Reports

Private finance has a vital role to play in the global response to climate change, but it is not a substitute for public finance. COP19 in Warsaw must make commitments to scaling up public finance for adaptation, so that the world’s poorest countries and communities are not left without promised adaptation support.

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ib-adaptation-public-finance-climate-adaptation-181113-en.pdf

The horrifying chemical weapons attacks in Damascus in August 2013 led to a flurry of diplomatic activity. This new momentum has the potential to turn into a breakthrough only if urgent and immediate action is taken on aid and efforts are made to stop the bloodshed.

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bn-moment-of-truth-syria-peace-talks-221013-en.pdf

This paper sets out how one crop – sugar – has been driving large-scale land acquisitions and land conflicts at the expense of small-scale food producers and their families. At least 4m hectares of land have been acquired for sugar production in 100 large-scale land deals since 2000, although given the lack of transparency around such deals, the area is likely to be much greater. In some cases, these acquisitions have been linked to human rights violations, loss of livelihoods, and hunger for small-scale food producers and their families. Major food and beverage companies rarely own land, but they depend on it for the crops they buy, including sugar. These companies must urgently recognise this problem, and take steps to ensure that land rights violations and conflicts are not part of their supply chains.

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Sugar rush briefing note.pdf

Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common in Russia, and the 2012 drought confirmed this trend. However, Russia still has only a small number of specific agricultural adaptation measures in place. This case study analyses the key difficulties that small-scale farmers faced as a result of the 2012 drought and discusses possible adaptation measures, which could be used to confront these. It argues that climate change and the absence of adaptation policies are creating food security problems and a livelihood crisis for small-scale farmers. Specific and well-designed adaptation policies could significantly ameliorate the problems faced by the Russian agricultural sector, and must be introduced as soon as possible.

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cs-russia-drought-adaptation-270913-en.pdf

This briefing paper explores how the failure to tackle climate change threatens all aspects of food security – availability, access, utilisation, and stability. The changing climate is already jeopardising gains in the fight against hunger, and it looks set to worsen. It threatens the production and distribution of food. It threatens people’s ability to access food by undermining livelihoods and destabilising prices, and it damages diets by harming human health and putting at risk the quality of food produced. Finally, the paper sets out how these impacts can be averted, through urgent action to avoid dangerous climate change, address our broken food system, and strengthen its resilience.

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Growing_Disruption.pdf