The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the thirteenth of which is “Climate action”, namely: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Under this major goal, there are five targets, the 13.a of which is“Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities.”

●Current Situation

The World

What exactly is a $3.1 billion investment over five years for? COP27 sends a signal!

“Ever-rising greenhouse gas emissions are supercharging extreme weather events across the planet. These increasing calamities cost lives and hundreds of billions of dollars in loss and damage. Three times more people are displaced by climate disasters than war. Half of humanity is already in the danger zone,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said.

Half of the world’s countries do not have early warning systems, and even fewer countries have regulatory frameworks that link early warning with emergency plans. Developing countries at the forefront of climate change, namely the least developed countries (LDC) and small island developing States (SIDS), have the worst coverage.

According to aplan unveiled by Guterres, it will cost the equivalent of just 50 cents per person per year for the next five years to reach everyone on Earth with early warnings against increasingly extreme and dangerous weather.

The need is urgent. The number of recorded disasters has increased fivefold, partly due to human-induced climate change and more extreme weather. This trend is expected to continue. 

“Early warning save lives and provide vast economic benefits. Just 24 hours notice of an impending hazardous event can cut the ensuing damage by 30 per cent,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.

The Global Commission on Adaptation also found that spending only US$800 million on such systems in developing countries could avoid losses of US$3 billion to US$16 billion annually.

Therefore, the Guterres released the Early Warnings for All Action Plan on the sidelines of theConference of Parties (COP27), requiring that a new special investment of $3.1 billion be initially invested between 2023 and 2027. The scope of investment will include disaster risk knowledge, observations and forecasting, preparedness and response, and dissemination and communication. The plan, developed by the World Meteorological Organization and its partners and supported by a joint statement signed by 50 countries, aims to provide early warning to everyone on the planet in the next five years to resist increasingly extreme and dangerous weather.

Source: public.wmo.int

China

China calls for support to the least developed countries and landlocked developing countries in achieving sustainable development

Minister Wang Hongbo of the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations made a statement under Item 21,“Countries in special situations,”of the Second Committee of the 77th United Nations General Assembly and called for support for the least developed countries and landlocked developing countries to cope with various external challenges and shocks and achieve sustainable development.

Wang said that the international community should strengthen its support for the establishment and improvement of investment promotion centers, online universities, sustainable graduation and other support mechanisms in the least developed countries to improve the development capacity of those countries. At the same time, the international community should increase connectivity and cooperation with landlocked developing countries, increase investment in productive capacity and digital technology, and help landlocked developing countries better integrate into the global value chain and achieve economic transformation. China put forward a global development initiative last year, focusing on poverty reduction, anti-COVID, climate change, green development, connectivity and other areas that meet the development needs of countries in special situations. In June 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinpin announced that China would add US$1 billion in the “Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund”, and, with other initiatives, that China would provide a practical cooperation platform for promoting the sustainable development of the least developed countries and landlocked developing countries.

Wang stressed that China has always been a strong supporter and active promoter of the revitalization and development of the least developed countries and landlocked developing countries, and has always firmly supported their development efforts under the multilateral, regional and bilateral frameworks.

Sources: paper.people.com.cn

●Cases

The World

Building resilience in Pacific small island developing countries

Asubregional report issued by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) pointed out that in the case of global warming ranging from 1.5 degrees Celsius to 2 degrees Celsius, each degree of temperature increase will increase the risk of tropical cyclones in Pacific small island developing countries. Climate-related hydro-meteorological disasters such as tropical cyclones, floods and droughts are increasing in frequency and intensity, which has created a series of new and expanding flood and tropical cyclone risk hot-spots among Pacific small island developing countries. In the past two decades, the number of malaria cases in Pacific small island developing countries has been increasing: from less than 200,000 cases per year at the beginning of the 21st century to more than 500,000 cases per year in 2016 and 2017.

Therefore, ESCAP stressed the need for Pacific small island developing countries to better understand the need to integrate climate change adaptation and resilience into development plans. Filimon Manoni, acting secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), said that focusing on some priorities could help build resilience in the Pacific region, including strengthening the early warning system, improving the resilience of water resources, making new infrastructure resilient, protecting mangroves, and improving dry-land agricultural crop production.

