Climate Change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Without drastic action today, adapting to these impacts in the future will be more difficult and costly.
Resources on Climate Change:
Climate Change and the SDGs
- SDG 12 - Sustainable Consumption
- SDG 13 - Climate change
- SDG 14 - Oceans and Seas
- SDG 15 - Biodoversity
Each year, an estimated one third of all food produced – equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes worth around $1 trillion – ends up rotting in the bins of consumers and retailers, or spoiling due to poor transportation and harvesting practices
If people worldwide switched to energy efficient lightbulbs the world would save US$120 billion annually
Should the global population reach 9.6 billion by 2050, the equivalent of almost three planets could be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles
Summary of targets:
- Implement the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production
- By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
- By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains
- By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle
- By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
- Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices
- Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable
- By 2030, ensure that people are aware and informed about sustainable lifestyles
- Support developing countries to strengthen capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production
- Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development
- Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage green economies and sustainable livelihoods
Oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished and sea level has risen. From 1901 to 2010, the global average sea level rose by 19 cm as oceans expanded due to warming and ice melted. The Arctic’s sea ice extent has shrunk in every successive decade since 1979, with 1.07 million km² of ice loss every decade
Given current concentrations and on-going emissions of greenhouse gases, it is likely that by the end of this century, the increase in global temperature will exceed 1.5°C compared to 1850 to 1900 for all but one scenario. The world’s oceans will warm and ice melt will continue. Average sea level rise is predicted as 24 – 30cm by 2065 and 40-63cm by 2100. Most aspects of climate change will persist for many centuries even if emissions are stopped
Targets:
- Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries
- Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning
- Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
- Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible
- Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities
- Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods
- Globally, the market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at $3 trillion per year or about 5 per cent of global GDP
- Oceans contain nearly 200,000 identified species, but actual numbers may lie in the millions
- As much as 40 per cent of the world oceans are heavily affected by human activities, including pollution, depleted fisheries, and loss of coastal habitats
Summarised Targets:
- By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds
- By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts
- Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification
- By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing
- By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law
- By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing
- By 2030, increase the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed countries from the sustainable use of marine resources.
- Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology
- Provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets
- Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources
- Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood. This includes some 70 million indigenous people
- Forests are home to more than 80 per cent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects
- Due to drought and desertification each year 12 million hectares are lost (23 hectares per minute), where 20 million tons of grain could have been grown
- 74 per cent of the poor are directly affected by land degradation globally
Summarised Targets:
- By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems
- By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests
- By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification
- By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity
- Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species
- Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed
- Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species
- By 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive alien species
- By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning
- Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems
- Mobilize significant resources from all sources and at all levels to finance sustainable forest management
- Enhance global support for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species
