Adaptation planning
support helps countries weather climate change
A guide to NAPs and why GCF is supporting this country-led process to spark catalytic climate action
Many in the Caribbean are preparing anxiously for another hurricane season while still trying to recover from the devastation of 2017, the costliest hurricane season on record. The global temperature signs are worrying, with May 2018 the fourth warmest May on record.
The series of hurricanes which swept across the Caribbean in 2017 was one of history’s most destructive hurricane seasons, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Extreme weather killed several hundred people, impacted the lives of millions, and will likely require years for the worst hit Caribbean islands to recover. The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, declared the island of Barbuda “barely habitable,” amid forecasts reconstruction could total hundreds of millions of dollars.
The damaging effects of climate change are becoming increasingly evident. In addition to the immediately apparent devastation of hurricanes, climate effects also come in more slow-moving but equally destructive forms. Drought threatens billions of people living on farmland that is deteriorating and producing less food, according to a recent UN-backed report.
The effects on agriculture and people’s wellbeing are already evident today. Conflicts and climate disasters, particularly drought, drove the number of people facing crisis levels of hunger up by about 15 percent last year, another report warns. UN research released last year says global health risks related to climate change are already rising, while nearly all members of the C40 group of megacities addressing climate change report extreme weather events that are “off all the scale of previous experience.”
While the destructive impacts of climate change come in many manifestations, they do share one aspect – the resultant need to take preventative action. Recognising this, during the past few years, adaptation has become recognised as equally important as mitigation activities reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement, which entered into force in November 2016, enshrined this equally weighted approach to climate change. It recognises that even with efforts to keep global temperature rises well below 2 degrees Celsius, we already need to adapt to adverse climate impacts that are occurring already.
Annual Adaptation Costs by Region (2010-2050) / Source: World Bank, “Economics of adaptation to climate change”, 2010.
Annual Adaptation Costs by Region (2010-2050) / Source: World Bank, “Economics of adaptation to climate change”, 2010.
The equal priority of these two climate action goals is mirrored in GCF’s mandate to deliver a 50:50 balance between mitigation and adaptation allocations in the financial support it provides developing countries. Also, reflecting the need to help those most in need of financial assistance, GCF ensures at least 50 percent of adaptation funding goes to particularly vulnerable countries, including Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and African States.
GCF Portfolio
GCF Portfolio
Adaptation sometimes requires a rethinking of development pathways. Taking effective action requires countries to work out what kinds of adaptation measures will address specific climate risks that they are facing, and how to prioritise them. For example, should countries and regions facing incursion from rising sea levels build walls, or bolster natural defences? Or in extreme cases, should populations be moved to higher ground?
Taking effective action requires countries to work out what kinds of adaptation measures will be effective, and how to prioritise them. That is why in figuring out how to adapt to climate change, and how it should be financed, planning is paramount. And that is why the formulation of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and/or other planning processes are so important, and why GCF is such a strong backer of these efforts.
GCF is supporting developing countries plan and attract larger scale finance for more resilient futures by strengthening their own adaptation planning processes. These planning processes are key building blocks of countries’ ongoing efforts to bolster adaptive capacities, attract investment in adaptation from a diversity of sources, and to help galvanise public and private sector-led actions to make societies more climate resilient.
Adaptation planning processes are intended to catalyse action and finance to generate systemic change that addresses climate impacts and vulnerabilities. GCF’s support for adaptation planning is designed to be country-driven, evidence-based and gender-sensitive. It also should be coherent with individual countries’ development plans and be complementary with other sources of support.
The idea of supporting National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and other national adaptation planning processes was advanced by climate change negotiators under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The NAP process is part of the Cancun Agreements adopted at the 16th session of the UNFCCC Conferences of Parties (COP 16) held in Mexico in 2010. COP 16 represented a milestone in global climate cooperation as it established the place of adaptation as being equally important as mitigation.
GCF’s current support for NAPs is based on a strong foundation of assistance provided by other global organisations bolstering adaptation in developing countries. This includes the NAP Global Support Programme (implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and UN Environment with Global Environment Facility funding), and the NAP Global Network hosted by the International Institute of Sustainable Development (ISSD).
