Latest content: Commonwealth Climate Change Programme

The Secretary-General was granted the honour of naming a baby gorilla during a Rwandan ceremony attended by tens of thousands of people. Kwita Izina is an annual event which this year was held in Kinigi, near Rwanda’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

With Hurricane Dorian having swept through The Bahamas with unprecedented intensity and force, causing extensive damage to infrastructure, and having reportedly claimed at least one life to date, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has on behalf of the wider Commonwealth family expressed deep concern to the government and people of The Bahamas.

Blog by Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth: The frightening reality of Pacific island nations disappearing into the ocean could also become a real worry for western metropolises. Only with a truly inclusive and worldwide effort, with every nation, government and community on board can we win the battle. 

Since around 2010, the Commonwealth had been calling on the international community to look towards innovation. It was a period in which most of the memberships’ small and middle-income countries had become incapacitated with debt, whilst also facing the dire risk of more frequent and severe natural disasters.

The Pacific is the Commonwealth region most vulnerable to climate change. It faces intense variations in temperatures, extreme storms, rising sea levels, and is also highly vulnerable to earthquakes, floods, tidal surges, landslides, droughts, forest fires, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

Five months ago, Cyclone Idai ripped through the Southern African region, causing a massive humanitarian disaster that affected three million people. More than a thousand perished, while 200,000 lost their homes, many of whom are still to this day living in refugee camps.

By taking coordinated collective action, the nations of the Commonwealth can accelerate the mobilisation of international efforts that are the only hope if we are to prevent further detrimental human impact on the delicate natural balance of our planet.

Five months ago, Cyclone Idai ripped through the Southern African region, causing a massive humanitarian disaster that affected three million people. More than a thousand perished, while 200,000 lost their homes, many of whom are still to this day living in refugee camps.

International organisations must partner-up to avoid duplication and integrate efforts that assist member countries, says the Commonwealth’s head of economic policy and small states.

Commonwealth countries have been encouraged to ratify and implement the 1954 Hague Convention, which protects cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict. Of 53 Commonwealth member countries, 20 have ratified the Convention, which commits countries to take measures to safeguard immovable and movable cultural property - such as buildings, monuments, artefacts and artwork - when conflict strikes.

The ‘Ask The Expert’ series features some of the leading specialists who work at the Commonwealth Secretariat. In this edition, Alache Fisho, Legal Adviser at the Trade, Oceans and Natural Resources Directorate, looks at how Commonwealth countries are making the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

A blog on climate change by Katie Blackman, a National Climate Finance Adviser deployed in Jamaica with the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub.

Malta has won the inaugural Commonwealth Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Implementation, with Namibia and the Bahamas also scooping prizes.

A Commonwealth initiative designed to help small and other vulnerable states access international finances for tackling the effects of climate change, is poised to go global. The proposal to scale the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub from 10 to 39 developing small states and other vulnerable countries was approved at the Commonwealth Symposium on Climate Finance held in Malta.

Fresh alliances are set to flourish under the Commonwealth’s flagship programme for ocean action, known as the Blue Charter. On Thursday, the Commonwealth and Bloomberg Philanthropies co-hosted an intensive partnership forum for ‘champion’ countries that have volunteered to lead action groups tackling ocean issues under the Commonwealth Blue Charter.

Born out of the Commonwealth’s recognition of an SDG implementation deficit, the Commonwealth in collaboration with the Government of Malta and the Small States Centre of Excellence, will host the Commonwealth’s inaugural “Award for Excellence in SDG Implementation” on 26-27 June in Malta.

To mark World Oceans Day, Head of Oceans and Natural Resources Nicholas Hardman-Mountford shares how the Blue Charter can help spur lasting global change towards sustainable ocean governance.

Samoa faced huge flooding in 2018 after torrential rain fell overnight, leaving a trail of destruction, 330 people evacuated and $10 million of infrastructural damage. The lessons learned from this experience made Samoa a suitable location to host the fifth Commonwealth Global Biennial Conference on Small States under the theme ‘Building Resilience Through Disaster Risk Reduction’. The conference brought together officials from 23 small states and 20 development agencies to discuss disaster risk financing solutions.

The Commonwealth’s Climate Finance Access Hub aims to more than double the number of advisers deployed to help vulnerable countries unlock funds to tackle climate change.

More than 500 representatives from governments, non-profits and global conglomerates joined forces to accelerate resilience building in Caribbean countries still recovering from hurricane devastation.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General described young people as the “hope and win” at the COP24 climate change negotiations that concluded earlier in December.

With global climate talks freshly concluded last weekend in Katowice, Poland, some Commonwealth countries are already working towards a stronger ocean focus at next year’s negotiations in Chile.

During the last leg of negotiations at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) this week in Poland, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu – an island nation of about 11,000 people located in the South Pacific acutely threatened by climate change – has called on the Commonwealth to leverage its 53-strong membership for climate action.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland is backing redoubled efforts by the Commonwealth family of 53 countries to fight climate change, in light of a sobering report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calling for “rapid and far-reaching” actions to keep global warming below 1.5°C.