WRI Insights

The Wayuu people in northern Colombia depend on shrubland for grazing their livestock. These herds serve as the Wayuus’ main source of income and food, and this is partly why they depend so heavily on the existence and condition of shrubland ecosystems. But livestock are also used to pay dowries or make amends, playing a major role in facilitating social interactions between families and clans. If an oil and gas project adversely affects the shrubland ecosystem, it could impact not only the Wayuus’ income and protein intake, but the social bonds that hold these communities together. Most planners fail to account for the multiple—and sometimes underappreciated—benefits that people derive from their environment, a concept known as ecosystem services. While [new Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) standards](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/06/demystifying-role-ecosystem-services-impact-assessments) require impact practitioners to account for ecosystem services when evaluating a proposed project’s potential impacts, many lack a methodological approach that would enable them to properly integrate social and environmental issues. Until now, that is. WRI’s new guide, *[Weaving Ecosystem Services in Impact Assessment: A Step-by-Step Method](http://www.wri.org/publication/weaving-ecosystem-services-into-impact-assessment)*, aims to highlight the interdependence of development projects, people, and the environment. The guide helps impact practitioners and project developers evaluate the social implications of impacts on ecosystems brought by highways, dams, oil and gas wells, and other such projects. By systematically incorporating a consideration of ecosystem services into environmental and social impact assessments, planners can mitigate negative impacts on ecosystem services while also achieving project objectives.

Water risks such as floods, scarcity and pollution are increasingly chipping into corporate bottom lines. The financial sector is taking notice--and taking action. Calvert Investments [asked Hanes Brands](http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/shareholder-pressure-companies-water-risk) to evaluate its losses from cotton-supply shortages due to the 2011 US drought, determining that the company lost $5.2 billion.

It’s not every day that several former Heads of State, the leader of the global trade union movement, an organizer of urban slum dwellers, a business leader, and a number of other leaders and advocates all come together on the same page.

Yesterday, the Obama Administration released the [sixth U.S. Climate Action Report (CAR6)](http://www.state.gov/e/oes/climate/ccreport2014/index.htm) for public review, to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in January 2014. The report, which all developed countries are required to complete, outlines U.S. historical and future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, actions the country is taking to address climate change, and its vulnerability to climate change impacts. This report follows the President’s recently announced Climate Action Plan, which, as the [CAR6 report shows](http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/214979.pdf), could enable the United States to meet its international commitment of reducing emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020—if it acts ambitiously, that is. However, as the report acknowledges, U.S. government agencies will need to propose new rules and take other steps to implement the Climate Action Plan. CAR6 factors in this uncertainty and shows that implementation of the Climate Action Plan will result in reductions in the range of 14 to 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 (not taking into account land use). As WRI found in our report, *[Can The U.S. Get There From Here?](/can-us-get-there-here)*, the Obama Administration can achieve a 17 percent emissions-reduction target only by taking ambitious “go-getter” action. Now is a good time to reflect on what the United States has done over the past four years and what still needs to happen across the major emissions sources in order meet the national emissions-reduction goal and curb the effects of climate change.

*EDITOR'S NOTE 11/18/13: After this blog post was published, the IPCC [updated](http://www.climate2013.org/images/uploads/WGI_AR5_SPM_errata_20131111.pdf) its Summary for Policymakers. The figures in this blog post have been updated to reflect new information.* The [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s](http://www.ipcc.ch/) (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) has delivered an overwhelming consensus that climate change impacts are accelerating, fueled by human-caused emissions. **We may have just about 30 years left until the world’s carbon budget is spent if we want a likely chance of limiting warming to 2 degrees C.** Breaching this limit would put the world at increased risk of forest fires, coral bleaching, higher sea level rise, and other dangerous impacts. #### When Will Our Carbon Budget Run Out? #### The international community has adopted a goal for global warming [not to rise above 2°C](http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2011/cop17/eng/09a01.pdf) compared to pre-industrial temperatures. Scientists have devoted considerable effort to understanding what magnitude of emissions reductions are necessary to limit warming to this level, as the world faces increasingly dangerous climate change impacts with every degree of warming (see Box 1). IPCC AR5 summarizes the scientific literature and estimates that cumulative carbon dioxide emissions related to human activities need to be limited to 1 trillion tonnes C (1000 PgC) since the beginning of the industrial revolution if we are to have a likely chance of limiting warming to 2°C. This is “our carbon budget” – the same concept as a checking account. When we’ve spent it all, there’s no more money (and the planet’s overdraft fees will be much more significant than a bank’s small charges for bounced checks).[^1]

