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Scandinavian countries are leading the way in climate protection, together with Morocco and the United Kingdom. Leaders Denmark, Sweden and Norway occupy ranks four to six in the new Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2022, presented today by Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute and Climate Action Network (CAN). Places one to three again remain vacant because no country’s measures, thus far, have been sufficient to achieve an overall ‘very high’ rating with none following a path necessary to keep global warming within the 1.5°C limit.

On 14 October 2021, Alejandro Brown, president of Fundación Proyungas from the Gran Chaco, researchers Laura Kehoe (University of Oxford) and Alfredo Romero Muñoz (Humboldt University Berlin) as well as policy advisor Barbara Hermann (Climate Focus) highlighted the impacts of deforestation in the Gran Chaco through international trade and the difficulties of a zero-deforestation approach. They warned that the Gran Chaco is in a very critical state and further deforestation could lead to the total destruction of the ecosystems.

In addition to amplifying extreme weather events, climate change also causes or intensifies slow-onset processes such as sea-level rise, desertification, biodiversity loss or permafrost thaw. Both types of climate change impacts cause loss and damage, impede the enjoyment of human rights and can be drivers for human mobility. In contrast to extreme weather events, dealing with loss and damage caused by slow-onset processes in the context of climate change is still neglected – both at the national and international level.

Loss and Damage due to climate change impacts is already a reality. Not only but most existentially for vulnerable developing countries and communities around the world that have contributed least to the climate crisis. How developing countries can be supported (financially) by the international community in addressing loss and damage has long been a discussion topic in international climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The G20 countries have a special role to combat climate change - they are responsible for a majority of global emissions. This year’s Climate Transparency Report shows that the efforts of the G20 countries are currently insufficient to limit climate change to the 1.5°C agreed in the Paris Agreement. After a short period of decline, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, emissions are rebounding across the G20. However, a positive development is that the expansion of Renewable Energy capacities are rising.

This policy brief introduces the connection and interdependencies of water, energy, and food (WEF) in Morocco. It gives advice on how to achieve socioeconomic and environmental goals through coordinated management of natural resources across sectors. A special focus lies on the role of women in the WEF nexus. Looking at the WEF challenges from a nexus perspective sheds light on the wider implications of sectoral interventions and helps to identify holistic management strategies.