Topic: adaptation, COP-18 Doha

STATEMENT: World Bank "Raises Alarm" of a 4 Degree Hotter World

Michael Oko — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:51:06 -0500

The World Bank Group just released a groundbreaking new report on climate change, called Turn Down the Heat, which offers a vivid assessment of what 4 degrees Celsius of global temperature rise would mean for the world.

Following is a statement by Andrew Steer, President, World Resources Institute:

“This report should awaken world leaders out of their slumber on climate change. A 4 degree temperature rise would bring unimaginable costs to people and society. We must take the necessary actions now to stay within 2 degrees or lower of warming.

“The differences between 2 degrees and 4 degrees temperature rise are stark. It took little more than four degrees of cooling to create the Ice Age, so imagine the havoc 4 degrees of warming would create. While the impacts would be uneven around the globe, vulnerable countries and poor people would be hardest hit. Communities already facing economic hardship would face longer droughts and more intense monsoons that disrupt food supply, more diseases associated with warmer temperatures and more pests, and greater water scarcity.

“The World Bank is to be congratulated for raising the alarm on this issue. By doing so they are aligning themselves with the majority of scientific opinion on climate change. It’s worth noting that the World Bank is a financial institution and not prone toward exaggeration. This report, therefore, must not be shrugged off. The World Bank itself can do more to raise ambition through its own financing, including by directing the great bulk of its energy investments toward scaling up renewable energy and energy efficiency. Further, the World Bank can channel more resources toward more projects that will enhance innovation and sustainability, as well as climate resilience.

“As negotiators head to Doha for the climate talks, they must bring a greater sense of urgency and purpose to these negotiations. A 4 degree warmer world can be prevented, but this will require greater leadership and imagination than has been shown to date. All negotiators should re-commit to keep the world within 2 degrees of warming. But we need more than UN negotiators to respond.

“Climate change is one of the great challenges of our generation, and we need to bring the full capacity of governments, businesses, multi-lateral institutions, and civil society to confront these challenges. Around the world, there are numerous examples of how the problem could be solved at low-cost and with high returns. We have no more excuses for inaction.

“The alarm bell on global warming is ringing. Let’s hope world leaders are listening.”

–

Dr. Steer previously worked as the World Bank Group’s Special Envoy for Climate Change.

ADVISORY: Press Teleconference on Doha Climate Talks

Michael Oko — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:32:07 -0500

Full audio recording of WRI’s press call below:

With the U.S. elections just completed and the Doha climate talks fast approaching, this is an important moment to consider where progress can be made on international action to address climate change. The recent Hurricane Sandy, along with other extreme weather and climate events, has delivered a powerful wake-up call about the urgency of shifting to a low-carbon trajectory.

Listen to the audio recording of WRI’s press call here:

On Tuesday, November 13, leading experts from the World Resources Institute will participate in a press teleconference to discuss the state of play and key topics in Doha, including how to move forward with an ambitious climate agreement, the role of the U.S. and other countries in the international negotiations, how to accelerate climate finance, and more.

WHAT
Press teleconference on the UNFCCC climate negotiations in Doha, Qatar (COP18)

WHO
Dr. Andrew Steer, President, WRI

Jennifer Morgan, Director, Climate and Energy Program, WRI

Clifford Polycarp, Senior Associate, Institutions & Governance Program, WRI

WHEN
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. EST (DC)//14:00 GMT (London)

Media: Call-in 10 minutes prior to the start time

DIAL-IN
+(888) 566-6569 (Toll Free, U.S. only); or

+(517) 308-9326 (U.S. and International)

Access code: WRI

Case Study: Applying Information for Adapting the Agriculture Sector in Bundelkhand, India

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:25:44 -0400

This case study examines two projects implemented by Development Alternatives to highlight the multiplicity of data sources involved in adaptation decision making, provide an analysis of how information was used, and explore the challenges associated with information use for adaptation decision making in the agricultural sector.

