AGEDI represented at 5th World Conference on Climate Change

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AGEDI was recently represented at the 5th World Conference on Climate Change” which took place over 4-6 October in London, England. The theme of the congress was “Climate Change and Sustainable Futures” and included participants from government, NGOs, business, and academia from around the globe who shared emerging research findings and innovative policy-related proposals in climate science, greenhouse gas mitigation and climate change adaptation. Dr. Bill Dougherty offered a talk on the “energy-water-health nexus under climate change” that built on findings from AGEDI’s recently completed Local, National, and Regional Climate Change programme. Feedback on the talk was quite positive, with some noting with appreciation AGEDI’s active engagement in seeking to support effective climate change policymaking in the UAE and surrounding Arabian Peninsula region.

AGEDI 2017 Executive Report

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2016-17 was a pivotal biennial for AGEDI that saw the culmination of various initiatives and projects, each one bringing us one-step closer to an environmentally sustainable future.
A collaborative initiative managed and facilitated by a partnership between UN Environment, the Indicator Reporting Information System (IRIS) version 1.0 was launched in Nairobi in December 2017. This was a proud moment for Abu Dhabi in a project that was years in the making. Consistent with the AGEDI mission, IRIS aims to address systemic data and information challenges that hinder environmental sustainability, and has the potential to reduce the reporting burden for many government institutions, leading to more efficient decision-making. The prospects for 2018 are exciting and we look forward to further collaboration with UN Environment.

Our mantra is to keep delivering access to quality environmental data that supports decision-making towards a sustainable future. Our efforts are only realised thanks to the commitment of and collaboration with our invaluable stakeholders, who have played an essential role in each of our accomplishments in 2016-17.

Read our report here

Updated Al Wathba Tour Now Online!

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We are very pleased to now share our updated 360 educational virtual tour of Al Wathba Wetland Reserve!

Now incorporated are 360 videos with our experts and a drive through, further links and updated and even higher resolution photos!

It is such a beautiful place which we hope this tour will incentivize you to visit as well as learn more with us.

Check it out at by clicking here

Register for the Eye on Earth Symposium!

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AGEDI and EAD, as co-founder of the Eye on Earth movement, in partnership with the UAE Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA) and the Eye on Earth Alliance are delighted to invite all who support evidence-based decision making for environmental and natural resource aspects of sustainable development to Convene, Converge and Collaborate at an Eye on Earth Symposium.

The Symposium will be held at the Mina A’Salam Hotel in Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 22-24 Oct. 2018.

The Symposium comprises two ~50 person meeting rooms and an adjacent networking area.

The Symposium is a working/outcomes-focused event.  The focus is on progressing the EoE Vision by catalyzing and strengthening bilateral and multi-lateral partnerships. The Symposium content is provided by members of the EoE Global Community.

The Symposium content is a mixture of presentations with Q&A, panel discussions, and in-depth, interactive, multi-hour workshops.

We plan to webcast the Symposium sessions for those unable to attend in person. Remote participants will be able to see, hear and speak.

Please visit https://eye-on-earth.netfor more information and to register for the event

AGEDI presents at EWS-WWF workshop in Abu Dhabi

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AGEDI presented the Marxan Application of its 2013 Systematic Conservation Planning Assessments and Spatial Prioritizations project. Emirates Wildlife Society – World Wildlife Fund (EWS-WWF) is using AGEDI’s project as the baseline upon which it can take the study further in their own Systematic Conservation Planning project. The presentation was made during the Data Validation and Review Workshop for Marine Biodiversity in the UAE, which was hosted by EWS-WWF in Abu Dhabi on April 30th 2018. EWS-WWF’s usage of AGEDI’s previous work is a testament to the fulfilling of our mission to facilitate access to quality environmental data and information. AGEDI will be closely involved in the upcoming workshops that will be held in the coming months.

IRIS workshop held in Nairobi

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The AGEDI implementation partners, Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) and UN Environment, held an Indicator Reporting Information System (IRIS) Strategy and Technical Workshop in Nairobi on 23-25 April 2018. Technical refinement plans and user needs for version 1.1 were discussed with UN Environment stakeholders. The workshop also discussed the deployment and outreach strategy for 2018, notably IRIS’ potential for Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) reporting. Next steps include completing version 1.2 by December 2018, as well as presenting IRIS in multiple fora in the coming months.

