Climate Change Adaptation Initiative

Climate Change Adaptation Initiative Prepared for UNEP Training Workshop on Climate Change Adaptation 9 April 2008 Jian Liu, DEPI

Topics • UNEP on Climate Change: Medium-Term Strategy and Climate Change • The Science and the needs • Setting UNEP’s niche for adaptation • Actions to support vulnerable countries • Towards a programmatic approach

UNEP Medium-Term Strategy (2010-2013) • Climate change • Disasters and conflict • Ecosystem management • Environmental governance • Harmful substances and hazardous waste • Sustainable consumption and production

UNEP Climate Change Strategy: 4 themes • Mitigation: facilitating a transition towards low carbon societies • Adaptation: adapting by building resilience • Science: improving understanding of climate change science • Outreach:communicating and raising public awareness

Adaptation:1. Integrating climate change and ecosystem management practices • Assist countries to better integrate ecosystems approach to climate change • Develop tools for estimating the value of climate change adaptation services that ecosystems provide • Develop specific assessment tools and methodologies to assess ecosystem vulnerability and analyze the potential impact of climate change on ecosystems

Adaptation:2. Building national institutional capacities for adaptation planning • Help mainstream climate change into development planning and UN country operations • Promote the integration of climate change activities of line ministries • Promote exchange of experiences on adaptation through regional networks of experts in developing regions • Integrate disaster risk reduction and responses into planning • Help improve community knowledge on climate change adaptation through public awareness campaigns

Adaptation in UNEP Adaptation engages 4 of the 6 thematic priorities in UNEP MTS: • Climate Change • Disaster reduction • Ecosystem management • Environmental governance, and cuts across the work of most divisions and all ROs…

The Science: IPCC-AR4 • Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and is very likely due to increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations. • Even if GHGs were to be stabilised today, temperature and sea level rise would continue for centuries, • Adaptation is essential, but there are substantial limits and barriers • Mitigation is economically and technologically feasible

IPCC-AR4: Adaptation • Adaptation to climate change is alreadytaking place, but on a limited basis • Climate change poses novel risks, oftenoutside the range of experience • Many adaptations can be implementedat low cost, butno comprehensiveestimates of costs and benefits exist • Adaptive capacity is uneven across andwithin societies • There are substantial limits and barriersto adaptation

Needs of developing countries (reflected in Bali Action Plan) • International cooperation to support urgent implementation of adaptation actions, including through vulnerability assessments, prioritization of actions, financial needs assessments, capacity-building and response strategies, integration of adaptation actions into sectoral and national planning…,

Needs of developing countries (Cont.) • Risk management and risk reduction strategies, including risk sharing and transfer mechanisms such as insurance; • Disaster reduction strategies and means to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts…; • Economic diversification to build resilience.

Topics • UNEP on Climate Change: Medium-Term Strategy and Climate Change • The Science and the needs • Setting UNEP’s niche for adaptation • Sample actions to support vulnerable countries • Towards a programmatic approach

Key Players and their roles • UNDP (Development), • WMO (climate change science), • FAO (food security, REDD), • WHO (health), • ISDR (disaster reduction), • UNFCCC (Nairobi Work Programme), • World Bank (poverty reduction and finance, investment)

Challenges to UNEP • Over-simplification of adaptation as economic development ⇒ Little room for the environmental aspect and jeopardizes the ecosystem services supporting development • UNEP’s country presence is mainly through environment ministries ⇒ Partnerships with national planners and sectoral ministries as well as local governments are still to be strengthened

Comparative advantages of UNEP • Track record: co-sponsoring IPCC, MillenniumEcosystem Assessment, Global Environmental Outlook, AIACC project, Integrated Water Resource Management, Regional Seas Initiatives… and • Built credibility as a • a capacity builder, • ecosystem manager and, • knowledge mobilizer • Global leadership and its convening power such as organizing adaptation session of SG’s High-Level Event on climate change, and the side-event on adaptation at UNFCCC COP 13

UNEP’s complementary approach • Building on strength • Overcoming weakness • Looking for new opportunities • Executing comparative advantages

The Niche of UNEP • Meeting the twin needs of vulnerable countries for environment protection and economic development and, • Assisting them in integrating adaptation into their multi-faceted planning and deliberative processes.

3 Key pillars to support the Niche • Building key adaptive capacity of the developing world • Increasing ecosystem resilience and reducing the risk of climate-related disasters and conflicts • Mobilizing and managing knowledge for adaptation policy and planning

1. Global Adaptation Network To deploy world’s best knowledge and technology to assist policy-setting, planning and adaptation practices as well as to support the current and future UN-wide adaptation arrangements such as the next stages of the Nairobi Work Programme. • Network of ground stations for monitoring, research and demonstration (e.g. ILTER) • Regional centers for gov capacity building, tech support policy and planning, and regional cooperation (e.g. CGIAR, ICIMOD) • International Support Group for tech support to regional centers and stations (e.g. SEI, IIED, IISD)

2. Legislators and Planners Forum • It will transfer existing knowledge on adaptation to assist legislators and national planners on for policy-setting on adaptation and to facilitate the integration of adaptation into relevant legislations and development planning • The Forum will strengthen the integration between national environment and development agencies and empower environmental agencies and organizations • It can support and complement the UNEP-UNDP Poverty and Environment Initiative

3. Sustainable Water Resource Management • To minimise the projected stresses of too little or too much water for disaster reduction and conflict prevention, • through knowledge-based policy, technology and finance interventions • Specific objectives: • to project the best case, worst case and intermediate case scenarios of water scarcity and propose/design and help implement responsive interventions (such as Africa); • to identify likelihood and frequency of flood risks and propose/design and help implement preventive measures (e.g. S. Asia).

