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Climate change: what would 4°C of global warming feel like?

Another year, another climate record broken. Globally, 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year ever recorded. This was all the more remarkable given that cool conditions in the Pacific Ocean – known as La Niña – began to emerge in the second half of the year. The Earth’s mean surface temperature ...

Mr. Josphat N. Muchiri

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point, BCH NFP
jmuchiri@biosafetykenya.go.ke

Dr. Anil Jasinghe

CBD Primary NFP, CHM NFP, SBSTTA NFP, ABS NFP, Cartagena Protocol Primary NFP, Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point, BCH NFP, Marine and Coastal Biodiversity NFP, GSPC NFP
sec@env.gov.lk

Positive ‘tipping points’ offer hope for climate crisis

A tipping point is a moment when a small change triggers a large, often irreversible response, researchers have previously warned that the world is dangerously close to several tipping points that could accelerate climate change.

Biodiversity Loss: Alarm Bell Tolls – Analysis

Biodiversity loss is one of the most pressing challenges humanity faces today. All the recently published reports on biodiversity – the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystems, the Living Planet Report, the Global Forest Resources Assessment Report and the Global Biodiversity Out ...

Review of the coordinates of the National Focal Points for the Global Taxonomy Initiative

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/JSH/VA/KM/89336 (2021-002)
To: CBD National Focal Points; Cartagena Protocol Focal Points; ABS Focal Points; SBSTTA Focal Points; GTI Focal Points; Consortium of Scientific Partners on Biodiversity; indigenous peoples and local communities and relevant organizations

English 

Transformative Adaptation to Climate Change in Southeast Asian Coastal Cities: Entry Points for Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City, December 2020

This study is part of the UNRISD project “Transformative Adaptation to Climate Change in Southeast Asian Coastal Cities” which explores adaptation decisionmaking processes and barriers to transformative solutions in order to inform more progressive policy making in the context of Southeast Asian ...

Weak policy oversight could be pushing Brazilian forests closer to a tipping point

Home to more than 60% of the Amazon rainforest, the largest tropical forest in the world, Brazil is beyond rich in biodiversity and life. The country is also rife with deforestation, and violations of environmental laws and Indigenous people’s rights.

Mr. Hans Moons

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point, BCH NFP
hans.moons@ec.europa.eu

Electric cars and vegan diets: Are 'good' climate tipping points at hand?

Not all climate tipping points are bad - and some good ones may be just on the horizon. Scientist Tim Lenton explains the shifts in behavior and technology that could soon spur large-scale climate action

Mass lake drainage in Alaskan tundra another sign of climate change: researchers

Scientists say a year in which almost 200 tundra lakes drained away could point to what’s in store for Canada’s North. Between 2017 and 2018, 192 lakes in northwest Alaska lost at least a quarter of their area as the permafrost that held them melted.

New Map Developed To Show Distribution Of Bee Species, Populations Around The World

In an effort to understand where the bee population reside the most as well as to record different bee species and conserve them, researchers have created a global map that shows where bees live around the world. The map is supposed to act as a jump-off point for future bee-related research.

Only A Balanced Approach To Ocean & Inland Aquaculture Will Nourish The World, Research In Nature Communications Asserts

New research evaluates claims that ocean aquaculture is the next sustainable and equitable food frontier, points to a balanced approach that includes land-based aquaculture as essential to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Megaprojects risk pushing forests past tipping point – report

Infrastructure megaprojects risk pushing the world’s remaining forests past a “dangerous tipping point” and making climate targets unachievable, a report says.

Ms. Birgül Güner

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
birgul.guner@tarimorman.gov.tr

Mr. Nasser M. Al-Mansoori

CBD Primary NFP, CHM NFP, SBSTTA NFP, Cartagena Protocol Primary NFP, Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point, BCH NFP
NMAL-Mansoori@mme.gov.qa

M. Komi Anthe

Cartagena Protocol Primary NFP, Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
direfaune@yahoo.fr

Nature survives in the tiniest corners': the City of London's wild heart

There was literally a frog orgy in that one. There is no other way to describe it,” says Jules Waite, from the London Wildlife Trust, pointing at a pond in the Barbican wildlife garden, one of the few areas of London’s Square Mile whose inhabitants are not in lockdown.

COVID-19 pandemic, an ‘unprecedented wake-up call’ for all inhabitants of Mother Earth

Recognizing the “immediate and dreadful” impact of the coronavirus, the UN chief urged everyone to “work together to save lives, ease suffering and lessen the shattering economic and social consequence”. At the same time, he observed that climate disruption is approaching “a point of no return” ...

Ms. Damira Ashyralieva

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
ashyr14@mail.ru

Photographers join forces against wildlife crime

The ongoing spread of Covid-19, which is thought to have originated from a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is focusing increased attention on human interactions with wildlife. scientists pointed to pangolins as a possible source of the virus, although new research has now questioned thi ...

How the Heavy Rains of Hurricane Maria Shattered the Forests of Puerto Rico

Wind may have been pointed as the main culprit for the knocked down trees in all the attacks of hurricanes. However, a new survey was recently released of the damage in the Puerto Rican forests following the back-to-back hurricanes back in 2017. This particular survey highlighted the power of a ...

Yes, this is a forest

‘We understand the value of forests beyond the price tag of timber. We recognise that our forests are crucial for wildlife to survive.‘ Tesni Clare made some interesting points in the article ‘This is not a forest’, recently published in The Ecologist, not least about the importance of healthy f ...

