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Climate change special

IIED colleagues are currently at the COP25 climate change negotiations in Madrid. Read on for updates on our recent activities on climate change in and around COP25.

Acting on the planetary emergency

"We cannot afford to be paralysed by the scale of what we face. IIED’s new five-year strategy is built around a proactive response to five inter-locking global challenges: growing inequality, the climate crisis, the assault on the natural world, unsustainable markets and increasing urban risk."

With evidence of grave ecological and social crises mounting, IIED director Andrew Norton considers the scale and shape of the challenges ahead and how IIED can step up action to meet them. Read the blog.

Development and Climate Days 2019

Grassroots representatives, researchers, policymakers and development practitioners discussed how to push for climate justice and enhanced climate action at D&C Days 2019 in Madrid on 8 December.

Participants focused on developing key messages to be shared with target audiences, both during the current UN climate negotiations in Madrid and at future international forums.

A full summary of the event can be found at the IIED website, with video from the opening and closing plenaries. The closing plenary focused on the future: how can key messages from D&C Days be linked to major milestones – and more importantly, how can we ensure those messages are resonating with key agents for change, ranging from the grassroots to the major global institutions shaping how funding and policies address the needs of the most vulnerable?

"There is a point of hope here. Hope of transformation. Yes of course, we young people are impatient. But we are also patient and sweet to deal with. You should see us advocate..."

– Bisola Akinmuyiwa of Slum / Shack Dwellers International at D&C Days closing panel

Blog by Xiaoting Hou Jones

Nature-based solutions to climate change: stories from Chile

The last-minute decision to shift the location of the UN climate negotiations from Santiago to Madrid saw committed multilateralism at work; despite the logistical challenges, world leaders have pressed ahead with these crucial talks in Spain.

While the climate spotlight has moved continents, Xiaoting Hou-Jones shares stories from Chile on how nature can support adaptation efforts.

Blog by Gabrielle Swaby

Politics at play at the UN climate talks? The LDCs don’t have time for games

There’s one year left before countries are formally held to account to their pledges under the Paris Agreement. From the COP25 climate talks in Madrid, Gabrielle Swaby sets out what the least developed countries – the poorest nations with most at stake – need from these crucial negotiations.

Backgrounder, 2 pages

The critical role of science in guiding UN climate negotiations

The role of scientists in informing and guiding the UN climate change negotiations is critically important and the most recent report on holding global temperature rise to 1.5°C received a particularly contentious response within the UN decision-making body. In the face of an escalating climate crisis, governments must use the best available science to take rapid and proportionate action.

Download the backgrounder

Working paper, 60 pages

Framing and tracking 21st century climate adaptation

There is an urgent need for frameworks to help countries meet their adaptation obligations under the Paris Agreement while preparing for warming that breaches the Paris temperature thresholds. Countries will need to track their adaptation activities to determine what does and does not work, identify good practice, and capture lessons that can inform adaptation planning, design and implementation

Download the working paper

Climate change briefing papers

Briefings

Ensuring COP25 delivers increased ambition in 2020

Meeting the enhanced transparency framework: what next for the LDCs?

Reimagining the climate finance system with digital technology

Calling for business unusual: reforming climate finance

How climate finance can help repurpose hydropower

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