Source: jcdmfund.org

German think tank believes that solving the climate change crisis requires “women’s power”

Climate change is exacerbating humanitarian crises. The displacement of population in various regions continues to increase, and the majority of women and children who have been seriously affected in the crisis are at greater risk than men. Women refugees face various threats such as life safety, sexual violence, environmental pollution, and inadequate reproductive health care. As the intensification of climate change further highlights gender inequality, women are extremely vulnerable to secondary hazards caused by climate issues. However, at the family, social and policy levels, women themselves have the ability to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, reduce structural vulnerability and ensure the well-being of women refugees. For example, Cacaotica, an all-women cocoa cooperative in Costa Rica, has opened a channel for women’s entrepreneurship and exchange, and a waste recycling project for women in Algerian refugee camps means that women-led changes are beginning.

A German think tank believes that women should be fully used to solve the problem of climate change. 1) Include women’s voices in climate work so that women can participate in and lead the climate agenda. 2) Use economic empowerment to reduce vulnerability, improve women’s adaptability to the environment, and address structural barriers such as education and reproductive health services. 3) Improve the well-being of women and promote their quality of life and dignity. 4) Enable women to obtain sustainable and clean energy in the refugee environment, so as to gain more control over their lives. 5) Protect women’s rights and strengthen the protection of vulnerable and marginalized groups through mechanisms and procedures.

Source: dgap.org

China

Opportunities for developing countries provided by Belt and Road Initiative

Since the launch of theinitiative of “the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” (the Belt and Road) in 2014, the initiative has developed into a global framework with more than 142 member countries, and about two-thirds of themember countries of “the Belt and Road” are low/middle-income countries. The maritime part of the “the Belt and Road” focuses on increasing investment and economic cooperation between countries along the ancient maritime Silk Road. The maritime routes that constitute the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, from Southeast Asia to South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, are crucial to the success of international trade in the region, but the ships sailing on these routes are an important source of greenhouse gas emissions. The Belt and Road Initiative provides a good opportunity to lead countries to cooperate in shipping decarbonization.

In South America, under the Belt and Road Initiative, China has provided a loan of US $120 million for the modernization of the port of Santiago, Cuba’s second largest port. China has participated in the purchase of 90percent of the shares of TCP Participaes SA, the largest port in Brazil, and signed an agreement with Chancy Port in Peru of US$225 million. In addition, the Belt and Road initiative has also reached El Salvador, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Antigua and Barbuda. Although African ports account for only 3 percent of the global maritime traffic and have been ignored by international inventors and loan organizations for decades, Chinese state-owned enterprises focusing on future business opportunities have invested in about 74 African ports, of which 28 are large ports, including seven deep-water ports. In addition, China’s banks and state-owned enterprises have participated in financing, building or operating more than 50 African seaports.

Source:cbcgdf.org

Shenzhen tells the world the story of action to combat climate change

Zhang Yali, deputy director of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, told the story of Shenzhen’s action to cope with climate change in her speech at the COP27 China Pavilion Event: Climate Actions from Chinese Cities and Global South Urban Climate Cooperation.

With the efforts of 20 years, Shenzhen’s green and low-carbon level has been continuously improved, its ability to adapt to climate change has been effectively enhanced, the system and mechanism to cope with climate change has been gradually improved, and the participation of the whole people in low-carbon production and lifestyle has been increasingly deepened.

Specific figures can better illustrate the current achievements: in 2021, the city’s total economic volume was 3.07 trillion yuan, ranking fourth in Asia; PM2.5 dropped to 18 μg/m3, the highest level since the monitoring data was available; the city takes the lead in eliminating black and odorous water in the whole city; the proportion of clean power supply reached 77 percent  in terms of installation, leading the country; the city takes the lead in making all buses, taxis and online ride-hailing cars pure electric, has a total of 666,000 new energy vehicles in use, and has the largest  number of pure electric logistics vehicles in the world; the total area of green buildings has reached 147 million square meters; the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP is only one fifth of the national average; and high-tech industries account for more than 70 percent of the city’s total output value.

In the future, Shenzhen will simultaneously promote the response to climate change and the high-level protection of the ecological environment, adhere to the goal-oriented method in the city’s response to climate change, and make every effort to build a model cityfor the development of a global climate adaption.

Source: sztqb.sznews.com

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.