Climate Change Adaptation

and Disaster Risk Reduction

By: Harjeet Singh

Emergency Advisor – Asia and Americas

ActionAid International

Climate change impact

Increase in severity and number of disasters

• More frequent and severe disasters such as floods, droughts, storms, hurricanes, wildfires etc

• Less access to fresh water

• Coastal erosion and salination of coastal areas due to sea-level rise

• Dry regions to get drier, and wet regions to get wetter

Food insecurity

• Crop yields in certain regions including large proportions of Asia and Africa –impact on food system and increase of hunger risk

• Negative impact on aquaculture and fisheries

Health

• Increased deaths, disease and injury due to disasters

• Increased malnutrition due to food shortages

• Increase of cholera, diarrhea due to lack of clear water

• Spread of malaria

Some data…

• 500 weather-related disasters are now taking place each year, compared to 120 in the 1980s. Number of floods has increased six-fold over the same period.

• 95% out of the total 58 million people affected by natural hazards in 2009 were due to extreme weather events.

• Climate variability is already the major cause of year-to-year fluctuations in production in both developed and developing countries

• In Africa, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 per cent by 2020, and in Central and South Asia, crop yields could fall by up to 30 per cent by 2050 as a result of climate change.

• In South Asia, production of regional staples as millet, maize and rice could decrease by at least 10%.

• India alone could lose 18 per cent of its rain-fed cereal production.

• Livelihoods of two third Indians come from climate-sensitive sectors such as farming, fisheries and forestry

Source: FAO, IPCC, Stanford University, CRED

Impacts of 1-m sea level rise

TERI (1996)Source : TERI

Why are we concerned ?

• Hitting the world’s poorest and more vulnerable people first and worst, who are already experiencing climatic changes

• Devastating effect in poorest countries with limited means to cope and adapt, who have actually done the least to contribute to the problem

• Therefore reflects and reinforces inequalities and injustice

• Rich countries are the major current and historical polluters

• Rich countries are not doing enough to cut their own emissions and are not funding and supporting adaptation in developing world

Combating Climate Change

• Mitigation : International community to

agree on an equitable and binding

emission reduction targets

• Adaptation : Poorest and excluded

communities / countries have adequate

resources and capacities to adapt to the

effects of climate change

Adaptation

• Adaptation refers to “adjustments in ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected stimuli and their effects or impacts. This term refers to changes in processes, practices and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change”

• Adaptation involves adjustments to decrease the vulnerability of communities, regions, and nations to climate variability and change and in promoting sustainable development (IPCC 2001).

• Adaptation will be necessary to address impacts resulting from the warming which is already unavoidable due to past emissions (IPCC, 2007).

Adaptation

Development

Community

Climate Change

community

Humanitarian &

DRR Community

Development and Adaptation

• Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations. (United Nations 1987)

• Adaptation is seen as addressing the impacts of climate change, rather than addressing the underlying factors that cause vulnerability.

• Ability to adapt is dependent on poverty levels, access to resources such as natural, finance, knowledge, skills and institutions.

• Adaptation should not be seen as a solution to existing development problems, or as an alternative path towards sustainable development.

• It is new opportunity to revisit some long-standing problems of environment and development in an innovative way.

• Adaptation strategies can not be mainstreamed successfully in development planning unless vulnerability reduction is considered as a central component.

• Adaptation strategies muse ensure survival of livelihoods, lives, and cultures during environmental change, and can thereby be seen to aid progress in development by enhancing resilience to environmental fluctuations.

• From a policy perspective, adaptation should be seen as an integral and urgent part of overall poverty and risk reduction strategies that will reduce the levels of relative or total risk vulnerability as a determinant of risk.

DRR and Adaptation

• Similarities– Similar aim

– Non structural measures

– Poverty reduction and underlying risk

– Mainstreaming

– Converging political agenda

• Differences:– Hazard type (Hydro-meteorological)

– Timescale

– Level of significance on existing capacities

– Design limits for structural measures

=>Drawn from "Linking climate change adaptation and disaster risk

reduction" report by tearfund.

Integration of CCA in DRR

programmes

HFA 1 - DRR a national and

local priority• Supporting communities to identify and highlight climatic changes

and their impact at various levels.

