Adaptation initiatives for the Asia-Pacific region

Andrew Ash

Flagship Director

August 2008

Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship

The case for climate adaptation reaffirmed

“The international community is too late with effective mitigation to avoid significant impacts. It may yet fail to put in place substantial mitigation, in which case the challenge of adaptation to climate change will be more daunting”.

“As a nation, Australia has a high level of capacity to plan for and respond to the impacts of climate change – that is, its adaptation potential is high.”

Garnaut Climate Change Review – July 2008

1. Preparing for extreme events

• Strengthen weather and seasonal climate forecasting services in the region

• Develop and provide more regionally relevant climate change projections

• Enhance in-country and regional capacity in meteorology and climatology through dedicated training programs

• Broader institutional and community capacity building around the risks of climate change – need thorough vulnerability assessments conducted in partnership with governments and communities

2. Health

• Put additional effort into reducing major infectious and vector-borne diseases e.g. QIMR/UQ Gates Foundation dengue fever program

• Improve water supply and treatment and sewerage infrastructure so that it can withstand more extreme events

3. Agriculture, fisheries and food security

• Context: world food production doubled as a result of the green revolution. It needs to double again in the next 50 years. Food reserves at their lowest level for 40 years. In Asia decreased irrigation water projected because of glacial melts and earlier snow melt. N fertiliser rapidly increasing in price.

• Strengthen efforts to:

- improve upland/dryland farming systems

- water use and nutrient use efficiency

- diversify crops/food to reduce vulnerability to extreme events

- re-design aquaculture

through ACIAR/AusAid

• Slow or halt land degradation and loss of ecosystem services that underpin agriculture

4. Systems analysis

• Interventions need to be thoroughly analysed to avoid unintended consequences e.g. lack of capacity to maintain and support new technologies

Thank you

Climate Adaptation FlagshipDr Andrew AshDirector

Phone: +61 7 3214Email: Andrew.Ash@csiro.auWeb: www.csiro.au/org/ClimateAdaptationFlagship

Contact UsPhone: 1300 363 400 or +61 3 9545 2176Email: Enquiries@csiro.au Web: www.csiro.au