When the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the podcast Resilience in 2021, it was meant to be an antidote to the doom and gloom that surrounds the discussion on climate change.
Since then, Resilience has featured the stories of communities from around the world that have managed—often against long odds—to adapt to the upheaval wrought by the climate crisis.
The final episode of Resilience’s second season hits streaming services (Spotify, Amazon and Apple) on 19 December. Ahead of that, we sat down with Mirey Atallah, the Chief of UNEP’s Adaptation and Resilience Branch, to chat about the podcast’s most memorable moments and explore what humanity must do to prepare for the new climate normal.
Why was it important for UNEP to do a podcast about adapting to climate change?
As the climate crisis has worsened, there has been an explosion in the number of climate-related podcasts. Many have rightly focused on how we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the question of how we can adapt to the impacts of climate change, which are already here, often gets overlooked. We know from UNEP’s own work there are captivating solutions out there for building resilience. We want to share those with the world.
The message of Resilience is one of hope. It showcases how communities around the world have learned to adjust to the fallout from climate change, like droughts, floods and rising seas. Why did you take that approach?
It is important to acknowledge the sobering reality of climate change and the devastation it is causing. But if we only talk about that, we’ll just be breeding fear. We need to showcase tangible solutions and stories of hope, like how Africa is planting a 10-million-hectare green wall to hold back the expanding Sahara Desert. With that approach, we can show people that there is a way forward – and that will make them more likely to act.
The second season of Resilience kicked off in October. What are a couple of the most inspiring examples of climate adaptation that you came across this season?
There are so many. But to name a few, in Burundi, we learned about a relatively inexpensive inflatable barrier that can protect communities from flooding. In London, we heard about a museum exhibition that uses augmented reality to visualize what climate-resilient buildings could look like. And in the Peruvian Andes, we followed one man’s mission to plant 10 million trees to protect his community from the impacts of melting glaciers. The beauty of resilience, as you’ll hear in the podcast, is that the solutions are nearly limitless and touch so many aspects of people’s lives.
The world is in a bad place right now. UNEP’s recent Emissions Gap Report found the planet could warm between 2.6°C and 3.1°C by century’s end unless we rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Can humanity even adapt to that much warming?
A common theme throughout the podcast is that adaptation will be so much more challenging if we fail to reduce our emissions. In fact, we heard from Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times’ adaptation journalist, that there are limits to adaptation, and we’ll face those limits in a world that heats to 3°C. He provides a powerful example of outdoor workers when temperatures hit 50°C. What do you do in that situation? We need to acknowledge the limits of adaptation. It’s not a substitute for the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Can you give us the short version of what the world must do to adapt to climate change?
First, we need to unlock billions of dollars in financing for climate adaptation. Second, we need to invest in nature; forests, mangroves and wetlands are natural shields against climate catastrophes. Third we need to embed adaptation strategies into national policymaking, particularly by developing national adaptation plans. As climate change intensifies almost no corner of our economies and societies will be untouched. So, we need adaptation plans that bring all stakeholders together; that’s the only way we’re going to be able to shield hard-won development gains from the impacts of climate change.
Q: UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report, say the world is not devoting nearly enough money to adapting to climate change. How can we change that?
This is, quite literally, the multi-billion-dollar question. The adaptation finance gap currently sits at around US$300 billion per year. In one episode we spoke at length with UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, who ran through the ways in which we can unlock the money needed to protect vulnerable communities. Those include everything from so-called ‘debts swaps’ for adaptation, to resilience credits, to payments for ecosystem services. As you will hear, the question isn’t whether we can afford to adapt but whether we can afford not to.
Q: The final episode of the second season of Resilience goes live on 19 December. What can people expect from it?
This last episode was a lot of fun to create. It looks at how artificial intelligence could utterly transform the way the world adapts to climate change. For example, we explore how AI can not only predict climate disasters before they occur but how it can forecast where people will migrate as a response. It remains to be seen whether these models will be accurate, but when fed with good data, they might be instrumental in saving lives.
Q: You’ve spent years helping communities cope with climate change. Do you think humanity will be able to adapt to what’s coming?
We can’t underestimate the challenge. Even today, emissions are rising. If that trend continues, our ability to adapt will slip beyond our reach. But the hope of some of our guests has been infectious. Their ingenuity and relentlessness, I think, should inspire everyone to roll up their sleeves and be part of the solution. Their successes are allowing us to imagine what a climate-resilient world could look like.
The Sectoral Solution to the climate crisis
UNEP is at the forefront of supporting the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2°C, and aiming for 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To do this, UNEP has developed the Sectoral Solution, a roadmap to reducing emissions across sectors in line with the Paris Agreement commitments and in pursuit of climate stability. The six sectors identified are: energy; industry; agriculture and food; forests and land use; transport; and buildings and cities.
