Cities and the Challenge of Climate Change

Under the theme ‘Urban Transformation: When Capacity-building and Innovation Work Together’, experts discussed at the COP28 in Dubai the role of cities and sustainability innovation worldwide. The session was organized by United Nations University's Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)

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New UN University report warns about risk tipping points with irreversible impacts on people and planet

Bonn, Germany 25 October – A United Nations University report released today finds that drastic changes are approaching if risks to our fundamental socioecological systems are not addressed.

The Interconnected Disaster Risks report 2023 published by the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) warns of six risk tipping points ahead of us:

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New UNU report highlights lessons for building climate resilience based on experiences from the 2021 floods in Western Europe

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of floods across the globe. As recent severe events in Italy, Brazil, Croatia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Malawi, the Philippines, Somalia and Western Australia have shown, floods affect nature and society, leaving communities, cities and entire regions devastated.

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UNU-EHS: Side Event at UN Water Conference

The UN 2023 Water Conference, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands, will take place this year at UN Headquarters in New York from 22 to 24 March 2023.

Alongside the Conference, researchers of the Bonn-based Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) are organizing and participating a side event, which ist virtual and open to the public.

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UNU-EHS and UNDRR release new report

The Institute for Environment and Human Security of the United Nations University (UNU-EHS) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction released a new report on the systemic nature of risks revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an increasingly interconnected world, shocks are felt across sectors, borders and scales, revealing the systemic nature of risks. This holds true not only for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but for the effects of climate change, and also from the effects of newly emerging crises, such as the war in Ukraine.

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COP15 has started

Since December 7, the World Summit on Nature COP15 has been taking place in Montreal, Canada. Under the organization of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), states, NGOs and stakeholders in the field will work together until December 19 to find solutions to the most pressing problems in the field of nature conservation. UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed at the start of the summit the urgency of achieving serious results:

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United Nations University - EHS launches #InterconnectedRisks report

In 2021/2022, the world yet again witnessed catastrophic disasters happening around the globe, from record-breaking heat to floods, extreme droughts, wildfires and earthquakes. From Europe to Asia, America to Africa, nowhere is immune. As climate change is here to stay and its impacts are increasingly felt, the challenges for disaster risk reduction will only grow in the future and be intensified by the impacts of loss of nature and vanishing biodiversity.

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5 Facts on disaster risk and the SDGs

The global community continues to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic and has also become increasingly aware of the impacts of natural hazards and the climate crisis. Yet, the global community has still not recognized the extent to which disaster risk may impact our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite the impact of risk on the SDGs, risk is not particularly well integrated.

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Launch of a New UN Report “Interconnected Disaster Risks” on 31 August

Our world today is facing an unprecedented level of extreme events impacting people and nature, evident in the ever-increasing frequency of severe weather events, epidemics and human-made disasters. In 2020/2021, the world witnessed a number of record-breaking disasters that showed us clearer than ever before how interconnected we are, for better or worse.

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UN University: A Concern in the Summer: 5 Facts on Heat Stress

The past few weeks have seen an extreme heatwave in parts of the Northern hemisphere.

Global climate change continues to be a pressing concern and extreme weather events are on the rise. These include highly visible events such as hurricanes and floods; however longer-term gradual changes such as heatwaves also have a severe impact on society and its vulnerable groups, especially in urban spaces.

Here are five facts on heatwaves and their impacts.

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