In the media

The time it takes to cross the Ayapel swamp, the largest swamp in the department of Córdoba, northern Colombia, is a good measurement of how much this landscape has changed in recent decades. The journey, which used to take several hours, can now be done in less than one. Gone are the streams that forced the boatmen to slow down and the large clumps of floating plants that made it difficult to move through the wetlands.

Before, it was full of mangroves, recalls Ana María Rivera. “Today, what do you see? Sky and water, because there’s no beautiful mangrove creek left,” says the young woman, who lives in the village of Perú, a rural area at the southern end of the swamp.

The problems plaguing the swamp are as complex as the landscape in which it is located. Ayapel and ten other municipalities in the departments of Sucre, Bolívar, Córdoba, and Antioquia make up La Mojana, where three of the country’s most important rivers converge: the San Jorge, the Cauca, and the Magdalena. The Magdalena reaches the region through the Loba branch, one of the two branches parting the river’s course as it passes through the El Banco municipality in the department of Magdalena.

In a suburban cream-brick church in Melbourne’s outer west, 5000 kilometres from a homeland facing extinction, the mellifluous voices of a congregation of Tuvaluans rise in song.

The service is mostly in Tuvaluan, a Polynesian language spoken by only 13,000 people worldwide.

This Sunday afternoon service at Melton Baptist Church is a thread that connects the Tuvaluan diaspora in Melbourne to their homeland, a tiny country in the South Pacific Ocean that many see as the canary in the climate change mine.

“Rising seas threaten to drown this island nation – a sign of what’s in store for us all,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted in 2019.

The existential threat to Tuvalu is profound.

The project "Resilience to climate change in the coastal area of Cuba through ecosystem-based adaptation-Mi Costa" developed the training workshop for members of the Pinar del Río initiative, which is the last of a series of training events that over a year have been held in the seven provinces involved in that program.

Social and environmental safeguarding was one of the most relevant issues addressed during the workshop, with the purpose of sensitizing the participants and providing them with the necessary tools to face such situations, in line with the objective of strengthening the ability of local communities to adapt to climate change.

Dr. C. Marta Rosa Muñoz Campos, director of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Cuba (FLACSO), who was at the head of the workshop, commented that these meetings have a cascading effect, since the training must flow from the provinces to the municipalities and the population. He also highlighted the role of the Municipal University Centers as one of the fundamental pillars that support the project.

Juba, May 2024 – In a major move to combat the challenges posed by climate change and food insecurity, the government of South Sudan has launched a 5-year US$33 million project to build long-term resilience within vulnerable agro-pastoral communities.

To be implemented by World Vision with the UN Development Programme, the project will benefit around 75,000 people, more than half of them women, through watershed-based ecosystem restoration, climate-smart agricultural practices, and diversified livelihoods, as well as strengthened connections to markets. It will also contribute directly to the sustainable management of 15,000 hectares of land in a region recognized as being highly vulnerable to desertification.

“With the climate crisis only deepening, we are delighted to see this important climate adaptation project (WACRESS) launch in Juba,” said South Sudan’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Hon Josephine Napwon. “In partnership with the Global Environment Facility, UN Development Programme, and World Vision, it will directly improve lives and livelihoods and contribute to the three pillars of our National Adaptation Plan – building climate resilient communities, building a climate-resilient economy and development pathway, and building a climate-resilient environment.”

The deputy head of UN development Agency has called for a joint efforts between the government and partners to empower communities and protect natural resources as the country embarks on implementing a five-year climate resilience project. 

The five-year project known as "Watershed Approaches for Climate Resilience in Agro-pastoral Landscape Project" shall be implemented in Aweil Centre and Aweil East countries. 

It is funded by the Global Environment Facility through UNDP and implemented by World Vision South Sudan in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

South Sudan and World Vision have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement a project that seeks to strengthen local resilience to the impact of climate change. The project named “Watershed Approaches for Climate Resilience in Agro-Pastoral Landscapes” is worth 33 million U.S. dollars and will target 75,000 people in Aweil Center and Aweil East counties in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.The five-year project to be implemented by World Vision will enhance the capacity of communities to manage and withstand the adverse effects of climate change. Speaking during the signing ceremony, Josephine Napwon Cosmos, the Minister of Environment and Forestry, said her ministry developed the project to address the impacts of climate change in the country. Dominic Sam, the UNDP Resident Representative in South Sudan, said the project focus extends to resilient agriculture and food value chains, and boost climate-smart practices to mitigate crop failure risks and enhance food security and economic independence for 25,000 individuals.

