This Synthesis Report is based on the reports of the three Working Groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including relevant Special Reports. It provides an integrated view of climate change as the final part of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). This summary follows the structure of the longer report, which addresses the following topics: Observed changes and their causes; Future climate change, risks and impacts; Future pathways for adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development; Adaptation and mitigation.

Chinese government published the White Paper on China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change, stating the policies and actions that the country had adopted for addressing climate change as well as the progresses. To follow up, this report will briefly describe the latest progresses that China has achieved in addressing climate change since 2008.

The aim of this report is to provide strategic guidance to U.S. policymakers on engaging China on climate change. In the first section, I set the context by discussing China’s energy use, emissions, and future projections, including potential emissions reductions and trajectories under different policies. In section two, I review China’s recent policies to address climate change and energy conservation. I focus on the status of implementation of its energy-efficiency goals under its 11th Five Year Plan. I also anticipate future developments in Chinese energy and climate policy. Finally, in section three, I propose a strategy for U.S. engagement of China on climate change.

Effective EU-China co-operation is critical to delivering a good deal at Copenhagen and to ensuring ongoing progress towards global decarbonisation. Europe and China are economically and politically interdependent, and have strikingly similar energy and climate change policies. As its largest investor, trade partner and provider of technology, Europe has a strong stake in China’s success.The EU and China should increase the status of energy and climate change in their bilateral relationship. This will require the progressive alignment of the EU’s and the individual member-states climate policies towards China, behind a common European strategy. The 2009 EU-China summit must deliver agreement on some key flagship co-operation projects in order to build China’s trust in the EU as an effective partner.

This Synthesis Report is based on the reports of the three Working Groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including relevant Special Reports. It provides an integrated view of climate change as the final part of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). This summary follows the structure of the longer report, which addresses the following topics: Observed changes and their causes; Future climate change, risks and impacts; Future pathways for adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development; Adaptation and mitigation.

The document outlines UNDP's adaptation services and UNDP-GEF's adaptation portfolio that comprises 21 national, regional and global projects taking place in 45 countries.

This report assesses how the set of national actions presented in America’s Global Warming Solutions would affect Florida’s energy systems, carbon emissions and economy. This study finds that by 2010, the set of national actions to reduce global warming would decrease Florida’s primary energy use by 26 percent and its carbon emissions by 36 percent. They would also provide increasing annual savings reaching about $300 per-capita in 2010 and averaging about $110 per-capita per year between now and 2010. Thus, the State would cumulatively save about $17 billion over that period. The set of national actions would also create approximately 39,000 net additional jobs in Florida by 2010. They would reduce emissions of other pollutants and begin to shift the basis of the State’s economy towards more advanced, energy-efficient technologies and cleaner resources. The table below summarizes these results.

Over the last three years, projects that address the relationships between carbon and forests have moved from the sidelines of international climate action to center field. Forestry’s recent advancements are the product of decades of ongoing collaboration among market and environmental experts seeking to strike an ideal balance between forestry projects’ market risks and shared benefits. Market dynamics in 2011 demonstrated that these efforts have never been more pivotal, or complex, as forest carbon projects mature – and find themselves positioned squarely in the midst of some of today’s most challenging policy debates. This year, a record number of forest project developers and secondary market suppliers from around the world shared data about their projects and transactions. This third annual State of the Forest Carbon Markets tracks, reports, and analyzes trends in these responses. This information is primarily based on data collected from respondents to Ecosystem Marketplace’s 2011 forest carbon project developer’s survey, combined with data from the 2012 State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets report. The data and analysis that follow cover forest carbon activity in compliance carbon markets – including the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS), the New South …

The focus of climate change mitigation policy to date has been on "preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with Earth's climate system". There is no global agreement or scientific consensus for delineating ‘dangerous’ from ‘acceptable’ climate change but limiting global average temperature rise to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels has emerged as a focus for international and national policymakers.