GCF assistance for adaptation planning is provided through its Readiness Programme, which provides financial resources to help developing countries access GCF and other climate finance sources. This adaptation assistance is implemented by national or international delivery partners selected by the countries’ National Designated Authorities (NDAs), which act as developing national governments’ conduits to GCF. The GCF Readiness Programme assists developing countries by providing up to USD 3 million per country to formulate NAPs and other adaptation planning processes. This amount can be accessed by countries either at once or over a phased period.
Developing countries and Direct Access Entities can request Readiness assistance to fund the formulation of adaptation planning processes through their National Designated Authorities (NDAs) or focal points, which represent governments’ main conduits of interaction with the Fund. GCF’s support for adaptation planning is based on reducing vulnerability and building long-term climate resilience, while taking into account the urgent and immediate needs of those developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change.
A key point of GCF’s adaptation planning support is that it builds up a scientific and economic evidence base to catalyse larger scale adaptation action and investment – an urgent need for a number of developing countries. Elisha Moyo, representing Zimbabwe’s NDA, has made this point clearly.
“Adaptation planning which we are receiving from GCF is something which we are using to mobilize further resource for climate action.”
GCF’s approach to NAPs is not prescriptive and varies according to the diverse and evolving needs of developing countries in managing climate risks comprehensively. Countries’ adaptation solutions range from climate-proofing coastal infrastructure to better weather rising sea levels, developing more drought-resistant crops, and enhancing the ability to predict and prepare for extreme weather events , such as tropical cyclones.
In the latter case, GCF has been moving to increasingly support developing countries bolster their early warning systems. WMO found that accurate forecasts and warnings about wind, storm surge and flooding hazards, and coordination between meteorological services and disaster management, helped prevent the casualty toll from the Caribbean hurricanes from being even higher.
GCF adaptation specialist Jason Spensley suggests the financing that makes NAPs and other adaptation planning processes possible should be viewed from a holistic perspective.
“They are essentially opportunities to catalyse increasing, adaptation-focused investment from a combination of public and private sector sources,”
Mr Spensley describes adaptation plans as being useful tools that empower countries and businesses to stay productive despite an increasingly uncertain future. “They make the real threat of climate change less daunting and costly, as they help countries and businesses plan ahead to make infrastructure and societies more resilient,” he says.
While the effects of climate change differ, they share the potential to undermine country’s economic development and people’s livelihoods. NAPs can be particularly important in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Liberia, one of 21 countries currently receiving GCF adaptation planning support.
This is because 75 percent of this West African nation’s people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. While Liberia has won international recognition for its peaceful election in October last year, following two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, the UN Security Council has warned about the adverse effects of climate change across the whole of West Africa.
Nathaniel Blama, executive director of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (a GCFNDA) recently emphasised the predominant effect climate has on his largely agrarian nation.
“Because of erratic rainfall, farming season and processing have been affected. How we work with famers to adapt to the new pattern of rain, that is a challenge.”
GCF’s adaptation planning support to Liberia includes gaining a deeper understanding of the vulnerabilities of the country’s agriculture sector, and finding practical solutions to strengthen the climate resilience of food production.
While adaptation planning can help steer countries on resilient development paths, it also has an important part to play on the global climate scene. NAPs and other adaptation planning processes have become enmeshed in international efforts to deal with climate change under the Paris Agreement which defines a global goal on adaptation. The Agreement requires all countries, as appropriate, to engage in adaptation planning and implementation through e.g. national adaptation plans, vulnerability assessments, monitoring and evaluation, and economic diversification. GCF’s adaptation planning support enables developing countries to formulate clear plans of adaptive action for countries to describe what they are doing to deal with climate change.
More details about GCF guidelines on national adaptation support are available on pages 28 to 47 of the GCF Readiness Guidebook. To find out more about GCF’s support for adaptation planning, please contact countries@gcfund.org
GCF Readiness Guidebook
GCF Readiness Guidebook
Quick Facts: GCF adaptation assistance (as at 31 October 2018)
- GCF has received 65 proposals for the formulation of National Adaptation Plans and/or adaptation planning processes under the GCF readiness programme
- Of these, GCF has approved 21 proposals, with 7 more in the final stages of approval completion, totalling 28 proposals with a combined value of USD 70 million.
