Recent Updates

New 'Population Dynamics and Climate Change' book

Climate change is already impacting populations and ecosystems around the globe and threatens to set back develoment efforts by decades, profoundly affecting us all.  The defining challenge of the 21st century is to combine a rapid reduction in poverty and inequiality with a rapid reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. Meeting this challenge requires an understanding of how the size, structure and dynamics of human populations influence, and are influenced by, our changing climate.

This book is in part the product of an Expert Group Meeting on Population Dynamics and Climate Change held on 24-25 June 2009.  This meeting was hosted by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and IIED, the International Institute for Environment and Development, with the collaboration of UN-HABITAT and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 

6-page Environment and Urbanization briefs are now online for the last 3 issues of the journal

Three new briefs are now online and free to download:
Getting land for housing; what strategies work for low-income groups?
What role for mayors in good city governance?
Citizen driven action on urban poverty reduction.
 

New issue of 'Environment and Urbanization' Vol 21, No 2. 'Secure land for housing and urban development' Oct 09

In urban areas, the struggle by low-income groups to get housing and basic services is often a struggle to get land on which to build or to get tenure of land they already occupy.

Study shatters myth that population growth is a major driver of climate change

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 28/09/2009 - 08:18

The real issue is not the growth in the number of people but the growth in the number of consumers and their consumption levels.

Study shatters myth that population growth is a major driver of climate change

Malawi's statistics mask struggle to meet UN goal for water and sanitation in urban areas

Submitted by Mike on Thu, 13/08/2009 - 08:09

Water and sanitation remain woefully inadequate despite government claims that nearly all urban citizens have access to safe water and sanitation.

Radical shift needed to end alarmism over climate-related migration

Submitted by Mike on Wed, 24/06/2009 - 17:06

Policymakers must radically alter their views of migration and see it as a vital adaptation to climate change rather than an unwanted consequence or a failure to adapt.

First book focusing on adaptation to climate change in cities

Submitted by Mike on Wed, 10/06/2009 - 13:32

Adapting Cities to Climate Change contains contributions by 37 specialists from a variety of disciplines, several of whom served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

A team from IIED has edited the first book to address in detail the ways in which cities can adapt to climate change

Expert Group Meeting on Population Dynamics and Climate Change

London. June 09

Papers from this meeting are now available as downloadable pdfs.

New issue of Environment and Urbanization: City governance and citizen action II

The April 2009 issue of Environment and Urbanization is on the theme of City Governance and Citizen Action. It includes an editorial and several papers discussing the roles of mayors and civil servants in addressing urban poverty. This includes interviews with Mayor Liftchitz, now in his second term in Rosario in Argentina and with four mayors in Colombia.

Cities produce surprisingly low carbon emissions per capita

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 23/03/2009 - 09:17

Greenhouse gas emissions of city dwellers are often far smaller than the national averages, says a study in the April issue of Environment and Urbanization.