i. Background
Climate change is real and is happening now, with further change inevitable. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, precautionary and prompt action is necessary to deal with this problem.
Poor countries have contributed least to global warming but will suffer most, due to high exposure, high vulnerability and low adaptive capacity. Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development, with adverse impacts expected on the environment, human health, food security, economic activity, natural resources and physical infrastructure. Climate change thus exacerbates inequalities and threatens poverty alleviation and the sustainable achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
While mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is crucial to limit long-term climate change; in the short to medium term, adaptation to climate change is the only option to manage the impacts of climate change and maximize development outcomes. In much of the developing world, adaptation to climate change should be a development priority.1
Recent statements from the G772 recognize the need for strengthening adaptation to climate change through enhanced funding mechanisms, technology transfer, North-South and South-South collaboration, capacity building in research, development and assessment, amongst other areas. In addition, the G77 clearly recognized the need for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's Adaptation Fund and Least Developed Countries Fund to be made operational and augmented as soon as possible to support the efforts for combating climate change.3
ii. Climate and the Millennium Development Goals
Many of the most effective measures to adapt to climate change coincide with those that can reduce vulnerability to current climate risks. This principle lies behind climate risk management, which integrates management of current climate variability and extremes with adaptation to climate change. Climate risk management offers immediate benefits to economic development and achieving the MDGs, as well as longer term security in the face of changing climate.
Table 1 lays out the relationship between the MDGs, climate variability, climate risk management interventions, and associated institutional and policy requirements. Climate risk management has appealing synergies with other interventions recommended in individual MDG task force reports.
iii. Key Considerations
UNFCCC Process– Under the UNFCCC, adaptation is a cross-cutting theme. Since the first Conference of the Parties (COP 1) in 1995, adaptation has slowly evolved from a marginal issue in comparison to mitigation into a prominently recognized area of action of its own. Building on the outcomes of previous COPs, a five-year programme of work entitled “Nairobi Work Programme on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change” was adopted last year (COP 12), under which activities are being undertaken on the scientific, technical, information, socioeconomic, capacity building and implementation aspects of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Also at COP12, parties made progress on the governing principles of the Adaptation Fund, which was established by the Kyoto Protocol to fund adaptation activities through a two-percent levy on emission reduction projects undertaken under the Clean Development Mechanism.
Mainstreaming Adaptation into Development– Development agencies are recognizing that a climate risk management approach, which integrates management of current climate variability and extremes with adaptation to climate change, provides immediate benefits given the significant impacts of current climate variability and extremes on economic development. There are now increasingly numerous, but somewhat isolated, examples of ongoing adaptation projects (bi-, multi-lateral, UN organization, etc.) in climate sensitive sectors and regions. In addition, development agencies are developing climate-related advisory assistance, project screening tools and capacity support mechanisms, as well as preparing systematic institutional and policy responses, essential for achieving poverty reduction. But there remains a significant development challenge in order to scale up these projects, tools and approaches in order to meet global needs. This will require cross-sectoral approaches, financial resources, public-private partnerships, amongst others.
Science for Climate Risk Management Practice– Adaptive capacity is dependant on information, knowledge, and skills. But developing countries, which are generally the most vulnerable to climate change and other environmental stresses, have the least capacity4 to conduct the scientific investigations to assess the risks and develop meaningful adaptation strategies. The scientific community has an important role to play in helping decision makers to navigate through uncertain climate information, to translate uncertain information into decisions today, to inventory and assess adaptation technologies, and finally, to promote adaptation technology transfer. There is a pressing need to develop a global partnership of stakeholder institutions and governments to harness the common interest, and the collective resources to support a vigorous international, science-based initiative addressing one of today’s most pressing global challenges: the operational capability to adapt, to cope with, and to manage climate-related risks and opportunities.
GEF and Financing Adaptation– The order of magnitude of funding for adaptation has been estimated at 10-40 billion US$ per year globally, which can be compared to the availability of international adaptation financing (primarily under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and administered by the GEF). These funds currently amount to about US$ 277 million5. In addition, the Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol could provide of the order of several hundred million US$ over the first commitment period (until 2012). An optimistic scenario would yield global annual adaptation financing of the order of US$ 200 million per year between now and 2012, falling far short of the adaptation needs. Addressing the adaptation financing gap is a priority area of action in current UNFCCC COP processes and negotiations.
Footnotes:
1. While there are some interlinkages in terms of UNFCCC policies, adaptation and mitigation generally require entirely different instruments and approaches.
2. Statements on behalf of the G77 and China: 1) by Ms. Farhat Ayesha of Pakistan mission to the U.N. on Climate Change in the IPM of the 15th CSD (New York, 28 Feb. 2007), 2) by H. E. Mukhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Minister for Environment and Special Envoy of the President of Pakistan at the high level event on Climate Change (New York, 24 Sept. 2007)
3. http://unfccc.int/cooperation_and_support/financial_mechanism/items/2807.php
4. Developing countries contain 80% of the world’s population but only 25% of the world’s scientists. According to UNESCO, only 4% of total world research is conducted in developing countries. Developing countries especially lack scientists for the study of global change vulnerabilities and adaptation response
5. US$50 million in the Special Priority for Adaptation (SPA) of the regular GEF Trust Fund; US$67M in the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), and about $160 million in the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF)
