Recognising the shifting risks of climate change and identifying the best adaptation actions are complex tasks. A new report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows that effective institutions can be a critical part of responding to climate risks and offers a new tool to insure that institutions are prepared and involved. The National Adaptive Capacity (NAC) framework helps governments increase institutional capacity within the country while facilitating institutions’ involvement in adaptation planning processes.

Read More

Successive dry winters have left reservoirs in the south-east of England unreplenished. While other parts of the UK, such as the north of England, Scotland and Wales, have experienced plentiful rainfall, the south-east has had very little and has now officially been declared to be in a state of drought.

England is not known as a dry country, yet the county of Essex receives less rainfall, on average, than the Israeli capital, Jerusalem. When population pressures are also taken into account, the Environment Agency indicate that the southeastern and eastern England have less water per person than Morocco or Egypt [1]. Adding to this pressure is the fact that this same region uses more water than any other UK region for arable farming.

Read More

Jaime Lerner makes sustainable urban planning seem easy. Forty years since first presenting an urban renewal plan for his hometown of Curitiba, Brazil, the avuncular architect and creator of the world’s first bus rapid transit (BRT) system is still sharing fresh ideas in urban design. His team’s many innovations stand out for being both cheap and quick (often finished in days), as well as for often sparking small changes that lead to lasting transformations. The spectacular results seen in Curitiba are now being copied around the world, with Lerner showing that the green ingenuity demonstrated in Curitiba offers solutions for mitigating and adapting climate change as well. 

Read More

In the future, water is likely to become less plentiful. Climate change, coupled with increasing consumption and a rising population, is putting more pressure on water resources in many parts of the world. Even in areas where one might expect precipitation levels to be reasonably high, demand on water can be intense leading to water scarcity. 

This video shows a project by the National Research Programme "Sustainable water management" (NRP 61) who investigate how water can be optimally used in the Alps.  Prof. Rolf Weingartner presents the research work carried out in the scope of the project.

Read More

When men with the surnames ‘Blood’ and ‘Gore’ join forces to warn investors to take climate risk more seriously, the ominous portent alone might be enough to spur some into action. The fact that the men to whom those surnames belong are the former US presidential candidate, Al Gore, and the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, David Blood, makes the call even more forceful. Blood and Gore, who founded Generation Investment Management - a partnership that espouses sustainable, long-term investments - in 2004, have written a white paper that calls on investors to quantify the risk of climate change to their portfolios.

Read More

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), together with the CARIBSAVE Partnership and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (5Cs), have issued a research call to support the Caribbean region’s climate change adaptation strategy. Last month CDKN released an Acclimatise authored report that identified key research gaps that were acting as obstacles for the region’s climate change adaptation Implementation Plan.

Read More

Three US states, New York, Washington State and California, are to force companies to disclose their climate change adaptation strategies. The news comes after Adam Riedel, Director at Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law, recently wrote that companies could face ‘legal peril’ unless they took action to disclose their climate risks and adaptation plans. In a bid to protect shareholders and increase transparency the insurance commissioners for the three states are to make climate adaptation compulsory for insurance firms. 

Read More

There are few things that will rile an Englishman more than taking away his cuppa. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is leading the fight to protect tea farmers and drinkers alike from the potentially damaging impacts of climate change. The FAO has been drawing up plans on how best to protect the crop at the latest FAO Conference on Tea in Colombo.

Read More

It is becoming increasingly clear that investors and businesses must take climate risk disclosure seriously. This webinar from Ceres - a non-profit organisation that leads a national coalition of investors, environmental organisations and other public interest groups - explores the current best practice in disclosure to help businesses ensure they account for their climate risk and are not at a competative disadvantage. 

In this webinar, Jim Coburn, Senior Manager of Ceres' Investor Program provides an overview of recent developments in climate disclosure. He then covers investor expectations concerning key categories of climate disclosure and provides a useful checklist to help companies improve the quality of their disclosure and respond more effectively.

Xcel Energy, featured in the report for their good disclosures and a Climate Registered member, shares their experience and insight on preparing an effective response, and what they’ve learned about their operations and business in the process.

Read More

Corporate climate risk disclosure reaches milestone as threats of climate change enters business mainstream

AUTHORS: J-C Amado and Peter Adams, Acclimatise

Read More

In an article for the Financial Times, the UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on leaders to make disaster preparedness a priority to ensure that the human cost of climate change is kept to a minimum. He stressed that strong, early adaptation actions can reduce casualties from disasters, citing the experience of Bangladesh as an example. When a cyclone hit the country in the early 1990s more than 140,000 people lost their lives, but thanks to the fast mobilisation of thousands of volunteers tens of thousands of people were saved when cyclone Sidr struck in 2007.

The lesson, according to Ban Ki-moon, is clear; “natural hazards need not cause a human catastrophe. There are numerous, cost-effective measures that communities and countries can take today to reduce the impact of the increasingly extreme weather events we anticipate in the future”.

Read More

Mangoes hold a special place in Indian cuisine, and provide a main source of livelihood for many farmers. Rising temperatures and changing climatical conditions are causing rises in pests and diseases, and a corresponding decline in crop yields. Scientists are partnering with farmers to develop new growing methods and crop strains to deal with the climate change threat.

Video produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in cooperation with Doordarshan TV.

Read More

Adapting to climate risks is vital as a certain amount of climate change is inevitable thanks to historical greenhouse gas emissions. The extent of climate change beyond this is somewhat dependent on the amount of emissions we continue to produce from now on. There is broad consensus in the international community that we must limit the increase in global average temperatures to 2 degrees above their pre-industrial levels, to avoid ‘dangerous’ climate change. But what would the consequences be if we were to miss this target? The UK Met Office has released an interactive map that shows some of the human impacts that might be expected with 4 degrees of warming.

