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SDG 13: Targets and Indicators

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Target 13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries

  • Indicator 13.1.1: Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
  • Indicator 13.1.2: Number of countries that adopt and implement national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
  • Indicator 13.1.3: Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national disaster risk reduction strategies

Target 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning

  • Indicator 13.2.1: Number of countries that have communicated the establishment or operationalization of an integrated policy/strategy/plan which increases their ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development in a manner that does not threaten food production (including a national adaptation plan, nationally determined contribution, national communication, biennial update report or other)

Target 13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

  • Indicator 13.3.1: Number of countries that have integrated mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning into primary, secondary and tertiary curricula
  • Indicator 13.3.2: Number of countries that have communicated the strengthening of institutional, systemic and individual capacity-building to implement adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer, and development actions

Target 13.A Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible

  • Indicator 13.A.1: Mobilized amount of United States dollars per year between 2020 and 2025 accountable towards the $100 billion commitment

Target 13.B Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities

  • Indicator 13.B.1: Number of least developed countries and small island developing States that are receiving specialized support, and amount of support, including finance, technology and capacity-building, for mechanisms for raising capacities for effective climate change-related planning and management, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities

Where to find data?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The Task Group on Data Support for Climate Change Assessments aims to provide guidance to the IPCC’s Data Distribution Centre on curation, traceability, stability, availability and transparency of data and scenarios related to the reports of the IPCC.

The Data Distribution Centre (DDC) provides climate, socio-economic and environmental data, both from the past and also in scenarios projected into the future. Technical guidelines on the selection and use of different types of data and scenarios in research and assessment are also provided.

The DDC is designed primarily for climate change researchers, so the material found there is very specific and goes deeper than the indicators of this SDG. However, given the complexity of the issues around sustainable development, this kind of data is essential to be able to make informed decisions and improve in the advance of all goals.

The information below is an example of the work done by the IPCC:

Recent warming around the world has caused changes in many physical and biological systems. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports (AR4 and AR5) documented observed responses to climate change across a wide range of systems as well as regions.

Figure 18.3 of the Working Group II report of AR5 summarizes a range of impacts observed around the world based on a detailed analysis of the peer-reviewed literature. This set of web pages reproduces Figure 18.3 and Tables 18-5 to 18-9 from the Working Group II report and the references explicitly mentioned in the tables. The published tables in the AR5 can be found here.

https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/ddc/observed_ar5/index.html

Sources:

https://www.globalgoals.org/resources

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/Global%20Indicator%20Framework%20after%202020%20review_Eng.pdf

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/

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SDG 13: Climate Action

SDG 13 calls for urgent action not only to combat climate change and its impacts, but also to build resilience in responding to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives, costing people, communities and countries dearly today and even more tomorrow.

Affordable, scalable solutions are now available to enable countries to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies. The pace of change is quickening as more people are turning to renewable energy and a range of other measures that will reduce emissions and increase adaptation efforts.

Climate change, however, is a global challenge that does not respect national borders. It is an issue that requires solutions that need to be coordinated at the international level to help developing countries move toward a low-carbon economy.

To strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, countries adopted the Paris Agreement at the COP21 in Paris, which went into force in November of 2016. In the agreement, all countries agreed to work to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees centigrade. As of April 2018, 175 parties had ratified the Paris Agreement and 10 developing countries had submitted their first iteration of their national adaptation plans for responding to climate change.

Global temperature

Carbon emissions have been steadily rising over the past decades, leading to increases in global temperatures. The period from 2011 to 2015 was the hottest on record, with sea ice reaching its lowest level in history and coral bleaching – resulting from increased sea surface temperatures – threatening the world’s coral reefs.

The landmark Paris Agreement, signed in April 2016 by 175 Member States, attempts to mitigate climate change and accelerate and intensify actions and investments needed for a sustainable, low-carbon future. Central to the agreement is the need to strengthen the global response to keep global temperatures from rising no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue further efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Paris Agreement requires parties to identify their “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs). Progress on the Paris Agreement will be tracked every five years through a global stocktaking exercise.

Adaptation component

As of 4 April 2016, 189 of the 197 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change had submitted 161 INDCs (the European Commission submitted one joint INDC). Of these, 137 included an adaptation component. They realized the urgent necessity to adapt to climate change, and are thus starting to design and implement adaptation initiatives of various types, scales, and coverage.

These initiatives seek to manage anticipated climate change risks at the national, sub-national, local/community levels. Some focus on developing system-wide local capacities aimed at analyzing, planning, and implementing a range of priority actions that strengthen the resilience of key stakeholders and institutions against anticipated climate change risks

Some countries stressed that adaptation was their main priority, since they see the potential impacts of climate change as strongly linked to national development, sustainability and security. Parties referred to virtually every sector and area of the economy in the adaptation component of their INDCs.

The top three priority areas were water, agriculture and health, which coincide with the top climate hazards that Parties identified – floods, drought and higher temperatures. Many parties also referred to vector- or water-borne diseases as a hazard that will require adaptation.

What does this mean and what does this look like?

In June a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) focused on the Near East and North Africa region. Even though drought is a familiar phenomenon in the region, over the past four decades, droughts have become more widespread, prolonged and frequent – likely due to climate change. The region is not only highly prone to drought, but also one of the world’s most water-scarce areas, with desert making up three quarters of its territory.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in terms of water resources. Agriculture is the largest sector of the economy which means that water is an important factor in life in general.

Recently, Yemen suffered from increased drought frequency, increased temperatures, and changes in precipitation patterns leading to degradation of agricultural lands, soils and terraces. And Yemen is also home to coffee plants and the dry weather actually contributes to its sweet taste.

All this surrounded by a civil war that started in 2015. As in so many other cases, no single country, and to this extent, no single person, can be judged by only a handful of factors, the whole picture is much more complex.

Coffee Trails in Yemen

The story of a journey around coffee and the port of Mocha

“Coffee is about what you build together. It’s about journeys, it’s a miraculous adventure. It crosses cultures, boundaries, and messy politics to go from the producer’s hands all the way to us. And in this cup, it brings everyone together. “

Mokhtar Al-Khanshali, Founder of Port of Mokha

Sources:

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change/

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/goal-13/

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/951013_Toolkit%20for%20Designing%20Climate%20Change%20Adaptation%20Initiatives.pdf

https://reliefweb.int/report/world/drought-characteristics-and-management-north-africa-and-near-east

https://www.mei.edu/publications/revitalized-coffee-economy-provides-yemen-boost-amid-conflict

https://portofmokha.com/pages/story