China.

It describes results to improve crops to combat drought, develop and distribute new seeds, implement conservation agriculture, and test new approaches to improve efficiency in water use in response to climate change. ICARDA outlines its successes in managing genetic resources, mining agricultural genebanks to speed the pace of innovation and deliver food security, managing soil salinity, and reversing rangeland degradation. The report notes the differing outcomes of its new Research Program on Dryland Systems that relate to minimizing risk and reducing vulnerability in low-potential drylands and seeking to support sustainable intensification in higher potential dryland regions.

On research for development initiatives, the report describes three dry area initiatives on enhancing food security in Arab countries, the Middle East Water and Livelihoods Initiative, and Harmonized Support for Agricultural Development. It also notes the efforts of ICARDA's regional and country programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, South Asia and China, the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. 

[Publication: ICARDA 2012 Annual Report]

For more information: 
http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/icarda-annual-report-stresses-innovations-on-climate-resilience/212930/

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Publications: World Bank Report Identifies Ways to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants (3 Sep 2013)

World Bank Report Identifies Ways to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants

3 September 2013: The World Bank has released a report, titled 'Integration of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants in World Bank Activities,' which highlights that the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP), including black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), brings immediate benefits for health, agriculture and climate change mitigation.

Following a request of the G-8, the report was released on the occasion of the Ministerial High Level Assembly for The Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC), which took place in Oslo, Norway, on 3 September 2013.

The report identifies ways for the World Bank to further reduce the emission of SLCPs through its projects. It provides an overview of ways the Bank's investments are already reducing SLCPs and shows where potential exists for greater reduction. The SLCP-reducing activities addressed in the report include: bus and rail-based transport systems, which can reduce black carbon emissions and bring local public health co-benefits; solid waste collection and disposal methods that can reduce methane emissions; improved cookstoves and kilns that can reduce black carbon; and rice irrigation and wastewater management that can lower methane emissions and have global benefits to agricultural productivity and health.

The report indicates that over the six-year period of the review (FY2007–2012), 7.7% of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)/International Development Association (IDA) commitments (approximately US$18 billion) were on SLCP-relevant activities, and that going forward, the goal will be to transform as much of the SLCP-relevant activities as possible into SLCP-reducing activities. 

[Publication: Integration of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants in World Bank Activities] [World Bank Press Release] [Climate and Clear Air Coalition Website]

For more information: 
http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/world-bank-report-identifies-ways-to-reduce-short-lived-climate-pollutants/213451/

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Publications: PROVIA Identifies Research Priorities on Vulnerability (2 Sep 2013)

PROVIA Identifies Research Priorities on Vulnerability

2 September 13: The Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA) has released a report titled 'Research Priorities on Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation: Responding to the Climate Change Challenge,' which presents global research priorities that were identified through a consultation process with experts and policymakers, and are intended to serve as guidance to researchers, donor groups and other stakeholders.

The report consists of 33 topics presented in three sections: information to support policymaker decisions; systems and regions; and emerging topics. Each of the 33 topics includes a description of why the research is needed, followed by several paragraphs describing specific activities that respond to that need. A short bulleted list thereafter highlights representative examples of critical activities from the broader set of proposed activities for each research topic.

The report addresses vulnerability of the following key systems: food systems; water systems; ecosystems; energy systems; and infrastructure systems and the built environment. It also addresses the impacts of climate change on human well-being and identifies the following critical geographical areas: vulnerable coastal areas and islands; arid and semi-arid regions; open ocean; mountain regions and the cryosphere; and urban areas.

PROVIA was launched in September 2011 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

[Publication: Research Priorities on Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation: Responding to the Climate Change Challenge] [PROVIA Website]

For more information:
http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/provia-identifies-research-priorities-on-vulnerability/213684/

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Events: How Many Light Bulbs Does it Take to Change China? — China’s Strategies for Lowering Energy’s Environmental Footprint organized by the Wilson Center on 3 Oct 2013

Events

How Many Light Bulbs Does it Take to Change China? — China’s Strategies for Lowering Energy’s Environmental Footprint

October 03, 2013 // 12:00pm — 2:00pm

Webcast

Coming Soon

There will be a live webcast of this event.

• Event Speakers

In 2007, the Chinese government answered the call by the Global Environment Facility to begin banning all inefficient light bulbs. According to a 2008 study by China’s Energy Research Institute, if China pursues a LED-heavy switchover by 2020 (which now appears likely), approximately 85 TWh of energy could be saved, roughly equivalent to the Three Gorges Dam’s annual output. This phase out is but one of the energy efficiency strategies that helps support China’s ambitious energy goals in the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans. The energy efficiency, low carbon development, and ambitious renewable energy targets in these plans have been prompted not only in an effort to promote energy security, but also to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from coal.

The speakers at this CEF meeting will go well beyond light bulbs in discussing China’s sweeping, comprehensive and aggressive measures to improve air quality by capping coal consumption and better regulating pollution emissions from coal-fired power plants. These measures build upon China’s recent adoption of PM2.5 standards and requirements for cities to publish PM2.5 data in real time. In December 2012, the National People’s Congress issued a law to require regional multi-pollutant air quality plans that affects 113 key Chinese cities and requires them to:

• Set up key emission control areas by 2015 and mandate emission reductions for major pollutants, including PM2.5;
• Create coal-free zones in all key control areas that encompasses at least 80% of the city’s geographic area; and,
• Establish caps on the total quantities of coal that can be consumed, and reduce these quantities by 2015 and 2020.

