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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Farmers in Ethiopia fight drought and climate change

Throughout most of his 55 years, Mohammed Hassen and his family have suffered  during recurring droughts that have ravaged his district of Kalu, South Wollo Zone, in northeastern Ethiopia. The country, once defined by rural poverty, is developing a strategy to address pockets of extreme poverty more

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In Nigeria, farm training yields fuller harvests for rural women

For Mama Nsedu, a young widow in Northern Nigeria, feeding her family was becoming harder every day. Like thousands of women in the rural communities of Nanka, Kyado and Yauri, Mama Nsedu faced poor crop yields due to harsh, dry weather, low rainfall, poor soil nutrients and overdependence on expens more

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Tajikistan: Putting environmental resources in local hands

Tajikistan’s Vakhsh River valley is crucial to the livelihoods and food security of millions of people, but the degradation of natural resources has been persistent and extensive over the past 100 years. The tugai forests, reservoirs of biodiversity and source of income for local communities, have b 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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