Helvetas USA’s Post

Today I want to share my thoughts about climate change From the basic definition of climate which refers to the weather patterns of an area measured over a span of thirty five years. Climate change automatically refers to changes in these weather patterns facilitated by global warming results from the accumulation of GHGs in the atmosphere. I agree since the start of data collection, we can ascertain that the climate has been changing and the impacts have been increasing year on year. The real question will now be WHY IS AFRICA, UGANDA BEING IMPACTED THE MOST?. In my opinion Africa has concentrated on mitigation with minimum regards for adaptation efforts. Adaptation is very crucial if we are to stand on the notion that "even if GHGs targets were met, the temperature will keep rising" at least through the century. So what do we have to do?. If we are to navigate through the impacts of climate change, Adaptation is of very crucial importance. Everyone knows this, but why are we not doing it? There could be a lot of challenges but I wish to discuss the following. Research. This has been an impediment to finding out how exactly is climate change impacting and what can be done. Maybe to give a little context, the cattle corridor is greatly impacted by droughts, but again we know this has been happening since time immemorial and that's why cattle keepers in this region were nomads. But with population increase and restrictions on nomadism what needs to be done to replace nomadism during dry spells. Research will always provide data for effective interventions. For the few research done funded by donors has it's own objectives and that will be a discussion for another day. Low political interest. As everyone knows politics drives everything. However, there is little interest in building climate resilience. The political buy in from government has been slow and thus climate finance is largely donor funded under short term project hence the initiatives are non sustainable beyond the project life. Low coordination. There are several organisations and agencies involved in climate change activities but there is no central authority to coordinate these activities hence no scalable impact is attained and furthermore to this is a lot of spending in awareness creation and sensitisation vis a vea physical adaptation measures. Climate activities are too general with less focus on specific sectoral interventions such as agricultural adaptation. Among other challenges we need to significantly improve climate resilience starting with research to inform right policies and interventions as economic development should move hand in hand with climate change adaptation measures.

#Cop29 we need to be more resilient to climate change.🍃 Here's an interesting sourcebook about Climate Risk. I invite you to discover it. 👇 #climatechange #cop29 #climaterisk

Highly recommended guide for 📊 understanding and managing #ClimateRisks! 🌍 #COP29Baku #ClimateAction #ClimateResilience

📊 Understanding and managing #ClimateRisks! 🌍 At #COP29 countries will assess their progress in formulating and implementing their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). They are crucial to build resilient societies. Countries worst affected by drought, flooding, and other extreme weather events often lack the financial, technical, and human resources to develop and implement NAPs that meet their local needs. Our Climate Risk Sourcebook helps Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to equip themselves accordingly. It offers guidance to assess climate risks accurately and plan the necessary adaptations. It enables local authorities to plan which measures and funds they will need for climate adaptation and to deal with loss and damage. Dive into the Climate Risk Sourcebook and discover how to identify and analyse climate-related risks, develop effective adaptation strategies, and protect vulnerable and marginalised groups. 📘 #ClimateResilience #ClimateAction #COP29Baku COP29 Azerbaijan

Following the conclusion of #COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Anna Goodden, a PhD student at King's College London, presents an intriguing argument regarding the overuse of the term "resilience" in discussions aimed at addressing climate change. The concept of creating a common language to connect physical and transitional risks aligns with our mission to provide objective data that enables the pursuit of an achievable future. Datasets related to drought, wildfires, and heat stress interconnect to establish a baseline understanding of climate risk before implementing nature-based solutions. Read the full blog here: https://lnkd.in/eNvh3uGd

Climate change is increasing the risk of drought-induced water scarcity around the world, especially in urban areas. Today, an estimated almost 1 billion people are exposed to urban water scarcity risk. This number is expected to at least double by 2050, affecting nearly half of the world’s urban population. This session is informed by recent OECD work on the importance of scaling up climate adaptation to build resilience to water scarcity in cities. The panel will discuss challenges for cities only beginning to confront this risk, and share lessons from those that have already had to manage water crises. It has been great part that I have participated in COP 29 summit in hybrid .All thanks to OECD Environment #OECDatCop29.Walid OUESLATI Aziza Akhmouch Sophie Lavaud Henk Ovink @SamuelWahba. Thanks a lot for giving some important and meaningful sessions.