Report of the Governor’s Climate Change Advisory Committee, managed by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and facilitated by the Center for Climate Strategies. It provides 54 policy recommendations help reduce the state’s emissions of green house gases to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Most will have additional benefits, including reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels, reduction in air pollution, increased opportunity for Montana agriculture to provide renewable fuels, healthier forests, and the opportunity for the state to be a leader in developing new technologies.

The carbon labeling project presents methods to promote biodiesel use, disseminate information on the potential carbon efficiency of biofuels and promote the concept of carbon labeling. This guide is aimed at policy makers and interested industry groups. It aims to evaluate the suitability of the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Smart Way Transport Partnership as a model for the EU to promote more efficiency and low carbon shipping of goods to market. It includes: a thorough description of the US EPA scheme and its objectives; carbon labeling initiatives in the UK (independent and national); a review of the strengths and weaknesses of the US EPA scheme with regards to its suitability for EU transport policy; the different EU transport system and pilot programmes; and suggestions for freight and multi-sector low carbon transport programmes in the EU. This useful guide enables decision makers to develop a road map on how best to provide incentives for implementing a low carbon shipping program in Europe.

"A Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability", jointly prepared by UNDP’s Water & Ocean Governance Programme, IOC/UNESCO, FAO and IMO, contextualizes and sets forth a series of ten tangible proposals to shift the oceans management paradigm towards sustainability, and is intended to inform and influence possible Rio+20 outcomes on oceans.

An Act making an appropriation for the state land disposal bank program; making an appropriation from the constitutional budget reserve fund under art. IX, sec. 17(c), Constitution of the State of Alaska; and providing for an effective date.

Executive summary describing research to evaluate environmental feedback related to climate change. The summary includes a breakdown of the key findings from each chapter of the report, with charts and maps illustrating statistics.

A change in the composition of the stratosphere becomes relevant to society only if it has noticeable effects. This places the assessment of effects in a pivotal role in the problem of ozone depletion. Decreases in the quantity of total-column ozone, as now observed in many places, tend to cause increased penetration of solar UV-B radiation (290-315 nm) to the Earth's surface. UV-B radiation is the most energetic component of sunlight reaching the surface. It has profound effects on human health, animals, plants, microorganisms, materials and on air quality. Thus any perturbation which leads to an increase in UV-B radiation demands careful consideration of the possible consequences. This is the topic of the present assessment made by the Panel on Environmental Effects of Ozone Depletion.

This is the result of a German study which underlines once more the urgent need for measures to reduce F-gas emissions. Global emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) will increase to 4 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents by 2050 if no political mitigation measures are taken. The contribution of F-gases to global warming is projected to grow from 1.3% (2004) to 7.9% of total direct CO2 emissions.

This report assesses the financial consequences of climate change policy for 14 leading global power companies.

A 2°C rise in temperature from pre-industrial levels has been widely regarded as a tipping point for planet earth. Major Tipping Points in Earth's Climate System and Consequences for the Insurance Sector argues instead that sudden volatile transformations in earth's climate will occur long before this 2°C threshold is reached.

This report provides findings and recommendations addressing 11 charges, framed by three principal energy challenges facing Florida: stimulate economic development, achieve energy security and address the effects of global climate change.

Report describing sea-level rise and the associated flooding of coastal regions that may affect more than a quarter of the world’s population. It includes sections on atmospheric and ocean circulation feedbacks, ice sheets and sea-level rise feedbacks, marine and land carbon cycle feedbacks, and methane hydrate feedbacks.

In response to the problem of inequalities in the distribution of land, this Policy Research Brief points toward a land reform model that could both satisfy legitimate and urgent demands for social justice and develop an agrarian system that is economically viable. It draws primarily on a UNDP-ISS supported set of country studies and analytical papers.

The brochure, part of UNDP/GEF's "Lessons for the Future" series, highlights examples of activities to combat land degradation. It focuses on "cross-cutting projects" that address land degradation but were primarily designed to deal with other environmental problems, and specific UNDP/GEF land degradation projects that seek to build capacity or foster SLM practices.

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The plan is considered a living document, and a first installment of what could become further refinements as additional initiatives are evaluated and new technologies unfold.