Climate change is one of the most complex issues addressed by humanity.

This project will create a capacity building hub on the island of Hispaniola to increase capacity in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

The Reframing Rio project aims to increase global public engagement and trigger new global debates around sustainable development in the lead-up to, and beyond, the Rio +20 meeting in June 2012.

CDKN is working on a range of initiatives to share learning from our programme to date. One of these is an initiative to capture and synthesise lessons learned from our work at the sub-national level in developing countries.

The CARIWIG project aims to provide unbiased, locally relevant information on the weather impacts of climate change for a range of time horizons.

Cooperative agreements for ecosystem services have become increasingly important tools for reducing conflicts. These agreements include voluntary cooperation, corporate-private agreements and Payments for Environmental Services (PES – also known as Payments for Ecosystem Services). Countries as diverse as Costa Rica, Mexico, and China are using national tax revenues to pay citizens to conserve forests and natural vegetation. National forest conservation PES schemes seem perfect precursors for national REDD (Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation) schemes given their economies of scale for equitable disbursement of benefits to providers of public goods.

The Pacific Island nations, consisting of many low-lying islands or areas with large population and infrastructure concentrations in the coastal zone, are at risk of climate-related disasters such as extreme weather events and sea-level rise. As many Pacific Island nations rely on their natural capital, the impact of climate-related disasters on their ecosystems and actions taken to mitigate climate risks are critical to the on-going resilience of their populations.

Provision of shelter following disasters is one of the largest recurrent cost for governments and relief organizations, and the failure of shelters to protect people from hazards is a significant risk. Improving shelter design is therefore central to reducing hydro-meteorological disaster risk and supports adaptation to climate change.

Coasts are regions of great importance for human well-being and are of national economic importance for coastal states. Coastal ecosystems provide numerous ecosystem services supporting a significant proportion of the world’s population, particularly in developing countries, but are some of the most vulnerable areas to climate change.

The project aims to develop an Action Plan for Cartagena de Indias to adapt to climate change. This includes an analysis of vulnerabilities and guidelines for adaptation for island territories, with the goal of strengthening competitiveness and sectorial development in the city and in the surrounding islands.

The Amazon Security Agenda project was led by the Global Canopy Programme and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, with funding from CDKN.

The LRI's objectives are to make its services available to as many poor and climate vulnerable developing countries as possible for free, ensure that these countries have a strong voice in the negotiation process and contribute meaningfully to a new climate deal, build and strengthen networks of legal experts from the South.