THE sun beats down mercilessly on Mwenezi District, Masvingo Province. Once a canvas of green maize stalks, the land is now a cracked and thirsty expanse.

Mr Africa Siziba, a 45-year-old farmer from Jawanda Village under Chief Mawarire in Ward 4 of Mwenezi East, stands with a heavy heart, watching his crops wilt under the relentless glare.

The wind whispers not of rain, but carries a scorching dryness that steals the life from the withering plants. The harsh reality of climate change is etched upon this landscape. It’s devastating effects on livelihoods, health, water and food security are no longer distant threats — they are a brutal present. Mwenezi, like other districts in Masvingo Province, lies in natural regions four and five, making it particularly vulnerable. The last two decades have seen some of the harshest consequences of climate change here, with El Nino’s impact on crop yields this year being a stark example.

The Climate Promise 2025 aims to accelerate efforts from local to international levels to take more ambitious steps to ensure the global temperature does not heat up beyond the 1.5° limit, a goal set with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the initiative, driven by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), recognises an important truth in the climate battle: “it is not all doom and gloom”.

“Many countries have the will to take more ambitious steps on climate action, but the world needs to mobilise to ensure there is a way,” he said at the Below 1.5 by 2025: The Plan launch event.

Hosted by actor Ato Essandoh, the event featured conversations and pledges for action interspersed with videos aired from around the world, echoing a chorus of calls for world leaders to join and keep the promise.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has handed over US$82 000 worth of goats, agricultural and laboratory equipment to Esigodini Agricultural College to enhance the institution’s programmes.

Esigodini Agricultural College is one of the five platforms driving Zimbabwe’s innovation in agriculture.

The college received 54 Kalahari and Matabele goats and an assortment of agricultural equipment including heating ovens, a lab size grinding mill, an automated fat extractor, microscopes, fume cupboards, a automated kjeldahl unit and several laboratory consumables.

“UNDP has the largest climate portfolio in the UN system, supporting climate action in nearly 150 developing countries,” Cassie Flynn, Global Director of Climate Change at UNDP, explained.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) today unveiled the next stage of the Climate Promise – an initiative to support developing countries on their climate action.

Climate Promise 2025 - introduced by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner at an event at UN Headquarters in New York City - marks the beginning of renewed efforts on climate action across the UN System ahead of 2025, a critical year as countries enter into a new 5-year cycle of commitments to limit global warming.

UNDP’s Climate Promise 2025 builds on the organization’s continuing support for more than 125 developing countries to align the next generation of their national climate pledges – known as ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ or ‘NDCs’ – to the goals set forth under the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and increase resilience to climate impacts.

Sergazina provided invaluable insights into the implications of these forecasts and emphasized the critical need for both adaptation and mitigation efforts.

By Dr Farhina Ahmed is secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Stefan Liller is the UNDP resident representative in Bangladesh.

As Bangladesh proudly hosts the ninth global National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Expo this week, the world turns its gaze to a nation that not only faces formidable climate challenges but is also leading by example in climate adaptation.

The NAP Expo, an initiative under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), serves as a vital platform for sharing knowledge and forging partnerships in our collective journey towards environmental resilience.

The Majhi community in Nepal has been significantly impacted by climate change with adverse effects on their traditional livelihoods, which heavily relies on natural resources, such as fishing in rivers. Their unique knowledge on climate change is often overlooked instead of being acknowledged and leveraged to enhance their resilience and ensure sustainable liveliho.ods

The incessant rain, along with prolonged dry periods and drought, has made it difficult for the community to sustain their livelihoods for example, lack of irrigation has affected agricultural practices. Though there have been improvements in water supply, challenges still persist. And the Majhi community is shifting from on-farm to off-farm activities such as brewing of alcohol or undertaking manual labor for income.