At this meeting, Christopher James (Regulatory Assistance Project) will talk about these and other new comprehensive and stringent air quality measures targeting the energy sector. Jeremy Schreifels (U.S. EPA) will focus on emission trends in NOx, a key precursor of PM2.5, and China’s 12th Five-Year Plan reduction targets for NOx emissions from power generation. He will highlight some of the costs and potential of emissions trading to lower NOx. Darrin Magee (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) will briefly explore radical end-use efficiency and large-scale hydropower as two options for addressing electricity production and carbon reduction needs in China. Darrin’s talk draws on his involvement with the Rocky Mountain Institute’sReinventing Fire: China project and his research on large-scale hydropower development in China over the past decade.

LOCATION: 

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center

DIRECTIONS TO THE WILSON CENTER

 

Event Speakers List: 

• Jeremy Schreifels //
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Christopher James //
  Principal, The Regulatory Assistance Project

• Darrin Magee //
  Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Hobart and William Smith College

For more information: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/how-many-light-bulbs-does-it-take-to-change-china-%E2%80%94-china%E2%80%99s-strategies-for-lowering-energy%E2%80%99s

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Events: Harvesting Peace: Food Security, Conflict, and Cooperation (Report Launch) organized by the Wilson Center on 12 Sep 2013

Events

Harvesting Peace: Food Security, Conflict, and Cooperation (Report Launch)

September 12, 2013 // 9:00am — 11:00am

EVENT CO-SPONSORS: 

Africa Program

Middle East Prog

Event Speakers

Since 2008, when rapid increases in the prices for major grains helped to trigger outbreaks of civil unrest in more than 40 countries, scholars and policymakers have paid increased attention to the potential influence of global food prices on social and political instability. Compelling and provocative headlines have suggested that there is a direct relationship between food insecurity and conflict. However, we know from a conflict perspective that the story is always more complicated than those claims often imply. How does conflict affect food insecurity? How does food insecurity contribute to conflict? And how can development organizations effectively address both? Harvesting Peace: Food Security, Conflict, and Cooperation – the latest edition of ECSP Report – explores these complex linkages, drawing insights from scholarly work to help inform more effective programming for practitioners. Join us for a presentation by report author Emmy Simmons and commentary by Susan Bradley, Henk-Jan Brinkman, and Edward Carr.

LOCATION: 

5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center

DIRECTIONS TO THE WILSON CENTER

 

Event Speakers List: 

• Susan Bradley //
  Chief of the Technical Division, Country Strategies and Implementation Office, Bureau for Food Security, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Henk-Jan Brinkman //
  Chief of the Policy, Planning and Application Branch, United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office
• Edward Carr //
  Former AAAS, U.S. Agency for International Development; Professor, University of South Carolina

• Emmy Simmons //
  Author, Harvesting Peace; Independent Consultant
• Joseph Hewitt //
  Technical Team Leader, Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, U.S. Agency for International Development

For more information: 
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/harvesting-peace-food-security-conflict-and-cooperation-report-launch

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Events: Beyond Rio +20: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities organized by UNU-INRA, IPAR Senegal and ISSER, University of Ghana from 20-22 Nov 2013

Beyond Rio +20: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities

DATE / TIME :

2013•11•20 - 2013•11•22

LOCATION :

Accra

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 20–22 June 2012, released an outcome document entitled “The Future We Want” — a compromise of participating countries who strive to promote a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.

One of the most notable outcomes of the conference was a decision to launch s set of “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs). This has triggered many consultation processes on the post-MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) taking place globally, which will certainly lead to a development agenda that takes into account the Rio+20 outcomes. It is, therefore, important to keep tracking the various activities related to the future of the MDGs.

The Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (IPAR Senegal), Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER, University of Ghana) and United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) will organizing a conference in Accra, Ghana, from 18–22 November 2013, with support from the International Development Research Center (IDRC), on the theme “Beyond Rio + 20: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities”.

The conference intends to assemble several African think tanks to share views on the post-Rio+20 world, to deepen our understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead and to lay the foundations of a collective reflection on the ways to better implement the Rio+20 outcomes within Africa. This initiative will contribute to strengthening the research capacities of the think tanks, improve their policy linkages and connect their voices to the global development agenda. The event also will bring together prominent policymakers and civil society representatives who can help connect Africa to the reflection on inclusive green growth, and contribute to mobilizing political will throughout the continent and better incorporating the voice of Africa in this global policy debate.

This bilingual (English and French) conference is designed in a diversified format with panel discussions, presentations by keynote speakers and session papers. Outputs expected from the conference include (i) an edited book capturing the best outputs of the programme, (ii) research papers related to the post Rio+20 gathering, which may be published in a special issue, and (iii) policy briefs on specific and relevant topics.

The conference is open to the public and admission is free.

The costs of participation at the conference will be covered for a limited number of invited speakers and selected papers. However, participants who can support themselves are encouraged to apply.

Prospective authors should send their abstract of no more than 600 words to Ibrahima Hathie, IPAR Senegal (ihathie@gmail.com) and Felix Ankomah Asante, ISSER, University of Ghana (fasante@ug.edu.gh) by 24 August 2013. The deadline for the full papers will be 31 October 2013.

For more information:

http://unu.edu/events/upcoming/beyond-rio20-challenges-opportunities.html#overview

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