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Key LDC priorities in 2019
April 2019

Key LDC priorities in 2019

Manjeet Dhakal

2019 is a critical year for carrying forward the momentum on climate action generated last year through COP24, the Talanoa Dialogue and the IPCC 1.5°C Special Report. The Paris Agreement rulebook is just one element for achieving the Agreement’s 1.5°C goal. Without urgent and more ambitious action, even robust rules will not get us anywhere.
Solar farm, Región de Antofagasta, Chile
April 2019

Centred on science – how the IPCC can guide mitigation action

Dr Michiel Schaeffer, Dr Robert Brecha, Bill Hare

The IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C contains the best available science to guide the development of Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS), which are due to be submitted in 2020 under the Paris Agreement. One essential function of LT-LEDS is to provide a long-term 1.5°C consistent trajectory as an essential guide for increasing the level of mitigation ambition in the updating of NDCs, also due in 2020. Coupling the process of developing full LT-LEDS and submitting these by 2020 will make the process of further ramping up NDCs more coherent in the years to come.
NYC March for Science
March 2019

A Green New Deal in the United States – fantasy or necessity?

Dr Robert Brecha

The Green New Deal (GND) is currently only in the form of a “resolution” introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey; any actual legislation that results from the resolution will be taken up by the respective chambers of Congress – and likely will not be done as a whole package. Having said that, the GND is a rare example of proposing how to tackle a societal-scale set of challenges not by looking at individual components but by presenting a vision for the whole system.

Namche Bazar, Namche, Nepal
February 2019

Glacial melt spells more trouble in the Himalayan LDCs

Dr Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Dr Fahad Saeed

The recent landmark International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) report on glacial melt in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region paints a drastic picture, indicating that the glaciers will melt by one third even if global temperature rise is limited to 1.5°C, a goal of the Paris climate agreement. However, the picture becomes even bleaker for the region’s Least Developed Countries, in which the report projects glaciers will recede by some 50% by the end of the century, spelling disaster for the poorest people living on the roof of the world.