4. Integrated coastal zone management • To increase the adaptive capacity and preparedness of coastal areas of South-East Asia, Small Island Developing States and Africa to respond to both the threat of sea level rise (0.18-0.59 m in the next 100 years) and more frequent floods from down-streams of large rivers. • Projects under this action would assist policy intervention, urban land use planning, technology transfer, creation of ecological buffer zones and building of key infrastructures.

5. Conserving biodiversity • To minimize the projected biodiversity loss, e.g. the loss of the 20-30 % of species estimated to disappear when temperature exceeds 1.5-2.5 C, • throughaforestation, avoided deforestation, and enhanced measures to conserve/improve the essential habitats for the endangered species such as nature reserves, greenbelts, Ramsar sites, botanical gardens and other networks of protected and/or conservation area.

6: Highland-Lowland Partnership • Toincrease the capacity of the mountain community for adaption to climate change impacts especially melting glaciers and its triggered floods and landslides, and help to increase their preparedness to climate-related disasters • through enhancement of highland-lowland partnerships including technical, financial and political interventions such as integrated river basin management by mobilizing information and financial flows against the water flow to save lives and livelihoods.

7: Building climate resilient cities • To help identify the likely impacts of climate change such as head waves, floods, snowstorm, water shortage, and related health problems etc to cities and urbanization process and build capacities and preparedness propose measures • Through integration of adaptation into urban planning process, strengthening key infrastructures, mobilizing technology and financial flows to meet the incremental need for technology and finance.

8: Reducing the risk of climate-related disasters and Conflicts • To integrate adaptation efforts into preparedness and reduction for climate-related disaster and conflicts and promote such an approach in the UN system, • through improving the capacity of national authorities and relevant organizations, information management, early warning and knowledge development, regional/national policy and planning and advocacy, and partnership development, with close links to the Hyogo Framework for Action. • One of the most challenging yet productive activities is to link adaptation and disaster risk reduction/conflict prevention

9: Mobilizing knowledge for policy setting • To focus on global adaptive capacity assessment, economic cost-benefit analysis of innovative financing, and development and assessment of adaptation options through the 2nd phase of AIACC

10: Knowledge-Based Planning • To help countries mainstream climate change into development planning process through partnership with UNDP on Climate Change and poverty and environment, MDG Fund, CC-DARE project, NAPAs, • further development of the package of useful tools, methods and Good Practice Guidance, e.g. development of environmental indicators of adaptation, is also urgently needed

11: Adaptation Knowledge Management • To establish a global adaptation knowledge management system to strengthen UNEP’s role as the world knowledge centre on adaptation, • Building on GEO, IPCC, MA process and working with WMO, UNDP, SEI, • Thru e.g. development of specialized website on adaptation knowledge and interactive technical platform such as weADAPT (SEI) .

12: Technology for Adaptation • Environmental safety of applying the new and high-techs, especially bio-techs such as new species (such as drought- or logging-resistant) • Adoption of these new and high-techs and increased receptiveness of local communities, • Combination of traditional techs and new/high-techs.

Towards programmatic approach • Actions in regional packages • Window for emerging adaptation needs • Innovative and sustained financing • Extensive yet strengthened partnerships • Internal capacity building

Actions in regional packages • Adaptation is region- & ecosystem specific • Actions will be implemented in developing regions, yet in different combinations to forge regional packages to meet different needs, such as: • In Africa, package of climate change adaptation，disaster reduction and conflict prevention, and • In Asia, IRBM, ICZM, and climate-resilient urbanization • SIDs? West Asia? Latin America? To follow up…

Window for emerging adaptation needs • To respond to emerging issues or hidden crisis caused by climate change impacts or extreme events, such as: • an ecological or environmental disaster caused by climate change such as invasive species, • a gender issue because very often, women are the most vulnerable group in the most vulnerable regions, • an emerging economic issue because insurance companies have to prepare for most climate-related disasters and conflicts.

Innovative and sustained financing • The cost of adaptation is a complicated scientific, economic and political issue • Financing adaptation should address both short-term and long-term, as well as multi-scale and multi-sectoral needs • Building on existing mechanisms such as MDGF, SPA, SCCF, LDCF etc • Proactive engagement in AF and CCIF • Looking for new opportunities and striving for long-term arrangements, such as TF and regional bi-lateral forum of development agencies

Extensive yet strengthened partnerships • Governments • UN agencies and organizations, such as UNDP, WMO, UNFCCC, FAO, ISDR, • intergovernmental organizations, such as World Bank, EC, AU, APEC, AfDB, ADB… • non-governmental organizations, such as IUCN, WWF, Red Cross, • the science community, such as CGIAR, ICSU, SEI, IPCC… • private sectors and the civil society

Internal capacity building • UNEP Technical Group on Adaptation to help: • implement in a coherent manner agreed adaptation initiatives within the framework of the UNEP Climate Change Strategy and this Action Plan, • develop partnerships with governments and organizations in a coordinated manner to support the UNFCCC process on adaptation such as the Nairobi Work Program (NWP), • strengthen and expand links with the world science community and other partners to support future programme development. • Technical strength in ROs

Conceptual Framework Adapting by Building Resilience 1. Building key adaptive capacity of the developing world 2. Increasing ecosystem resilience and reducing the risk of climate-related disasters and conflicts 3.Mobilizing and managing knowledge for adaptation policy and planning Identification of challenges/opportunities Identification of challenges/opportunities Integrated adaptation planning Integrated adaptation planning Implementation Implementation Region-2 Region-3 Region-4 Region-1 Innovative financing and strengthened partnerships

Thank you!

Climate Change Adaptation Initiative