Climate Classroom - Building climate resilience through ecosystem-based adaptation planning

Name: Climate Classroom - Building climate resilience through ecosystem-based adaptation planning
Start: 2021-11-02
End: 2021-11-02
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

2 November 2021

Glasgow, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Overview

Speakers Bio

This Building climate resilience through ecosystem-based adaptation planning lesson will draw upon UNEP’s new Guidelines for Integrating Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) providing an overview of the integration process and highlighting how EbA can become a catalyst for aligning development agendas and promoting synergies between different sectors for adapting to climate change. The lesson will also illustrate examples of how countries have integrated ecosystem-based approaches into adaptation and development planning. The lesson is targeted to government officers, adaptation practitioners, and professionals working on adaptation who are interested in adopting ecosystem-based approaches when planning for climate-resilient development.

Outline of the lesson (45 min)

I. Introduction (3 min)

Welcome, a brief introduction to the Climate Classroom
Brief background for the lesson, UNEP’s mandate to help countries raise climate ambition through NAPs and EbA approaches, UNEP’s new Guidelines for Integrating Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and introduction of the speaker(s).

II. Content Delivery

Segment 1: Substance - Key messages

The objective of the class – what EbA is, background and introduction to National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), an overview of the NAP process and how EbA can become a catalyst for aligning development agendas and promoting synergies between different sectors for adapting to climate change;
How does EbA enhance NAPs?
- EbA with multiple benefits for adaptation & development,
- Broaden the range of key stakeholders in the NAP process,
- Promote cross-sectoral coordination and climate-resilient spatial planning,
- Expand the potential for climate financing support NAP implementation,
- EbA can be integrated into any stage NAP through its iterative nature.
Need to support countries to incorporate EbA in NAPs à UNEP’s new Guidelines for Integrating Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) can support, provide guidance, and motivate countries to adopt ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation.

The guidelines will assist adaptation practitioners in:

Understanding why nature is so important for our society & the role ecosystems play in enhancing climate resilience;
How to integrate EbA into national adaptation plans – at any stage;
Learning about financing & mainstreaming EbA & overcoming institutional challenges for implementing and monitoring EbA

Segment 2: Illustration (14 min) - Examples and real application

Three examples of how countries have integrated EbA into NAPs or ecosystem-based approaches into adaptation and development planning.
- Country example 1. Nepal (Adaptation Services)
- Country example 2. Colombia (Opportunity Mapping Tool)
- Country example 3. Fiji (Economic valuation of EbA versus Infrastructure adaptation options)
Recent developments in the topic (past 1-2 years). The current state of the discussions on the topic: questions under consideration. Outlook on upcoming developments and emerging issues.
- NAPs upgraded with EbA approaches present an opportunity to enhance a country’s climate resilience but also its overall resilience to the biodiversity crisis and the effects of pandemics such as the Covid-19;
- Improved monitoring and evaluation of EbA is helping to:
  - Avoid maladaptation
  - Promote mainstreaming of EbA;
  - Boost adaptive management of key ecosystems and adaptation services.
- Adaptation and COP26
- Additional guidelines and tools, the value of ecosystem services, natural capital and EbA, climate finance

Segment 3: Q&A (11 min)

III. Summary & Conclusion (2 min)

All countries now can access the guidelines for integrating EbA in NAPs.
NAPs enhanced with EbA open many windows of opportunity.
EbA is a win-win option for adapting to climate change and provides an increasingly important link between the global agendas on climate and biodiversity.
Join the e-course Building climate resilience through ecosystem-based adaptation planning produced in collaboration with UNITAR (first lesson to be launched on November 25).

Segment 2 (Illustration): Examples and real application (14 minutes)

Three examples of how countries have integrated EbA into NAPs or ecosystem-based approaches into adaptation and development planning.
- Country example 1. Nepal (Adaptation Services)
- Country example 2. Colombia (Opportunity Mapping Tool)
- Country example 3. Grenada (coastal EbA) or Thailand (IWRM & EbA)
Recent developments in the topic (past 1-2 years). The current state of the discussions on the topic: questions under consideration. Outlook on upcoming developments and emerging issues.
- NAPs upgraded with EbA approaches present an opportunity to enhance a country’s climate resilience but also its overall resilience to the biodiversity crisis and the effects of pandemics such as the Covid-19;
- Monitoring and evaluation of EbA approaches are strategic to:
  - avoiding maladaptation, contributing to continuous learning on EbA;
  - promoting mainstreaming of EbA into NAPs;
  - boosting synergies for adaptive management of key ecosystems and adaptation services.

