Climate Change


Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time.  Receding forests, changing rainfall patterns and rising sea levels will exacerbate existing economic, political and humanitarian stresses and affect human development in all parts of the world.  As the leading global organization in the fight against poverty, with a presence in 177 countries and territories, UNDP is responding on the front lines of climate change – where it hits the world’s 2.6 billion poorest people the hardest. UNDP works with national, regional, and local planning bodies to help them respond effectively to climate change and promote low-emission, climate-resilient development.

UNDP support focuses on three areas: connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life; helping countries build more resilient societies; and strengthening the capacity of countries to access, manage and account for climate finance.

Our Stories

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Farming communities in India improve soil fertility and earn higher income

High school drop-out Atula, a woman farmer from India’s northeastern state of Nagaland, is today an expert on improving crop cultivation and soil fertility, two subjects that come in handy as she works the small piece of land she has leased from a local landowner. For generations Atula’s family and more

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New techniques help farmers adapt to climate change in Sudan

Ahmed Eldaw, like his fellow farmers and pastoralists in northern Sudan, used to practice a form of subsistence agriculture that depended solely on the erratic floods of the Atbara River. During periods of exceptionally high flooding, he could expect to grow enough sorghum to provide for his family more

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Tanzania: Clay stoves make life easier for rural women

Until January of this year, Stella Fungameza – a 30-year-old mother of three children –wandered into the forest twice a week for 12 hours, bringing home up to 30 kilograms of firewood from each her trips. Now Stella can cook with half the amount of firewood thanks to an energy project piloted by the more

News

New report urges governments to take swift action to face climate challenges

Governments around the world should take immediate actions to adapt to the impact of changing weather patterns on a wide range of economic and social activities, according to a top policy official of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at the launch of a report released today. “Governmen more

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Joint effort helps restore Danube River and Black Sea ecosystems

An international plan, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has helped to restore the fragile plant and animal life of the Danube River basin after 75 years of agricultural, industrial and municipal pollution. Nitrogen, phosphorus and other harmful chemicals, for example fro more

Op-Ed: The renewable future

By Achim Steiner, Helen Clark and Kandeh Yumkella NAIROBI: Renewable energy triggers sharply polarized views. For some, it is a costly white elephant; for others, it is humanity’s savior, promising to emancipate us (and our environment) from the “folly” of fossil fuels. So a hardheaded, credible, an more

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