• Generating awareness among members of local governance institutions about climate change and its relationship with disaster and related vulnerabilities

• Interface of climate change community with national platforms and other institutions for building coherence in policy formulation and programme designs

• Identifying sectoral linkages of CCA and DRR and integrating with policy and planning processes

• Simplification and dissemination of national government’s DRR, CCA policies and strategy at sub-national, district and local government level.

• Inform political leaders about the causes and impact of climate change on their constituencies and ways to influence appropriate policies and programmes at state and national level.

HFA 2 - Identify, assess and

monitor disaster risks• Identification of vulnerable coastal / urban / mountainous / low lying / drought prone

areas that have recently become more / vulnerable due to the impact of climate change

• Orientation of communities on climate change and its relationship with disaster and related vulnerabilities using audio visual aids.

• Bring in time dimension in vulnerability assessment and planning

• Mapping and documentation of change in weather pattern over decades through interaction with elderly and scientific data from meteorological department.

• Integrating the dimension of climate change related vulnerabilities in the Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA) process.

• Documentation of traditional wisdom in weather prediction and community-based early warning system through intensive discussions with elderly and community leaders.

• Linking traditional knowledge with scientific early warning and weather prediction mechanism

• Reviewing government’s weather information dissemination system and early warning system to effective reach the last person.

• Developing indicators of climate change (particularly gradual changes) at the community level and its implications

HFA 3 - Build a culture of safety

through education• Developing simple IEC (Information, Education and Communication)

material on climate change in local language and disseminating it widely.

• Conducting local events, quizzes, competitions etc in schools on environment and climate change to raise awareness about the issue among children and school administration.

• Liaise with education sector organizations and networks to review the school curriculum with reference to climate change and advocate for appropriate curriculum covering various aspects of climate change.

• Developing pedagogy and learning materials for children to enhance their grasping ability to learn about their local environment and climate change.

• Sharing information with local and national media on impact of climate change for wider coverage and building public opinion on the issue.

• Training of local authorities, community leaders and volunteers on climate change adaptation.

HFA 4 - Reduce the underlying

risk factors• Assessing the impact of climate change on livelihoods and food

security due to climate variability and increased intensity and frequency of weather related disasters.

• Developing community based measures to reduce the impact of disasters on livelihoods through adaptation and risk reduction.

• Promoting traditional and sustainable agriculture, fishing, forestry etc for sustainable ecosystems.

• Policy analysis of social security schemes and other development programmes covering the increased vulnerability of communities due to climate change and suggesting appropriate actions.

• Reviewing the development programmes (NREGA, NRHM, SSA, BN etc) to integrate DRR and climate change adaptation related interventions.

• Advocating for convergence among adaptation, DRR and poverty reduction strategies and policies

HFA 5 - Strengthen disaster

preparedness at all levels• Promoting disaster preparedness plans developed jointly by community and

local authorities factoring in the climate variability and extreme weather conditions.

• Building capacities of communities and promoting women’s leadership to deal with climate variability and extreme weather conditions including low impact-high frequency disasters.

• Establishing emergency contingency funds at local level with better access to and control of local communities.

• Networking with likeminded civil society organizations to advocate for integration of climate change related analysis in disaster management policies and programmes of government and international donors.

• Supporting government in implementing disaster management policies and programmes with incorporation of the concept of climate proofing at all levels.

• Promote social action for asserting and claiming rights through policy engagement

Adaptation as an outcome or process?

• In the world of uncertainty, adaptation cannot be seen as an outcome but the process to build resilience to climate variability and change

• Adaptation strategies should not just focus on the specific impacts of climate change, but on the processes that are necessary to achieve sustainable adjustment to all factors contributing to risk.

• Adaptation should not become set of prescriptive interventions but a process to invest in people’s knowledge, resources –natural, financial, human, material etc, skills and institutions to build their resilience.

• Adaptation needs to be driven by a community of practice with the approach of learning by doing for responding to new and enhanced risks.

People centered approach to

adaptation• Communities are not homogenous.

• Different sections and social groups in a community have various degrees of vulnerabilities and capacities in a given situation.

• Poor and vulnerable, especially women, suffer most the impact of climate change.

• Communities not to be seen as mere victims of climate crisis but as an active agency of people who are making efforts to adapt and need further capacity and resources.

• Participation of community is key to influence the adaptation policy and programme frameworks that would define how adaptation funding is channelized and spent.

Thanks