International Conservation & Development

At first glance, California and Syria appear to have little in common other than Mediterranean climates. But two new studies – focusing on severe droughts in these places half a planet apart – highlight a yawning gap in the abilities of developed and many developing countries to adapt to the effects of climate change. Each study, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, documents ways in which global warming is boosting the likelihood of additional droughts as severe and prolonged as those the two have experienced.

Clean energy innovation and decarbonization efforts will be overwhelmingly concentrated in rapidly industrializing countries, where demand for energy is high and deployment opportunities are broad, says a new report from a group of 12 energy scholars.

When Melanie Allen, MA SID’15, first arrived at Heller to study in the Sustainable International Development program, her advisor, Joshua Ellsworth, said she was already focused on the vital role that scientific assessment plays in environmental conservation. “I felt she had a strong knowledge base, and she’s been open enough to gain the skills and outlook over the last year to have a better chance to translate that technical understanding into concrete change,” Ellsworth says.

When you think about East Africa, probably the first images that emerge are of large terrestrial animals like elephants and lions. Many people don’t know that East Africa has vibrant marine fishing communities and hundreds of miles of coral reefs. In a typical morning, you watch the sun rise over the Western Indian Ocean, sip spicy tea, hear morning calls to prayer from the mosque, and see fishers heading out to the sea. These fishers work from small canoes, or even broken surfboards, to support families.

Trying to predict where India will swerve on climate policy seems as hard as predicting which way an auto-rickshaw driver will swerve in a Kolkata traffic jam. “Overall, we’re still holding our breath, waiting to see what Modi and India are going to do on greenhouse gas emissions and climate,” Heather Coleman, Oxfam America’s climate policy leader, said. “I don’t think this announcement sheds more light on that.” Read more

The Vietnamese government seems to have backed off from its proposal to build a gondola lift in Son Doong, the world’s largest cave, after it came into stiff opposition from civil society, conservation groups and tourists. Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai signed off February 8 on a master plan for the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, home to Son Doong Cave, in Quang Binh Province. The document does not mention construction of the cable car that envisaged opening up Son Doong to mass tourism, ferrying 1,000 visitors an hour to the cave.

Rigorous integration will ensure the goals inspire rather than deter commitment, say Angel Hsu and Alisa Zomer. Sustainable development is an elusive concept, one that is open to interpretation and difficult to define, let alone measure. UN negotiators therefore have a challenging task: how to specify a clear set of indicators to track the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before they are finalised in September.

Brian Milakovsky, a forest projects coordinator with WWF-Russia based in Vladivostok, described how the FSB steps in to handle corruption in the region. “They have a division for fighting corruption and they view forest crimes correctly as some of the most linked to corruption,” he told RTCC.

In December 2014, several Switzer Fellows attended the COP20 events in Lima, Peru, and we are proud to feature Sarah Lupberger's and Dave Kramer's thoughts on the event.