Decision-making

January 25, 2021

Helping poorest tackle climate crisis will boost global growth, says IMF head

Fiona Harvey

Mike Theiler/Reuters

Climate Change, COVID-19, Decision-making, Equity

Helping the most vulnerable people to cope with the climate crisis can boost the global economy during the Covid crisis and governments should make this a priority, said Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund.

January 20, 2021

Climate change will be sudden and cataclysmic. We need to act fast

Peter Giger

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Climate Change, COVID-19, Decision-making

The speed and scale of the response to COVID-19 by governments, businesses and individuals seems to provide hope that we can react to the climate change crisis in a similarly decisive manner – but history tells us that humans do not react to slow-moving and distant threats. Our evolution has selected the “fight or flight” instinct to deal with environmental change, so rather like the metaphor of the frog in boiling water, we tend to react too little and too late to gradual change.

January 19, 2021

A ‘Nerve Center’ for Climate in the Biden White House

Lisa Friedman

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Climate Action, Decision-making

Joseph R. Biden Jr. will bring with him the largest team of climate change experts ever assembled in the White House, and action on global warming is expected quickly.

January 17, 2021

António Guterres: 2021 Is the Year to Reconcile Humanity with Nature

António Guterres

Landscapes Forum

Anthropocene, Climate Action, Decision-making

UN Climate Change News, 11 January 2021 – In a virtual address at the ‘One Planet Summit’ for biodiversity hosted by the French government in cooperation with the United Nations and the World Bank, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared 2021 as “the year to reconcile humanity with nature.” He highlighted both the need to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to provide adequate finance to adapt to the impacts of climate change, which include more frequent and more severe incidents of drought, flooding and fires.

January 9, 2021

One Planet Summit: World leaders to hold virtual climate summit

Guadalupe Pardo/Reuters

Climate Change, Decision-making

Global leaders will try to reignite international environmental diplomacy on Monday with a biodiversity summit that launches a critical year for efforts to stem the devastating effects of global warming and species loss.

December 15, 2020

Macron plans referendum on including climate change fight in French constitution

Video: Mairead DUNDAS

Climate Change, Decision-making, Policy

President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he plans to call a referendum on changing the constitution in order to include a commitment to fight against climate change and for the protection of the environment.

December 2, 2020

Climate change: Temperature analysis shows UN goals ‘within reach’

Matt McGrath

Getty Images

Climate Action, Climate Change, Decision-making, Emissions reduction targets, Temperature Increase, UN SDGs

The Climate Action Tracker group looked at new climate promises from China and other nations, along with the carbon plans of US President-elect Joe Biden. These commitments would mean the rise in world temperatures could be held to 2.1C by the end of this century.

November 30, 2020

Climate ‘apocalypse’ fears stopping people having children – study

Damian Carrington

Isopix/Rex/Shutterstock

Climate Narratives, Climate Change, Decision-making

People worried about the climate crisis are deciding not to have children because of fears that their offspring would have to struggle through a climate apocalypse, according to the first academic study of the issue. The researchers surveyed 600 people aged 27 to 45 who were already factoring climate concerns into their reproductive choices and found 96% were very or extremely concerned about the wellbeing of their potential future children in a climate-changed world. One 27-year-old woman said: “I feel like I can’t in good conscience bring a child into this world and force them to try and survive what may be apocalyptic conditions.”

November 27, 2020

Guest post: The perils of counter-intuitive design in IPCC graphics

Dr. Karlijn Van Den Broek

IISD / ENB Mike Muzurakis

Decision-making, Climate Narratives, Data Visualization, IPCC

In periodic assessment reports of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the next of which is due to be published next year – key findings are displayed in an array of charts, maps and other graphics. These figures are intended to help readers understand often complicated topics. But do decision-makers correctly interpret them? And do decision-makers know which graphics they do or do not understand?

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