Media centre
If you are a journalist and would like a comment, interview and/or briefing, please contact Beth Herzfeld, IIED's head of media.
This section of our site is designed for members of the media. You can find our latest press releases, contact details and information about our spokespeople.
IIED experts are available for interviews and background briefings on a wide range of environmental and development issues, from climate change and climate finance to China and development, the economics of development, urban issues and resilient cities, and the illegal wildlife trade. See a full list of our areas of work.
For non-media enquiries, please go to our contact us page, and for general news go to our news and comment section.
Latest press releases
25 September 2019
In response to the UN Climate Action Summit, IIED director Andrew Norton said: “The summit did not go far enough. The science is clear – we cannot exceed a 1.5°C temperature rise. It is time to ditch the 2°C target.
25 September 2019
In response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), IIED director Andrew Norton said: “This report’s findings are staggering. The rate and magnitude of change to the ocean, glaciers and ice sheets are happening much faster than previously predicted. The climate emergency must be met with equally accelerated action.
23 September 2019
At the start of the UN Climate Action Summit, IIED director Andrew Norton said: “This summit needs to live up to its name and produce effective, meaningful action to cut emissions and provide support to those who need it most.
19 September 2019
Struggling families in rural Bangladesh spend almost US$2 billion a year on preventing climate-related disasters or repairing damage caused by climate change – far more than either the government or international bodies, new research today reveals ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit
6 May 2019
In response to the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IIED director Andrew Norton said: “The IPBES report on the global state of biodiversity is shocking but not entirely surprising. The question is, how much more evidence and repeated warnings will it take for governments, companies and financial institutions to wake up to the urgency and act?
14 March 2019
New research showing how billions of dollars in climate finance can be used more effectively and reach more of the people it is supposed to, is released as governments, financiers and organisations meet in Nairobi, Kenya for the One Planet Summit (14 March)
11 March 2019
Key areas of the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and the Pacific should be designated protected areas in order to safeguard vulnerable coastal communities’ livelihoods, new research published this week reveals
Media mentions
The latest report from the IPCC reveals the alarming impact climate change is having on the ocean and areas of ice. Andrew Norton, IIED Director, said the findings are staggering. "Rich countries must step up their response to tackling climate change," he said.
As leaders meet at the UN Climate Action Summit, Clare Shakya, IIED's climate change research director, says governments must commit to keeping temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. Success will be measured by rich countries raising their level of ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the support they provide to developing and small island countries.
Poor, rural Bangladeshis are spending far more than the government and aid agencies to combat the impacts of climate change, diverting what little money they have away from basic needs, a new IIED report says.
Conservation needs both to be more accountable and inclusive. Failure to recognise the needs of people in developing countries undermines efforts to protect wildlife, Dilys Roe, principal researcher at IIED said.
Governments have agreed under Paris Agreement to tackle climate change. Every policy including for aid, trade and agriculture needs to contribute to tackling the climate crisis, says Clare Shakya, IIED's director of climate change research (see from 4.46).