News

Wednesday 7th April - A USD 10 million initiative, financed by the Green Climate Fund, is using ‘nature-based solutions’ in four cities of Lao PDR to build resilience towards flooding caused by climate change. The project is expected to benefit 10 per cent of the country’s population.

The five-year project is restoring urban wetland and stream ecosystems to regulate water flow and reduce flood risk. The initiative aims to shift the paradigm of urban flood management in Lao PDR, from hard infrastructure towards the integration of nature-based solutions.

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.

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Thursday 1st April - The government of Zambia has launched a new initiative to use nature to adapt to climate change. The project is part of a wider attempt in the country to improve the livelihoods of rural communities by restoring damaged ecosystems.

With over USD 6 million from the Global Environment Facility, a major funder of climate change projects, the initiative is focusing on the Lukanga and Bangweulu wetlands in the Central and Luapula parts of the country (respectively).

Thursday 25th March – Pakistan has officially begun the process of creating a National Adaptation Plan for building resilience to climate change. The announcement comes only six weeks before the nation hosts the landmark World Environment Day on June 5th.

Thursday 25th March - The Global EbA Fund has opened its first Call for Proposals. Led by IUCN and UNEP, the Global EbA Fund is a quickly deployable mechanism for supporting innovative approaches to Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA). The Fund aims to encourage catalytic initiatives to help overcome barriers for upscaling EbA.

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.

Hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Japan, this event welcomed partners from all over the world to present on the achievements of GAN to date. Each of GAN's regional networks discussed how GAN has been helpful to upscale the work of their network and share their success stories. Moreover, GAN’s crucial partners spoke about the most impactful GAN activities and proposals for GAN’s future directions. 

Please watch the event recording here.

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.  

The Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) is launching a virtual dialogue series as a precursor for the 7th APAN Forum to build insights on the Forum’s themes and bring together perspectives from across the region on climate adaptation and resilience. Conducted over four weeks, from 19 October to 12 November 2020, the five-part series will cover the APAN Forum’s four thematic streams on: i) Inclusive Resilience; ii) Nature-based Resilience; iii) Economic Sector Resilience, and 

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.

Life in Durban’s Quarry Road West informal settlement is no easy ride, owing in part to a pernicious mix of unemployment, poverty and lack of housing. To make matters worse, climate change has been sweeping away people’s homes as heavy rains cause the river that runs through the settlement to burst its banks.

25 September, Nairobi – Government staff and national experts from 5 countries in East Africa have been trained to ‘downscale’ climate information from the regional level to specific spots around Lake Victoria, and in the process, considerably helping local communities to prepare for climate change.

Fund Also Advances Processes to Continue to Smoothly Serve Paris Agreement

• The project "Developing Capacities to advance the National Adaptation Plan", supported by UN Environment Programme, has a contribution of USD $2,996,325 from the Green Climate Fund, over three years.

• Given its condition as an island state highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, the Dominican Republic urgently needs to strengthen its current planning framework to address medium and long-term adaptation needs.

• A national workshop developed a common understanding on how best to advance the NAP process, with a view to integrating adaptation into socioeconomic and environmental policies.

• 80+ national stakeholders took stock of the collective efforts of all seven provinces of Nepal on adaptation planning priorities.

• Participants shared their views on specific adaptation measures and activities that should be reflected in Nepal's NAP.

The Investing in Water: Infrastructure + Technology report will be the first in a series of reports to address the global water crisis.

You can find the report here.

UN Environment Programme and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre have developed a series of briefing notes to guide programming on ecosystem-based adaptation. 

The EbA Briefing Note Series aims to foster a common understanding of key concepts, issues and considerations to help design, plan and implement successful EbA initiatives. It highlights issues, trade-offs and tensions that need to be addressed to enable EbA to form part of – and contribute to – the wider landscape of climate change adaptation in the context of sustainable development.

• The subnational capacity building project for the implementation of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) in Costa Rica, supported by UN Environment, has received US$ 2,861,917 in funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

• Costa Rica seeks to urgently strengthen the planning frameworks and processes at the subnational level, to address current and future climate change challenges.