The World’s Best Natural Defense Against Climate Change May Soon Make Things Worse

As extreme weather rocks the Southern Ocean, a tumultuous mix of carbon dioxide, winds and warming waters could reach an environmental tipping point

Saving Mozambique’s seagrass

Creating the conditions for sustainable seagrass restoration in Maputo and Inhambane bays “People can’t think of Inhaca without thinking about seagrass,” says Salamao Bandeira of Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, knee-deep in the shallow waters on the seaward side of Maputo Bay, as he points ...

What Machiavelli would make of climate change

Major climatic shifts have long been a feature of human society. But the scientific evidence overwhelmingly points to man-made rather than cyclical causes of contemporary climate change. And with those changes, we have seen nearly annual rises in global temperature averages. Today’s climate chan ...

Mr. Aye Min

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
ayespecial@gmail.com

As Planet Burns, One Million Species in World’s Eco-System in Danger of Extinction

When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the 193-member General Assembly last December, he focused on the smoldering climate crisis– pointing out that the last five years have been the hottest ever recorded.

What four years at sea taught me about our relationship to the ocean

It was on day 11, I think, that I stopped getting out of bed at all. I had already let my hygiene standards slip to the point that a large knot was starting to form in my hair. Later my mother would have to cut it out with scissors. She didn’t mind. We were all in the same boat.

Panamanian field expeditions examine how species persevere in face of climate change

Last month, two graduate students from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University traveled to one of the most species-rich landscapes in the world: a remote strip of tropical rainforest at the narrowest point in the Central American country of Panama.

The Paris Agreement set an unrealistic target for global warming. Now what?

It's been a rallying cry for activists and a key talking point for diplomats. For decades now, 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming has been viewed as a "do not cross" line in climate policy, a temperature at which cataclysmic and potentially permanent damage to the plane ...

Mr. Jeff Gerges

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
j.gerges@moe.gov.lb

M. Bruno Maurice Goro Ousfa

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
cyrgoro@yahoo.fr

M. Ousseynou Kassé

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
ouzin12@gmail.com

2020 marks a turning point for nature’s role in climate solutions

Global biodiversity talks in China this year will highlight nature-based solutions that could meet one-third of Paris Agreement climate goal by 2030.

Mr. Ebrima Njie

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point
ebrimanjie@hotmail.com

M. Charles Bourgeois

Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point, BCH NFP
charles.bourgeois@developpement-durable.gouv.fr

Mr. Khalif Hassan Dalmar

Cartagena Protocol Primary NFP, Cartagena Protocol emergency contact point, BCH NFP
kh.dalmar@environment.gov.so

How the 'Venice of Africa' is losing its battle against the rising ocean

A meth Diagne points to a single tree submerged in the ocean. It is barely visible from the patch of land where he is standing, 50 metres away. The few branches emerging from the water mark the place where he proposed to his wife 35 years earlier.

Humans are good at thinking their way out of problems, but climate change is outfoxing us

There is growing evidence that Earth's systems are heading towards climate "tipping points" beyond which change becomes abrupt and unstoppable. But another tipping point is already being crossed—humanity's capacity to adapt to a warmer world.

Cacao not gold: ‘chocolate trees’ offer future to Amazon tribes

The villagers walk down the grassy landing strip, past the wooden hut housing the health post and into the thick forest, pointing out the seedlings they planted along the way.

Fifteen Years to Save the Amazon Rainforest from Becoming Savannah

The pace of deforestation in the Amazon, coupled with last year’s devastating forest fires, has pushed the world’s largest rainforest close to a tipping point beyond which it will turn from a carbon sink to a carbon source.

Quand les prairies des aéroports deviennent des sanctuaires pour la biodiversité

Il existe en France, des terrains aménagés qui présentent une biodiversité insoupçonnée, abritant un écosystème bien plus riche qu'il n'y paraît : les prairies des aéroports. L'association Aéro Biodiversité fait le point sur ces zones qui symbolisent davantage la fuite en avant des émissions de ...

What do record ocean temperatures tell us about climate change?

In 2019, the oceans reached higher temperatures than at any other point in recorded human history, according to a new analysis published on 13 January in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (1). The new record demonstrates, unequivocally, the reality of global warming

8 environment and development stories to watch in the new make-or-break decade

The narrative of the year will be if 2020 will be a turning point for the better or for the worse, says World Resources Institute president Andrew Steer. What stories should be watching out for?

China's good surface water quality rose 3.9 percentage points in 2019

The proportion of good quality surface water in China reached 74.9 percent at the end of 2019, up 3.9 percentage points compared to a year earlier, China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Friday.

Study points to global streams and rivers' contribution to climate change

A new study led by Auburn University researchers and published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, shows a four-fold increase in emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide—a major contributor to climate warming—in global streams and rivers.

The advantage of changing sex in fish population recovery

Humans eat a lot of fish, in some areas of the world making up an essential part of our diet. Fishing can sometimes deplete fish populations to the point where the fish have difficulty reproducing and growing their numbers again. Establishing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that limit or eliminate ...

Native fish could die alongside invasive ones under eradication plan

Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists say there's no point trying to save some of the native fish in a New Brunswick lake that may soon be deliberately poisoned.

Research points to unprecedented and worrying rise in sea levels

A new study led by Simon Fraser University's Dean of Science, Prof. Paul Kench, has discovered new evidence of sea-level variability in the central Indian Ocean.