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Global Network News

UNFCCC and UNEP convened a brainstorming session with subregional partners to scale up the UNFCCC Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI).

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Climate change adaptation has been brought to the fore at COP26 as developed countries pledged billions of dollars to help developing nations and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) adapt to climate change. During the negotiations, nature-based solutions (NbS) were often heard as a key factor to be considered when developing adaptation strategies.

From the EPIC-Asia Workshop occurring in May, eleven seed grants awarded for projects focusing on sustainability, climate resilience, and adaptation.

Find the original version of the newsletter here.

Find the original version of the newsletter here.

Nature is a critical component to scaling up climate change adaptation and resilience. However, financing mechanisms are needed to mainstream approaches such as Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), a nature-based solution for climate adaptation, to reach the communities who need them the most. A recent session at CBA15 discussed the challenges of scaling up and financing EbA in Africa, with a focus on the role of innovation.

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Global Network News

Are you looking for funding to bring your innovative adaptation ideas into reality?

UNEP and the Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN) are providing USD 5 million worth of technical assistance to foster innovation for adaptation in developing countries (up to USD 250,000 for each successful application). The second call for proposals is now open until 30 April 2021.

Network News

On March 10th, an engaging technical session organized by UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) shared perspectives from across the Asia Pacific region on how to close knowledge gaps and scale up adaptation action, including nature-based approaches.

How can we respond to adaptation barriers?

The Pacific Islands are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as sea level rise, storm surges, flooding, and erosion, which negatively affect communities’ food and water supplies, livelihoods, and culture. Here, there is an urgent need to enhance climate change adaptation efforts. Yet adaptation knowledge gaps, whether it is the absence of knowledge or lack of access to existing knowledge, have been shown to pose a significant barrier to successful adaptation actions.

At the 7th Asia Pacific Adaptation Network, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is co-leading the Nature-based Resilience Stream together with IUCN.

Please find the full version of the GAN Newsletter here. 

Network News

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is leading a session on locally-led urban Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in Asia-Pacific at the Gobeshona Global Conference on January 19, 2021.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in Bangladesh is recruiting two consultants for an Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) project. The two vacancies are for: 1) an International Technical Advisor (ITA); and 2) an International EbA Expert (IEE).

The project is titled Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation (EbA) in the Drought-Prone Barind Tract and Haor “Wetland” Area Project.  

A new Friends of EbA (FEBA) Working Group has been established to focus on ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) in National Adaptation Plans, and to contribute to and consult on a set of guidelines on the integration of EbA into NAPs.

Climate Change & Security

Humanity faces major challenges, be it war, poverty or disease. The special characteristic of climate change is that, by making ecological and economic systems more fragile, it makes all these problems harder to solve. For this reason, climate change has been described as a ‘threat multiplier’.

“Farmers always think with their eyes,” goes the saying. For communities living according to when, or whether, the rains come, it is practical solutions — not words — that count.

Practicality certainly counts in Darfur, a region of Sudan where reduced rainfall has produced a steady southward march of the Sahara desert. The reduced rainfall is itself a product of erratic and varied weather patterns caused by climate change.

Bonn, Germany - The UN’s latest round of climate negotiations took place last month, and the international adaptation community has been watching closely. 193 governments came together in Bonn, Germany, to reinforce their ambitions to fight climate change. In preparation, the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) hosted a critical expert meeting on adaptation.

Abu Dhabi, UAE –The Global Adaptation Network held its 2nd Forum last March. Convened in UAE, the event brought to light various issues in adaptation and constituted the first event to contribute to the Talanoa Dialogue, an ongoing global discourse on climate change. Since then, the Forum has been feeding into climate policy on a global scale, and last month, the UNFCCC’s Bonn Climate Conference used findings from the event to enrich its own discussions and negotiations. 

Bangladeshi farmers are preventing their lands from flooding by building floating gardens made of water hyacinth and bamboo, a new documentary shows. The film won the prestigious Best Short Film award at the New York WILD Film Festival last week. Mongabay interviewed Alizé Carrère, the cultural anthropologist behind the film, and the transcript can be found here. See the trailer below:

Rotterdam, 10 May 2016 – The cost of adapting to climate change in developing countries could rise to between $280 and $500 billion per year by 2050, a figure that is four to five times greater than previous estimates, according to a new United Nations Environment (UNEP) report.