Virtual Dialogue Series for Enabling Resilience and Scaling-up Action on Climate Change Adaptation
October – November 2020

Opening: No Distinct 1.5 °C Warmer World and Its Impact: Urgency to Scale-up Adaptation Action to Build Resilience for Asia and the Pacific

Monday, 19 October 2020
14:00-15:30 pm, Bangkok time, GMT+7, 16:00–17:30 (Tokyo time, GMT +9)

About the Session: While the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the Asia-Pacific region into an acute health and economic crisis, with unprecedented socio-economic impacts, the adverse impacts of climate change in a 2-degree warmer world scenario, will have an even higher toll on the economy and on people people’s health, well-being, and livelihoods than the current pandemic.

Governments in Asia and the Pacific need to respond to the COVID-19 crisis by adopting policy and investment decisions that also tackle the climate emergency. The current global health emergency is undermining years of climate adaptation efforts in the region, but at the same time is opening opportunities to promote bold solutions to adapt to climate change and reflect on the significance of resilience. As the region strives to respond and recover, there is an increased need to reconsider and transform the way we have delivered on climate adaptation and resilience so far, seizing the chance to invest in a recovery path intended to make human society more resilient, more equitable, healthier, and stronger all together. Building back better and forward will imply integrate climate resilience into decision-making at all levels of government and by the whole of society, including private sector, communities, and households.

This webinar will talk about the urgency to scale-up adaptation action to build resilience for Asia and the Pacific and will introduce how the 7th APAN forum, scheduled for the 8-12 March 2021 will advance it further. It will serve to build understanding on the necessity to step-up on climate adaptation efforts, and to consider how climate adaptation and resilience building can be factored into post COVID-19 decision making processes.

Session lead: APAN Secretariat / Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan

To register for the session, please click here.

About the Session: Climate risk is increasing sharply and threatening the fiscal sustainability of the countries in Asia and the Pacific region. However, not all is doom and gloom yet if countries and stakeholders step up their actions in climate resilience. Evidence suggest, that when done right, efforts in climate resilience can offer positive economic and wider social and environmental benefits. The COVID-19 recovery further provides a small window of opportunity to ramp up actions in resilience – to do it more and to do it differently. These opportunities exist in a range of sectors and themes including agriculture, infrastructure, urban development, natural resources management, finance, and technology; and requires long-term commitment and a whole of society approach for delivering sustainable results.

The webinar will provide a venue to introduce the opportunities for achieving inclusive economic development through investments in resilience. Such opportunities will form the backbone for deliberations for the stream on economic sector resilience at the 7th APAN Forum.

About the Session: The high rate of ecosystem degradation in the Asia Pacific region makes it one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change impacts. Nature-based solutions (NbS) are gaining traction given growing recognition that they can both help mitigate the negative impacts of climate change while delivering benefits to both ecosystem and human health and building long-term resilience. National efforts to integrate NbS for resilience include the development of national committees on climate change; financing NbS projects; scaling up the policy uptake of NbS; mainstreaming NbS into international commitments and policies such as the national adaptation plan (NAP) and nationally determined contributions (NDC) processes; sharing knowledge and lessons learnt; and supporting research, innovation, and the development of new technologies for adaptation.

This webinar will discuss climate governance, planning, science, technology, and financing in the context of NbS and demonstrate approaches to overcome the barriers for NBS and to upscale case studies to strengthen NbS for climate resilience in Asia Pacific.

Session lead: United Nations Environmental Programme

To register for the session, please click here.

Session Objective: 2021 marks the 20th year since the adoption of the (Least Developed Country) LDC work program which set the foundation for future work on adaptation in many ways. So, has anything fundamentally changed? On one hand, one can argue that the landscape of adaptation has changed dramatically. Technical understanding about climate has improved significantly, policy instruments and strategies, such as NDCs, create more conducive environments. institutional capacities have been enhanced to support adaptation actions; the volume and types of adaptation financing have expanded, and awareness about the needs and options of adaptation has increased. Yet, on the other hand, vulnerability of communities in developing countries seems to have been aggravated over the years.

This webinar will start exploring the overarching questions of:
What have we learned and what can be pointed as a success in building community resilience?
and
What actions can be prioritized and ‘who should do what’ to scale-up local resilience and promote locally led action on adaptation.

through the distinct but complementary topics of research and knowledge on adaptation, policy and financing instruments and innovation. Furthermore, it will also discuss how the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) can be catalysed and scaled up for local and community resilience and for locally led action.

Session lead: United Nations Development Programme