ARE WE ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE? “We study whether the sensitivity of economic, health, and livelihood outcomes to climate extremes has declined over the last half century, consistent with adaptation. Understanding whether such adaptation is already occurring is central to anticipating future climate damages, to calibrating the level of ambition needed for emissions mitigation efforts, and to understanding additional investments in adaptation that could be required to avoid additional damages. Using comprehensive panel data across diverse geographies and outcomes, including data on mortality, agricultural productivity, crime, conflict, economic output, and damages from flooding and tropical cyclones, we find limited systematic evidence of adaptation to date. Across 21 outcomes we study, six show a statistically significant declining sensitivity to a changing climate, five show an increasing sensitivity, and the remainder show no statistically significant change. Our results do not imply that specific documented adaptation efforts are ineffective or certain locations have not adapted, but instead that the net effects of existing actions have largely not been successful in meaningfully reducing climate impacts in aggregate. To avoid ongoing and future damages from warming, our results suggest a need to identify promising adaptation strategies and understand how they can be scaled.”

#UnderstandingClimateAdaptationIn IPCC defines climate adaptation as "the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects in order to moderate harm or take advantage of beneficial opportunities in human systems, and the process of adjustment to actual climate and its effects in natural systems; human intervention may also facilitate the later." (IPCC, 2022) 🌱 Adaptation and Mitigation Adaptation is about adjusting to the impacts of climate change (e.g., building flood dykes, developing drought-resilient crops). Mitigation focuses on reducing the causes of climate change (e.g., cutting greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning to renewable energy). While mitigation tackles the problems' root cause, adaptation addresses the problems we’re already facing and those likely to intensify. 💡 Why Adaptation is Essential Even with ambitious mitigation efforts, climate change impacts are inevitable. Adaptation is critical for: - Protecting lives and livelihoods from extreme events like floods, heatwaves, and droughts. - Building resilience in vulnerable communities, particularly in low-income settings. - Ensuring food, water, health, energy security amid changing climatic conditions. 🌟 Types of Adaptation - Incremental Adaptation: step-by-step marginal changes over time in features to improve existing systems without major disruptions. Example: reduction in cropped area to avoid potential loss, increased irrigation to address drought. (Pelling et al., 2015) - Intermediate adaptation: partial changes in the system. Example: temporary relocation, change in income generation (Zant et al., 2023) - Transformational Adaptation: larger, systemic changes to fundamentally alter structures or practices in response to climate risks. Example: relocating entire communities from high-risk flood-prone regions. (Pelling et al., 2015) All types of adaptation responses are essential, often working together to create sustainable and resilient futures.

'Recent research finds that the proportion of people willing to contribute 1% of their #income to fighting #climatechange varies across countries, but is greater than half in 114 of 125 countries and greater than two-thirds in 81 of 125. The findings appear in the journal Nature Climate Change. While 69% of people worldwide are willing to contribute 1% of their income to the fight against climate change themselves, on average people say they think just 43% of their fellow citizens would be willing to do the same – a 26-percentage-point gap. In fact, only 30% of the world’s population believes that a majority of people in their country is willing to contribute 1%. In other words, in every single country, the willingness of fellow citizens to fight climate change is systematically underestimated. This misunderstanding of others’ beliefs, which scientists call ‘ #pluralisticignorance,’ could hamper #climateaction. This is because in many situations, people exhibit so-called ‘#conditionalcooperation,’ meaning that they are more willing to contribute to collective action when they think others are too. In fact, the researchers found evidence of conditional cooperation in the current study: At both the country and the individual level, there was a correlation between willingness to contribute 1% of income and #perceptions of others’ willingness to contribute. The results of the study suggest a potentially effective strategy to further increase individual willingness to fight climate change: #Informing people about the true share of people in their country who are willing to incur a personal cost to fight global warming."

Why do we need climate change assessment to be part of an Environment Impact Assessment report? The impact of climate change is here and now and is singeing my face and yours. The situation is rather dire, and can no longer be swept under the carpet. The WHO estimates that climate change is expected to cause approximately 2,50,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. I write in The Hindu that it is time to make climate change part of environmental impact reports. #THHealth based on a petition from Poovulagin Nanbargal https://lnkd.in/gewvuyi8 reports.