Agenda – Technical Expert Meeting on Adaptation 2018

Opening and welcome

10:00 – 10:30

Adaptation Committee, High Level Champions

Session 1: Adaptation planning for vulnerable ecosystems
(Lead: UN Environment)

10:30 – 12:00

Background:
The effective management of ecosystems can help people adapt to climate change. In some contexts, these approaches can be cheaper and more effective than other approaches to adaptation and they can also deliver additional benefits for people and conservation. In other circumstances, ecosystem-based adaptation can work in a complementary way with ‘grey’ or ‘infrastructural’ approaches. However, many ecosystem-based solutions have been at the site level and scaling up has proved difficult.

In addition, any use of ecosystem-based adaptation needs to recognize that ecosystems are themselves be vulnerable to climate change and other pressures. Therefore, the use of ecosystem management for adaptation must ensure that these vulnerabilities are also addressed.

Two questions:
The session will promote learning on two issues:

1.  What are the barriers to more widespread adoption of ecosystem-based adaptation at the national level? How can these barriers be overcome?

2.  Does ecosystem-based adaptation contribute to increasing the resilience of vulnerable communities and groups?

Audio recording:
Skype broadcast is available here

12:00 – 15:00

Lunch break

Session 2: Adaptation planning for vulnerable communities
(Lead: IFRC)

15:00 – 17:30

Rationale:
For adaptation planning to become possible, the role of local actors in climate action must be enabled. This includes meaningful capacity strengthening and engagement of local and community representatives in decision-making processes related to climate change adaptation and through increasing decentralized planning and access to climate finance. Increasing attention towards enabling decentralized access to climate finance has shifted the global discourse towards areas more closely aligned with the community-based work of a diverse array of non-state actors working at the local level on adaptation planning and resilience building. More specifically, this work includes promoting integrated approaches to achieve inclusive climate change adaptation, climate-smart disaster risk reduction, and ecosystem management and restoration. Forging an inclusive and transformative sustainable development agenda for 2030 and beyond requires planning for adaptation in a way that prioritizes meeting the needs of vulnerable communities.

Learning Outcomes:  
The 60-minute session will generate discussion and learning around why it is critical that adaptation planning at national level includes attention to local needs identified through participatory processes:

1.       What are examples of local level participation in adaptation planning that has contributed to achievement of national long-term climate specific planning goals? Have national systems presented barriers to successful implementation of local practices? What are the trade-offs of linking local to national decision-making processes related to adaptation planning? How can these be overcome?

a.       Related to the above, what are examples of adaptation planning and investment outcomes that reflect a link between adaptation planning for vulnerable communities, groups and ecosystems? (e.g. an integrated approach to risk management) What conditions enable this type of planning to succeed and how can we enable more of it?

2.       How can the successful examples of local implementation you highlight be supported and further incentivized in national planning, implementation and financing systems?*

* For these questions we will elicit recommendations for policy options that are actionable in the short-term and meet the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable.

Audio recording:
Skype broadcast is available here

Session 3: Adaptation planning for vulnerable groups
(Lead: BSR)

15:00 – 17:30

Background:
Climate change disproportionately affects different groups around the world, including women, children, the elderly, disabled and so on. Women are central to agriculture and food production. Women produce the majority of the world’s staple crops, are the primary food providers for the rural poor, and produce 60 to 80 percent of the food in developing countries. Because women are critical actors within supply chains as those that work in factories, and on the ground as smallholder farmers involving them in climate adaptation actions, planning and policy making is essential. Women can bring many unique skills and knowledge to the table.

Considering the variety of industries that rely on agriculture (including food and beverage, retail, and cosmetics), as well as the increasing impacts on supply chains due to climate change, there are exceptional opportunities for businesses with agricultural supply chains to build the adaptive capacity of women and put them at the center of holistic climate-resilient strategies. Therefore, at the intersection of climate resilience and women’s empowerment is a critical need for businesses to build climate-resilient agricultural supply chains.

However, there are many underlying factors and barriers (political, financial, social, etc.) that stand in the way of empowering women throughout these supply chains, which will entail action from all stakeholders: Businesses, government of all levels, civil society, etc.

How can we all work together to build not only short-term solutions, but those that last into the years that build the resilience of women in the face of climate change?

Audio recording:
Skype broadcast is available here

Session 4: Enabling adaptation planning (Technology)
(Lead: CTCN)

17:30 – 19:00

Background:
Climate change is projected to affect the flows of goods and services through urban areas, especially in coastal zones. Increased extreme weather events, heightened exposure to flood and drought, and changes to the spread of disease will increase exposure to risk in cities. This increased exposure to risk will be felt most strongly by the most vulnerable communities and groups. As such, identifying adaptation technologies, including ecosystem-based adaptation approaches, will be an important means of implementation to ensure adequate access to basic goods and services under changing climate conditions.

Audio recordings:
Skype broadcast is available here

10:00 – 10:10

Recap from Day 1
(Overall moderator)

Session 5: Enabling adaptation planning (Finance)
(Lead: GCF)

10:10-11:40

Background:
In December 2015, the 21st meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC requested the Green Climate Fund to expedite support to formulate & implement national adaptation plans (NAPs). In June 2016, at its 13th Meeting the Board of the GCF invited National Designated Authorities and Focal Points to submit requests for the formulation of NAPs and/or other adaptation planning processes. As of 1 May 2018, 50 countries have submitted proposal under this Readiness support window. Significant progress has been made it the pace of approvals in recent months, with 20 of these proposals having been approved or endorsed (12 approved and 8 endorsed for approval pending the addressing specific conditions).

Funding from the GCF for the formulation of NAPs and/or other adaptation planning processes provides a unique opportunity for countries to put into place the crucial building blocks for catalyzing action and attract the scale of financing they urgently need to address climate impacts and vulnerabilities. Countries are using GCF adaptation planning resources to establish or solidify building blocks such as systems to produce climate information that serves as the evidence base for adaptation planning and financial decision making of public and private sector actors; mechanisms for tracking and measuring the impact of adaptation finance; inter-institutional coordination mechanisms to support municipal scale adaptation planning; and communication strategies to attract local action and investment in adaptation. Consistent with the guidance of the LDC Expert Group, countries are designing the use of these resources based on their individual contexts, both in terms of climate impacts and vulnerabilities, as well as the status of adaptation planning. GCF support for NAPs and/or other adaptation planning processes can be used for planning at any scale within a national vision, and an increasing number of countries are proposing to use these funds to for local-scale planning to catalyse adaptation action and finance.

Within the broader programme of the TEM-A, this session will identify lessons and good practices learned and good practices from specific country examples, as well as good practices for using GCF resources for the formulation of adaptation planning processes to catalyse local action and finance.

Audio recordings:
Skype broadcast is available here

Closing session

Adaptation Committee, Overall moderator