*This post was written by Lord Nicholas Stern, president of the British Academy, and Felipe Calderón, former president of Mexico and a WRI Board member. It [originally appeared](http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/addressing-climate-change-while-promoting-economic-growth-by-felipe-calder-n-and-nicholas-stern) on Project Syndicate.* This Friday, in its latest comprehensive assessment of the evidence on global warming, the [United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change](http://www.ipcc.ch/) will show that the world’s climate scientists are more certain than ever that human activity – largely combustion of fossil fuels – is causing temperatures and sea levels to rise. In recent years, a series of extreme weather events – including Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey, floods in China, and droughts in the American Midwest, Russia, and many developing countries – have caused immense damage. Last week, Mexico experienced simultaneous hurricanes in the Pacific and in the Gulf of Mexico that devastated towns and cities in their path. Climate change will be a major driver of such events, and we risk much worse. This puts a new debate center stage: how to reconcile increased action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with strong economic growth.

Brazil is one of the most [biologically diverse](http://www.brasil.gov.br/para/press/reference-texts/biodiversity-in-brazil) countries in the world. What is less known is that the country is the [fourth ](http://mongabay.com/commodities/data/category/5-Forestry/15-Forestry/1865-Industrial+Roundwood+%2B+(Total)/51-Production+(tonnes))largest industrial roundwood (timber left as logs, not sawn into planks) and [wood pulp](http://www.bracelpa.org.br/bra2/sites/default/files/estatisticas/booklet_eng.pdf) producer and ninth largest [paper producer](http://www.bracelpa.org.br/bra2/sites/default/files/estatisticas/booklet_eng.pdf) in the world. Brazil’s forest sector contributed 5 percent to the national gross domestic product in 2012. Brazil’s forests are not only home to communities and a haven for biodiversity, they are also part of the country’s economic backbone. Brazil’s government has made impressive progress towards balancing forest protection and production. In 2012, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped to its [lowest rate](http://www.inpe.br/ingles/news/news.php?Cod_Noticia=271) in more than two decades. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research has [pioneered ](http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/forest_solutions/brazils-reduction-deforestation.html)the use of [satellite data](http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/forest_solutions/brazils-reduction-deforestation.html) to prevent illegal logging. And the forest sector uses the Forest Source Document system (Documento de Origem Florestal, [DOF](http://www.ibama.gov.br/phocadownload/category/58?download=3097.)), a sophisticated electronic system to track the wood flow throughout the supply chain. Despite these positive steps, illegal logging and associated trade in the Amazon [continues](http://www.ibama.gov.br/publicadas/ibama-doa-mais-de-4-mil-metros-cubicos-de-madeira-ilegal-apreendida-na-regiao-do-curuatinga-no-para-). Beyond the negative social and environmental [impacts](http://www.sebraepr.com.br/StaticFile/InteligenciaCompetitiva/docs/Construcao_Civil/Boletim/Madeira_ilegal.pdf), illegal logging poses a serious problem for businesses producing legal wood products. With a price difference of up to [40 percent](http://raa.fgv.br/os-desafios-da-madeira-de-origem-legal), legal wood simply cannot compete with cheaper illegal wood. To reduce illegal logging and support the legal actors in the forest sector, Brazil must strengthen its forest control systems and policies.

Low-carbon development has become the core theme of China’s urbanization. In fact, it’s one of the country’s key strategies to achieve its target of reducing carbon intensity [by 40-45 percent](http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_15/copenhagen_accord/application/pdf/chinacphaccord_app2.pdf) by 2020. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has identified 36 pilot cities and assigned them [several tasks](http://www.sdpc.gov.cn/gzdt/t20121205_517506.htm).

When the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, takes the floor of the UN general assembly this week, he will address two of the most pressing challenges of our time: poverty and climate change.