Read More

Flooding was one of the most prominent climate risks that faces the UK according to the recent UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) published by Defra. Increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events are likely to have a significant impact on large sections of the UK business sector, as well as causing damage to homes and disrupting transport routes and communications. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has now put further pressure on the government to step up its investment in flood defences, saying that as many as 200,000 households will face problems getting flood-protection insurance, when a government agreement ends next year.

Read More

Adaptation actions come in all shapes and sizes, but by any measure the latest project to prevent desertification on the margins of the Sahara is an enormous undertaking. The idea is to create a ‘forest wall’ that stretches from Senegal in the west to the Horn of Africa on the east coast. The barrier, which would be 15km deep and snake 7,800km across the edge of the Sahara, is designed to be a long-term adaptive measure that will prevent further desertification of marginal lands.

Read More

Climate change poses significant threats to the supply chains of businesses all over the world. In recent months Acclimatise has reported on the disruption caused by the flooding in southeast Asia and how businesses are diversifying their operations in order to protect themselves from climate risks. A new report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), investigates the implications of climate change for supply chains and finds that adaptation measures are necessary to reduce business exposure.

Read More

A recent report from the Climate and Development Knowledge Network identified some of the research challenges facing the Caribbean region, with the aim of ensuring that the implimentation plan for its climate adaptation strategy would be effective in deliverin its aims. This video from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre shows why getting the plan right is so important for the region. It was made for the UN climate talks in December last year.

The short film, underscores the gravity of the threat of climate change to the Caribbean region and the role that the CARICOM Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) plays in preparing the region for these threats. 

More specifically, it outlines the impending threats to tourism, agriculture, public health and other sectors while also explaining, through interviews with senior staff, the extensive achievements of past and current regional projects and initiatives. The video ends on a cautionary note, pointing to the urgency of policy to commit to a reduction in emissions in order to stem the tide of climate related impacts.

Read More

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) has released a report that investigates the research capacity of the Caribbean to support the region’s efforts to adapt to climate change. The report, titled the ‘Caribbean Regional Research Diagnostic’ and authored by Acclimatise, supports the delivery of the Implementation Plan for the ‘Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change’ by documenting the knowledge gaps and information required and by providing an assessment of the region’s research capacity. Many aspects of the Regional Framework and the Implementation Plan will require evidence-based research and research-based tools that are not already available. The Research Diagnostic complements the Implementation Plan, and meets CDKN’s wider research objectives.

Read More

The UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) this week released the UK’s first national Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA). The CCRA is the first-ever comprehensive assessment of potential risks and opportunities for the UK arising from climate change. This ground-breaking research has been undertaken by an independent consortium funded by Defra and the Devolved Administrations, and led by independent research organisation HR Wallingford. The 2000 page report was three years in the making and is the most comprehensive country-level risk assessment in the world, covering 11 key areas ranging from agriculture to tourism. Acclimatise was sector lead for the ‘Business, Industry and Services’, which was found to be vulnerable to several projected changes in the climate including higher average temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, sea-level rise and increases in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

Read More

Although the economic turmoil has been the principal focus of the US media in recent times, climate change has remained a relevant and pressing issue in corporate boardrooms. The 2012 State of Green Business Report evaluates how businesses across the United States continued working last year towards mitigating environmental impacts and planning for a sustainable future.  

Read More

The fact that the word ‘rivalry’ stems from the Latin ‘rivus’, meaning brook, and was used to describe disputes over water rights, signals just how long natural resources have been sources of contention.

With climate change dramatically altering the distribution and availability of resources, some scientists suggest we may need to brace ourselves for a corresponding rise in civil conflicts as resource distribution changes or availability decreases. Could some violent be, in part, an indirect impact of climate change?

Read More

By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

Bafut village, Cameroon; starved of electricity but booming in methane-rich manure. Rural livestock farmers in this heavily agricultural nation have become unlikely heroes and beneficiaries of Africa’s efforts to adapt to climate change.

Take 46-year-old Juliana Mengue, widowed five years ago he has to care for 40 cows on his own, on a 1.5 acre farm in Bafut Village in the northwest of the country. A government program, set up with the help of the Cameroon branch of global nonprofit Heifer International, has turned her animals’ manure into fuel. A boost to her family’s income, the scheme has quite literally changed her life.

Read More

USAID is starting 2012 with a new emphasis on climate change, putting both mitigation and adaptation priorities at the heart of its five-year strategy for international development. The US agency recognises climate change to be a human as well as an environmental problem that poses serious challenges to sustainable development in many of the world’s poorest communities. Directed at promoting sustainable economic growth, the new plan explains how USAID will work with partner countries to pursue resilient, low emission development that fosters human and environmental well-being. 

Read More

Last year the UK’s Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launched a toolkit to help businesses prepare for climate risks and opportunities.

Speaking at the launch Lord Henley said: “Climate change will have impacts on all UK businesses, such as the availability of resources, demand for different products, and the increased threat of floods, drought and other extreme weather. But smart businesses that take action now to limit the risks and identify the opportunities climate change could bring will steal a march on their rivals.”

Read More

As Thailand recovers from some of the worst flooding to hit the region in years, businesses have begun to take action to reduce their exposure to climate risk. The implications of extreme weather events on supply chains and production were put into sharp focus as the rising floodwaters caused massive disruption. The increasing climate risk has prompted Mitr Phol, the largest sugar producer in Thailand, to attempt the takeover of MSF Sugar, a major Australian firm. The US$313 million bid, which has now been accepted by MSF’s directors, is designed to reduce Mitr Phol’s exposure to climate risk, recognising that they must diversify their operations to cover a wider variety of climatic zones.

Read More