This meeting is one of a series of expert group meetings to support the preparation of the Global Sustainable Development Report 2013. The meetings are being organized to review and complete draft chapters of the report, which is expected to be finalized by September 2013. This meeting will discuss the themed chapter on the climate-land-energy-water-development (CLEW) nexus. The chapter will include sections on: rationale and nexus examples; national case studies highlighting the utility of the nexus perspective in implementing sustainable development; regional case studies, including identified policy solutions and alternatives ones; a global case study, including policy recommendations from sectoral and thematic assessments; and towards coherent policy menus, which will identify criteria for policy menus across the nexus.
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6 May 2013: “Countries discussed concrete solutions to speed up and scale up action and they are committed to sticking to their own timetable,” said Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, reporting on discussions held during the second session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 2).
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3 May 2013: Over 70 participants attended the seventh meeting of the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) for pilot countries and participating regions, which provided countries and regional organizations with opportunities to share challenges and experiences in implementing their programmes to enhance climate resilient development.
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26 April 2013: The first comprehensive assessment of soils across the African continent has been released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the European Commission, the African Union (AU) and other international partners.
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March 2013: The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has released a report on great ape conservation and poverty alleviation. The report considers REDD+, tourism, human-wildlife conflict, and great ape biology.
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2 May 2013: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its Statement on the Status of the Global Climate for 2012, which indicates that 2012 is among the ten previous years as one of the warmest on record. This is the ninth warmest year since records began in 1850 and the 27th consecutive year that global land and ocean temperatures were above the 1961–1990 average, with the years 2001–2012 all among the top 13 warmest years on record.
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2 May 2013:
The 69th Commission Session of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) met under the theme, 'Building resilience to natural disasters and major economic crises,' and concluded with the adoption of 17 resolutions aiming to balance the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development for regional well-being.
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30 April 2013: The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) has released a publication, titled ‘Legal Analysis of Cross-cutting Issues for REDD+ Implementation: Lessons Learned from Mexico, Viet Nam and Zambia.' The purpose of the report is to identify key legal issues impacting REDD+ and highlight lessons learned and messages from legal reform and development in the case study countries.
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May 2013: Highlighting the risks posed by climate change to biodiversity, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released a study that documents climate-induced changes to ecosystems and measures to promote adaptation.
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29 April 2013: In the context of increased rainfall variability and recurrent drought in mountain regions of China, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) has published a study, titled 'Coping with Climate-induced Water Stress Through Time and Space in the Mountains of Southwest China,' on strategies to increase resilience to water shortages.
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