Aliyu Salisu Barau

Six research priorities for cities and climate change

Xuemei Bai and colleagues call for long-term, cross-disciplinary studies to reduce carbon emissions and urban risks from global warming. Xuemei Bai and colleagues call for long-term, cross-disciplinary studies to reduce carbon emissions and urban risks from global warming.

Locking in positive climate responses in cities

Well-intended climate actions are confounding each other. Cities must take a strategic and integrated approach to lock into a climate-resilient and low-emission future.

City transformations in a 1.5 °C warmer world

Meeting the ambitions of the Paris Agreement will require rapid and massive decarbonization of cities, as well as adaptation. Capacity and requirement differs across cities, with challenges and opportunities for transformational action in both the Global North and South.

Sustainable Development Goals and climate change adaptation in cities

The Sustainable Development Goals provide a window of opportunity for creating multidimensional operational approaches for climate change adaptation in cities.

In Search of New Narratives for Informed Decisions on Climate Change Crisis in the African Drylands

Sahel is one of the major African drylands whose experience of recurring droughts exacerbates its vulnerability to climate change. Its population is estimated to rise to over 200 million by 2050. This region has attracted attention of the global scientific communities, and for which interventions from scientists, intergovernmental institutions, and government agencies aim at reducing the impacts of climate change in the region. One of the areas that receive least attention is climate change communication in spite of its importance in reaching out to communities. It is also valuable informing other stakeholders of the relevance of indigenous knowledge in addressing climate change crises. Another justification for utilising climate change communication is informed by the huge deficit in real-time ground data, regional and local climate modelling in Africa. This chapter is proposing a framework that prioritises inclusion of local language, creative stories, indigenous climate knowledge and massive online open courses (MOOCs). The chapter further identifies the critical need for all the stakeholders in the region to embrace climate change communication as a link across the divides that have traditionally disconnected local communities, scientists, policymakers and local and global stakeholders. By using this approach, it will immensely help in supporting informed decision on what works best for people, institutions and the environment.