Blog archives
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Can COP26 reach ambitious outcomes for LDCs?
22 October 2021Ambitious, inclusive and equitable outcomes at COP26 are vital. Will major emitters commit to significant carbon cuts? Will countries honour their climate finance pledges? And how will finance reach those most in need? Anna Schulz sets out four outcomes for COP26 to be labelled a success for the Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.
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30x30 – a brave new dawn or a failure to protect people and nature?
21 October 2021The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) negotiations, concluding early next year, include a plan to nearly double protected areas to 30% of the planet by 2030. Joe Eisen and Blaise Mudodosi discuss whether the 30x30 target offers a false solution to the biodiversity crisis
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Inclusive negotiations: are hybrid meetings the answer?
20 October 2021As the organisers of COP26 face the complex challenges of getting 10-20,000 delegates to Glasgow for in-person negotiations during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, what are the pros and cons of hybrid formats for making negotiations more inclusive
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Taking stock: community responses to COVID-19 in cities
19 October 2021A reflection on the successes, priorities and problems facing community organisations during the pandemic – with implications for their future funding and even survival
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Improving community attitudes towards conservation
18 October 2021An IIED-led project in Uganda supported community wildlife scouts and microenterprises to mitigate human-wildlife conflict (HWC) and improve community attitudes towards conservation, with the overall aim of reducing participation in wildlife crime
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In her name: securing land tenure for women in Zambia
15 October 2021Gender expert Thais Bessa describes how inclusive technology, a gender-responsive documentation process and shifting gender norms are empowering women through secure land rights
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Humanitarian action is part of climate response – but must be early and locally led
14 October 2021Humanitarian actors could be key players in the global climate response, especially through their efforts to address climate-induced loss and damage. But their actions must be pre-emptive and locally-led. Anna Carthy and Simon Addison look at a new funding mechanism that helps humanitarians scale up local efforts and proactively address climate risks
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Escalating local climate resilience finance
12 October 2021A new IIED report offers 30 practical options to help local people build vital resilience into their livelihoods, landscapes and food systems and calls for an urgent increase in climate finance to and through local organisations
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Can COP26 lay firm foundations for an ambitious new climate finance goal?
11 October 2021With negotiations for the post-2025 climate goal due to commence at COP26, we ask what lessons can be learned from the previous – unmet – target and explore the priority issues for least developed countries (LDCs), who will be seeking changes to both the volume and nature of the climate finance they receive
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How the digital divide threatens the success and legitimacy of the COP26 talks
8 October 2021The digital divide is in danger of stifling the voices of those representing some of the communities likely to be worst affected by the impacts of climate change
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Locally-led action key to delivering the new global biodiversity framework
7 October 2021Next week’s UN biodiversity conference (COP15) will be a milestone in global efforts to stop biodiversity loss and put nature on a path to recovery. Dilys Roe and Ebony Holland put forward the case that people and locally-led conservation efforts need to be at the centre of this transformation
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A glimmer of hope ahead of COP26 – financing for adaptation
6 October 2021A newly formed group of champion countries committed to ramping up flows of adaptation finance brings promise − provided they can also improve access, explains guest blogger Angelique Pouponneau
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Upgrading informal settlements in the global South: transforming relations with government, transforming lives
5 October 2021Upgrading rather than bulldozing is becoming the mainstream government response to deal with informal settlements in many nations – done well, this can be transformative for residents and their communities but the opportunity is often missed
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Street vendors and garbage pickers need protection from climate extremes
5 October 2021Around two billion people globally are considered informal workers, in jobs like street vending, agriculture or collecting and recycling plastic rubbish. Many earn on a daily basis and lack savings, healthcare or other social protections. So they typically can’t afford to stop working in the face of COVID-19 and other emergencies
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Can we reduce urban poverty and inequality and achieve net zero cities?
4 October 2021This year, World Habitat Day focuses on how cities can develop practical, workable plans for a carbon-free world. Over half the world’s population live in urban areas, so it’s unsurprising that cities are responsible for 75% of carbon emissions. Anna Walnycki and Tucker Landesman explain why efforts to achieve zero carbon cities will only be successful if they simultaneously address pervasive urban poverty and inequalities
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Five pathways to deliver rapid support for a green and resilient COVID-19 recovery in the LDCs
1 October 2021Drawing on a recent situational analysis report, Ritu Bharadwaj describes transformative pathways for setting the Least Developed Countries on a path towards a just, equitable and green recovery
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Food Systems Summit: implications for global food governance
30 September 2021Last week's Food Systems Summit raised questions about global governance models in a policy area fundamental to everyone’s lives. Lorenzo Cotula argues that, without clear decision-making rules and effective structures to manage power differentials, bringing diverse actors together produces ‘capture’ rather than inclusion
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Mining cobalt better
29 September 2021While the post-COVID-19 world looks at ‘building back better’, little has changed for artisanal cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over the last 12 months, IIED’s research in partnership with Afrewatch DRC has found nascent efforts to improve the sector to be at risk of creating “islands of responsibility” while failing to drive the broad based societal and environmental change envisaged by the ‘building back better’ agenda
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Locally-led nature-based solutions can deliver global leaders’ pledge
28 September 2021One year on from the launch of the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature – when political leaders committed to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 – Xiaoting Hou Jones, drawing on examples from the Least Developed Countries, sets out why locally-led nature-based solutions are indispensable for turning the pledge into action and delivering a green COVID-19 recovery
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Listen to young people: cultural practices can provide answers to the climate problem
27 September 2021Ahead of this week’s COP26 Youth Summit, Papua New Guinean climate advocate Vinzealhar Nen urges world leaders heading to Glasgow to listen to and learn from climate solutions being championed by young people in members' countries − particularly the small islands states
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Reconciling food production and forest conservation: priorities for the UN Food Systems Summit
20 September 2021In the latest blog in our ‘food year’ series, guest blogger Hambulo Ngoma discusses the potential policy collisions between producing food to feed growing populations and conserving our forests
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Addressing the ‘triple crisis’ COVID-19, climate change and nature loss: a catalyst for business to increase its sustainability?
8 September 2021The role played by businesses will be critical in helping the world to tackle current crises and 'build back better' – and there is lots of evidence that companies that prioritise sustainability can outperform the market
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Integrating gender and intersectionality in social protection programmes
7 September 2021Reflecting on recent IIED research examining the impact of COVID-19 on women in India, Tracy Kajumba and Ritu Bharadwaj explain why gender and intersectionality must be embedded in social protection programmes
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Zambia’s chiefs champion gender equality in land and natural resource governance
6 September 2021Guest blogger Zenebech Mesfin describes the efforts of Zambian traditional leaders to promote gender equality in the management of land and natural resources at the national level
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Does the Global Biodiversity Framework offer a plan B for protected areas?
3 September 2021Ahead of IUCN’s World Conservation Congress, Phil Franks examines why – to date – strategies to halt biodiversity loss have largely failed, and discusses a way forward for protected areas and other forms of area-based conservation that is not only inclusive but also equitable