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Zagtouli solar power plant, Burkina Faso ©Erwan Rogard for AFD 2017, courtesy ID4D
June 2020

How West Africa can expand power supply and meet climate goals

Dr Robert Brecha

Expanding renewable energy and cross-border cooperation could allow developing countries in West Africa to leapfrog or at least minimise the commitment to a climate-damaging future of fossil-fuel energy generation while powering sustainable development. Our new research shows that combining smartly selected, sustainably managed hydropower projects with an expansion of solar and wind energy is a no-regrets way forward for this region.

(Also available in French)

Key Messages for Small Island Developing States from the IPCC 1.5°C Special Report
December 2018

Key Messages for Small Island Developing States from the IPCC 1.5°C Special Report

Dr Carl-Friedrich Schleussner

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been advocating for at least a decade for the establishment of 1.5°C as an upper limit for global average temperature increase - due to their high vulnerability to increased climate impacts. This latest IPCC 1.5°C Special Report provides the scientific assessment that supports the long-established cry of SIDS to limit global temperatures and the risks that threaten these small island nations.

Climate change loss & damage — an urgent, cross-cutting issue
July 2018

Climate change loss & damage — an urgent, cross-cutting issue

Frances Fuller

Ever more intense climatic events are rapidly pushing Small Island Developing States to the verge of their coping capacities, beyond which they will experience irreparable loss and damage. These risks threaten the socio-economic stability and undermine already limited abilities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. A recent event hosted by the Government of Belize looked at ways of increasing understanding and international cooperation to address this urgent issue.
COP23. The voices of vulnerable nations should be represented in IPCC authorship
May 2018

Authors from vulnerable nations in IPCC reports

Just as the voices of vulnerable nations were critical in including the 1.5°C limit in the Paris Agreement, it is also critical that experts from these states play an active role in authorship of IPCC reports. It's encouraging to see that the composition of the body of experts selected to put together the Special Report on 1.5°C and the Sixth Assessment Report increasingly reflects this.