This case study is part of a series under the World Resources Institute project, Information for Climate Adaptation in South Asia: Identifying User Needs. Each of the case studies in this set explores an aspect of information use in adaptation decision making. The goals of this series are two-fold:

Provide insights into how information (such as climate projections, stakeholder interviews, and environmental monitoring) can be used to support adaptation decisions; and
Guide investments by national governments and their development partners in information systems that can inform decision making around risks related to climate change.

This case study series was supported by the UK Department for International Development. Case study authors used the same framework of guiding questions for their research, which consisted of literature reviews and interviews.

Case Study: Information Use in Nepal's National Adaptation Programme of Action

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:14:36 -0400

Nepal is passing through a turbulent period of transition, reorganizing its internal political boundaries, establishing a federal structure, and changing the very nature of the national government. Since 2008, Nepal’s priorities have been dominated by these political imperatives, a post-conflict peace process, and attempts to integrate Maoist ex-insurgents into the national mainstream. This dynamic presents numerous challenges for the government in seeking to meet the country’s development and environmental needs. Climate change adds extra stress to these needs in the form of heightened weather variability, extreme events, and other impacts on the country’s natural and social systems.

Provide insights into how information (such as climate projections, stakeholder interviews, and environmental monitoring) can be used to support adaptation decisions; and
Guide investments by national governments and their development partners in information systems that can inform decision making around risks related to climate change.

Case Study: Communicating Modeled Information for Adaptation Decision Making

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:30:27 -0400

The HighNoon project, which began in 2009, set out to assess the impact Himalayan glacier retreat and expected changes in the Indian summer monsoon on the distribution of water resources in Northern India. The project’s aim was “to recommend appropriate and efficient response strategies to enable adaptation to hydrological extreme events.” The project used information from scenarios generated by regional climate and hydrological models and integrated it with stakeholder perspectives to identify and prioritize adaptation strategies. This case study examines the HighNoon project in order to explore how adaptation-relevant information can best be packaged and disseminated to different users and audiences at the state, district, and block levels.

This case study is part of a series that fall under the World Resources Institute project, Information for Climate Adaptation in South Asia: Identifying User Needs. Each of the case studies in this set explores an aspect of information use in adaptation decision making. The goals of this series are two-fold:

Provide insights into how information (such as climate projections, stakeholder interviews, and environmental monitoring) can be used to support adaptation decisions; and
Guide investments by national governments and their development partners in information systems that can inform decision making around risks related to climate change.

Ready or Not: Assessing National Institutional Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation

Kevin Lustig — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:22:25 -0500

Executive Summary

Effective institutions are at the heart of our ability to respond to growing climate risks. Governments and other institutions at the national level can play a critical role in increasing society’s capacity to adjust and readjust (i.e., “adaptive capacity”) as conditions shift and as new climate change knowledge emerges.
As national policymakers, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiators, international funders, and others develop methods and guidelines for adaptation planning, it is critical that they include a focus on building national institutions that can support ongoing adaptation.
The NAC framework provides a practical approach for understanding the institutional aspects of adaptive capacity. NAC assessments can support planning through the identification of specific gaps in capacity that can be filled through investment and action.
The NAC framework evaluates national institutions’ performance of five key functions critical to adaptation: assessment, prioritization, coordination, information management, and climate risk management. The NAC treats performance of these functions as an indication of a country’s overall adaptive capacity.
The pilot applications of the framework in Bolivia, Ireland, and Nepal suggest that the NAC framework is useful across a range of countries and that it can be tailored to specific country contexts. The pilots used the NAC framework in the following ways:
- As a tool for monitoring and baseline setting. The NAC assessment in Bolivia led to the development of country-specific indicators and metrics for use in adaptation policy.
- As a tool to catalyze action and fill key capacity gaps. The Irish NAC assessment identified gaps in capacity, helping to build an evidence base for targeting new research and development efforts. It also inspired the Irish Environmental Protection Agency to commission a national vulnerability assessment.
- As a tool to gather and synthesize resources. The NAC framework can provide a practical structure for organizing a diverse and often scattered body of adaptation-relevant information and resources. This proved particularly useful in Nepal and Bolivia.
The country teams that applied the NAC framework in Bolivia, Ireland, and Nepal used distinctly different approaches to completing their assessments and also formatted their findings differently. This indicates that the NAC framework can be tailored for use in a variety of different planning or evaluation processes.

