News
ISEDC to take part at First UNESCO Science Centres Coordination Meeting in Beijing, China
First UNESCO Science Centres Coordination Meeting will take place in the Beijing Conference Centre in China from 16 to 18 May 2016.
Following the invitation of UNESCO, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chinese Academy of Sciences the event will be attended by the ISEDC Executive Director Yury Posysaev.
At climate summit in Washington, UN officials call to take action ‘to the next level’
Recalling that just two weeks ago, 175 countries came to the United Nations to sign the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said it is time to take climate action to the next level.
“We need to accelerate the speed, scope and scale of our response, locally and globally,” Mr. Ban told participants of the Climate Action Summit 2016 in Washington D.C, a two-day meeting that started today and aims to strengthen the multi-stakeholder approach to climate implementation.
UN says Paris Agreement on climate change must aim for long-term environmental stability
As global leaders prepare to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change tomorrow at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction today called on signatories to go beyond their existing commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to avoid catastrophic future weather events.
“I welcome the fact that over 160 countries have declared they are signing up to the Paris Agreement but we are in real danger of being overtaken by the rapid pace of global warming if signatories do not significantly scale up the level of their ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Robert Glasser, the UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Executive Board strengthens UNESCO to lead 2030 Agenda
The Executive Board of UNESCO Friday ended its 199th session with the adoption of decisions concerning UNESCO’s programmes and management.
The session was led by Executive Board Chairperson, Ambassador Michael Worbs, Permanent Delegate of Germany to UNESCO.
ISEDC and UNDP-GEF to increase research and educational potential in the field of energy-efficient technologies
Issues related to the management of energy consumption and energy efficiency in municipal buildings are the main theme of a joint ISEDC/UNDP/GEF training course for young international specialists, which will be held in July this year.
The crucial changes that took place in the modern world in the recent decades, the rapid development of scientific knowledge and information technologies pose absolutely new problems for the world community. Under these conditions, the role of professional education with the use of practical aspects grows enormously.
‘Investing in forests is an insurance policy for the planet,’ says UN chief
On the International Day of Forests, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on governments, businesses, civil society and other partners to adopt holistic policies and practices to protect, restore and sustain healthy forests.
“Investing in forests is an insurance policy for the planet,” said Mr. Ban in a message on the day, marked annually on 21 March.
A lower limit for future climate emissions
In a comprehensive new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers propose a limit to future greenhouse gas emissions—or carbon budget—of 590-1240 billion tons of carbon dioxide from 2015 onwards, as the most appropriate estimate for keeping warming to below 2°C, a temperature target which aims to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
The study finds that the available budget is on the low end of the spectrum compared to previous estimates—which ranged from 590 to 2390 billion tons of carbon dioxide for the same time period—lending further urgency to the need to address climate change.
Antarctic ice sheet is more vulnerable to CO2 than expected
Results from a new climate reconstruction of how Antarctica's ice sheets responded during the last period when atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) reached levels like those expected to occur in about 30 years, plus sediment core findings reported in a companion paper, suggest that the ice sheets are more vulnerable to rising atmospheric CO2 than previously thought.
Details appear in two papers in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