New York, 23 April 2024 – The UN Development Programme (UNDP) today unveiled the next stage of the Climate Promise – an initiative to support developing countries on their climate action.

Climate Promise 2025 - introduced by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner at an event at UN Headquarters in New York City - marks the beginning of renewed efforts on climate action across the UN System ahead of 2025, a critical year as countries enter into a new 5-year cycle of commitments to limit global warming.

Haiti, a Caribbean nation endowed with natural beauty and rich cultural heritage, finds itself grappling with a myriad of challenges, from environmental degradation to political instability. UNDP is taking innovative steps to help the country address these in an integrated way.

The intervention in the Trois-Rivieres Watershed is part of a broader effort to support the Haitian Government and people address climate security challenges. UNDP helped to support Haiti’s first ever assessment of climate security challenges and participates in a recently established Climate Security Group. The project embodies the main aspects that this Group agrees are needed to address compound environmental and conflict risks: establishing a common understanding among stakeholders on what the linkages are; ensuring synergy and complementarity of actions; adapting mechanisms to better finance peacebuilding and climate change actions; technical capacity-building and making the most of technologies and research structures. Above all the project suggests pragmatic ways to close the funding gap and try and ensure that communities living in areas affected by both insecurity and climate change are empowered to adapt to multi-dimensional risks. This is climate security in practice.

Felizita Da Conceciao Mendoza, 23-year-old, is an engineering student learning in a programme “Safeguarding Rural Communities and their Physical Assets from Climate-induced Disasters in Timor-Leste” supported by the government of Timor-Leste and UNDP Green Climate Fund (GCF) project. Felizita is one of five women in 27 engineering students in the GCF training programme. “I am working as a technical supervisor in the Ministry of Public in Aileu Municipality. My educational background is civil engineering, which motivated me to participate in this training programme” said Felizita. 

SWAT: Glacial lake outburst floods (Glofs) have wreaked havoc on people’s lives and livelihoods in the picturesque valleys of Utror, Gabral, and Mankiyal in northern Pakistan.

The residents told Dawn that the catastrophic events triggered by the accelerated melting of glaciers due to climate change had uprooted entire villages, leaving locals displaced and fearing for their future.

A recent report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) highlights the alarming surge in Glof occurrences in Pakistan, with 83 such events recorded in 2023 alone.

A five-day workshop focusing on Community Conservation Areas (CCA) has been held in Vanuatu to chart a path forward regarding implementation of the Adaptation to Climate Change in the Coastal Zones of Vanuatu – Phase II project (V-CAP II).

The project is supported by the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Vanuatu, with implementation being carried out by the Ministry of Climate Change in collaboration with the Department of Environment Protection and Conservation, and the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geohazards Department.

V-CAP II aims to improve the resilience of vulnerable areas and communities in Vanuatu to the impacts of climate change through the conservation of biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and the implementation of integrated approaches in order to sustain livelihoods, food production. These efforts will ensure biodiversity conservation and reduce land degradation by building on the lessons learned from the first phase project. The project, which runs through May 2028, is being implemented in all six provinces of Vanuatu: Torba, Sanma, Malampa, Penama, Shefa, and Tafea

In a significant step towards strengthening their resilience to climate change, Ethiopia, Tanzania and the Solomon Islands have collectively secured more than US$27 million from the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) for developing comprehensive early warning systems. The investment from the United Nations multi-partner trust fund will go towards addressing critical gaps in their weather observation systems and enhance their capacities to predict and respond to climate-related hazards.

Climate information and early warning systems are key to safeguarding lives, livelihoods and a country’s development, particularly in the face of more frequent, intense and unpredictable extreme weather events.

The Republic of Moldova will strengthen its resilience to the intensifying climate-related extreme weather events, such as floods and flash floods, that cause loss of life and property damage. The Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation, provides a total of about €4 million to build the national hydro-meteorological monitoring and early warning systems and to apply an integrated water resources management approach to five key watersheds. The funds are offered through UNDP, via "Hydro-infrastructure rehabilitation to mitigate vulnerability to climate-driven extreme events in the Republic of Moldova" project, which will be implemented until the end of 2027.