World Resources Report 2010-2011: Decision Making in a Changing Climate

Maggie Barron — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:13:29 -0400

Recent extreme weather events including floods, heat waves, and droughts present a vivid image of the direction the world is heading. As climate change intensifies, more events like these, combined with longer-term changes in the climate’s average state - including rising seas, melting glaciers, and shifting precipitation patterns — will have profound impacts on people, ecosystems and infrastructure.

Together, these changes call for different approaches to planning and policymaking, enabling societies to adapt effectively to a much hotter tomorrow.

World Resources Report 2010-2011: Decision Making in a Changing Climate is a major resource to help developing country national-level officials make decisions that support communities and economic sectors to become more climate resilient.

Based on input from more than 100 experts in 36 countries, the report offers specific, practical strategies and innovative case studies to inform how to integrate climate change risks into national policies and planning.

It also provides recommendations in five key public policy areas for developing country government officials and donor agencies: public engagement , decision-relevant information, institutional design, tools for planning and policymaking, and resources.

Produced by the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank, and the World Resources Institute, WRR 2010-2011 is essential reading for policy makers, donors, and decision makers who must start now to prepare for a changing world.

Making Adaptation Count: Concepts and Options for Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation

Kevin Lustig — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:07:25 -0400

This report was made possible with support from the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Executive Summary

Adaptation, Development, and Monitoring and Evaluation

The impacts of climate change increasingly threaten the achievement of poverty reduction and other development objectives, including the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Research suggests that impacts over the course of the 21st century, if unaddressed, could cause a 5–10 percent loss in global gross domestic product (GDP), with poor countries’ wealth declining in excess of 10 percent.¹ Even more significant are the potential threats to human security – reduced agricultural production, heightened water scarcity, exposure to droughts, floods, storms, and diseases.²

As developing country governments and their international partners grow increasingly aware of these threats, they are turning to options for adapting to climate change in the development context. However, the national, sectoral, and project-based adaptation plans and policies now emerging are largely in their infancy and relatively untested. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of such initiatives, as they are implemented across the developing world, will be critically important for judging their effectiveness and making decisions on which efforts to scale up as climate impacts intensify. Industrialized countries and donor agencies channeling billions of dollars into adaptation finance, including under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will require such systems as an important dimension to the adaptation initiatives they support.

About This Publication

This paper aims to provide adaptation and development practitioners with a practical framework for developing M&E systems that can track the success and failure of adaptation initiatives in the development context. It is based upon a series of convenings, case studies, and interviews conducted by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). In particular, the authors reviewed M&E systems in the planning and implementation stages for several relevant GIZ and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau Bankengruppe (KfW or German Development Bank) natural resource management and adaptation projects in India.

We expect adaptation M&E practice will evolve substantially in the years ahead. We offer this guidance in the hope that capturing early lessons in adaptation can propel future successful efforts. This paper addresses the planning, design, and early implementation stages of adaptation interventions. The key framework can also serve as a basis for funders and their partners to develop or analyse programmatic agendas, formulate evaluation questions, or supplement guidance on M&E in a specific sector or thematic area.

The core principles presented in this report center around the importance of M&E as a tool to shape successful adaptation efforts. We also recognize, however, that M&E can serve other useful purposes. For example, it can help identify positive synergies between efforts towards adaptation and other objectives, such as economic growth or climate change mitigation.

The guidance presented here is limited to the scope of our research and consultations and has not yet been substantially tested in the field. Practitioners will undoubtedly need to adjust their use of this paper to the unique needs of specific interventions, and to existing M&E systems and management standards. Furthermore, analysis of adaptation strategies and efforts beyond the intervention level are largely beyond the scope of this paper. Very different methodologies may be needed to assess, for example, large-scale, countrywide adaptation strategies, or sector-wide adaptation efforts. Finally, as practitioners, governments, and other development cooperation partners progress in this emerging field, much remains to be tested and learned about “what works” in adaptation and how to measure it.

Stern 2006. ↩
UNDP 2008a. ↩