Segment 3 (Q&A): Questions and discussion (11 minutes)

Questions from the audience to the speaker(s)
Questions to the audience via Zoom poll/Mentimeter/Mural board (e.g. on their key takeaways of the lesson)

III. Summary & Conclusion (2 minutes) Key messages:

All countries now can access the guidelines for integrating EbA in NAPs;
NAPs enhanced with EbA open many windows of opportunity for maximizing the use of development resources by aligning development agendas and boosting synergies between development and adaptation actors;
EbA is a win-win option for adapting to climate change and getting on a climate-resilient development fast lane (pathways).

Wrap up (1 minute)

Invitation to engage further with us after the session, attend relevant sessions/side events at #COP26, and other UN and UN CC: Learn capacity-building offerings.

For more information, click here.

Alejandro Jiménez Hernández M.Sc.

Alejandro has been working worldwide for international organizations from the environmental and humanitarian sectors, for over 20 years. Throughout his career, he has been engaged with networks of sustainable development practitioners, assisting civil society organizations, local governments, and institutions, in the formulation of project proposals and the implementation of adaptation activities.

As a skilled workshop facilitator, he enjoys leading capacity building and technical assistance programmes. Besides, he is also keen in working with community stakeholders carrying out vulnerability assessments, formulating adaptation initiatives for coastal, urban, and rural environments, empowering civil society and promoting synergies for learning on adaptation. Through his work, Alejandro has accumulated a broad experience in assessing climate risk using a diversity of tools and developing Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) options to enhance overall climate resilience. Furthermore, he has recently published a couple of handbooks and a Guideline on EbA.

Originally a biologist focused on tropical ecology and natural history, Alejandro holds a Master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Geography from the University of Costa Rica, as well as a title as a Specialist in Environmental Impact Assessment from the University of Valladolid - Spain. Currently, he's a member of IUCN's Commission on Ecosystems Management (CEM) for Mesoamerica and works as an international consultant on EbA.

Dr. Peter King

Dr. Peter King has been an avid environmentalist since his undergraduate days at Melbourne University (Bachelors in Agricultural Science) and it has remained an abiding passion for more than 40 years. He started his career in the Soil Conservation Authority in the state of Victoria and became the Land Studies Coordinator in Victoria’s first Ministry for Conservation. He was one of the first graduates of the Master's degree in Environmental Science programme at Monash University in 1977. He spent some time at the Environment and Policy Institute, East-West Center in Hawaii, and then set up his own environmental consulting company. Following some successful work for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a consultant in the period 1984-88, he started work with the ADB in March 1991 as an Environment Specialist in the Office of Environment. He established a sound reputation as ADB’s leading natural resources management (“green”) expert, with personal responsibility for over 50 loan and TA projects. In 1998, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Environmental Science) degree from Murdoch University in Perth, with a thesis entitled “Integrated Economic and Environmental Planning at the Subnational Level in Asia.” In 2005, he took early retirement from ADB and is currently a Senior Policy Advisor for the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies in Bangkok, heads the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network secretariat, is a member of the Climate Change Asia Coordination Group, was Team Leader, Adaptation Project Preparation and Finance on the USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific project, and is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Global Environment Outlook (GEO). Dr. King has contributed to multiple climate change training programs for Climate Change Asia and CTCN.

Ms. Lis Mullin Bernhardt, Programme Officer, Climate Change Adaptation Unit

UNEP Lis Mullin Bernhardt is an international development and environment professional who has been working at the environment/policy interface since 2002, serving at UNEP’s headquarters since 2016. She has extensive experience in the area of global environmental change, freshwater issues, and the SDGs, having served for seven years in the UN’s inter-agency coordination mechanism for water, UN-Water, including in New York during the establishment of the 2030 Agenda.

Lis has been in UNEP’s Climate Change Adaptation Unit since November 2019 and currently serves as the Coordinator of the Global Adaptation Network, an initiative that shares key adaptation knowledge and information around the world.

Anna Kilponen, Global Adaptation Network Regional Liaison, UNEP

Anna Kilponen is the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) Regional Liaison for Asia-Pacific at UNEP. In this role, she supports GAN and the regional node, Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) with regional initiatives, such as the UNFCCC/NWP’s Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI) and the APAN Forum. She also supports communications and helps to capture and share lessons from the region on Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) for the Global EbA Fund.