AGEDI Participates in The Data for Development Festival

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The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development (GPSDD) held a Data for Development Festival in Bristol, UK from March 21st to 25th 2018. The international event brought together over  300 passionate data experts  and advocates to network and to exchange knowledge, experiences and ideas about creating and using data to enabling sustainable development. The event provided opportunity to meet old and new collaborators. Members of the Partnership presented experiences from Capacity Building activities in South America and West Africa. A key take away from the event is the importance of communicating to senior decision makers through storytelling and relating data-driven policy changes through case studies involving real people.   GPSDD CEO Dr Claire Melamed noted that whilst technology is a critical enabler the biggest challenges lie in political and decision making processes.

Festival Images

An integral part of the Festival was a trip to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) led by the John Pullinger National Statistician of the UK; the trip including a fascinating tour of their recently opened Data Science Campus. It seemed the whole ONS staff stayed late in the office to show case their superb research and operational programmes. The warm welcome, the hospitality and friendliness of ONS staff was outstanding.

Congratulations to the GPSDD team, their colleagues at UN Foundation, the event sponsors and their Bristol hosts for convening the experts, and for developing a rich programme. In her closing comments Claire Melamed looked forward to inviting delegates to the second Festival in two years’ time.

http://www.data4sdgs.org/news/data-development-festival

IPBES Summary for Policy Makers released for Land Degradation and Restoration

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The AGEDI team would like to extend a warm congratulations to IPBES, their co-chairs and the chairs of the report for the recently released summary for policy makers for the Land Degradation and Restoration report.

Providing the best-available evidence for policymakers to make better-informed decisions, the report draws on more than 3,000 scientific, Government, indigenous and local knowledge sources. Extensively peer-reviewed, it was improved by more than 7,300 comments, received from over 200 external reviewers.

We look forward to reading the final documents as they are released.

Congratulations on the following releases:

IPBES Asia Pacific Report for Decision Makers now released!

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It was a great privilege to have AGEDI member, Jane Glavan, be a review editor for the Asia-Pacific Region report for Chapter 1 of the assessment.

We would like to extend our congratulations to the Chair of IPBES Bob Watson, the chairs of the Asia Pacific Report Madhav Karki and Sonali Sellamuttu, as well as all the authors of the report.

The advance unedited English version of the summaries for policymakers and intro video can be found here:

We further look forward to sharing the full report once released.

Publication Now Online! Public Health Co-benefits to reducing GHGs

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Very happy to have our PIs from CCRG and NCAR have our study “Public Health Co-Benefits of the Diffusion of Innovative Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Technologies in Abu Dhabi” be published!

It can be downloaded at: https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/public-health-cobenefits-of-the-diffusion-of-innovative-greenhouse-gasmitigation-technologies-in-abu-dhabi.php?aid=94601

Abstract
The emirate of Abu Dhabi has been active in the implementation of innovative technologies to reduce its carbon footprint from energy consuming activities in the power supply and transport sectors. While the reduction in GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions from these technologies has been quantified, to date, there has not been a comprehensive assessment of the positive impacts that such measures could have on public health. These are considered a “co-benefit” of GHG mitigation, namely the simultaneous improvement in air quality and public health associated with the dissemination of technologies that reduce GHG emissions. Public health co-benefits include reductions in the incidence of, for example, respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease, and allergies. A scenario-based, integrated damage model was developed to integrate local meteorology and air quality conditions, innovative technology performance characteristics in power supply and transport, demographic features/trends, and epidemiological dose-response functions. The results of the study indicate that future efforts in the Abu Dhabi Emirate to expand and intensify GHG-reducing activities using innovative technologies – particularly in the energy and transport sectors where the majority of potential GHG reductions exist – will lead to substantial public health co-benefit

Make sure to also check out our Online Toolkit for the project where you can view and download the models and data at https://www.ccr-group.org/health-co-benefits