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Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), FAO and WHO,
support the most vulnerable developing countries
in adaptation-related activities. Other multilateral
processes, such as the United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD), the post-2015 process
on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the
Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005–2015 and
the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
2015–2030 are also to be considered relevant fora
where adaptation-related policies are discussed at
the global level.
A new legally binding agreement on climate
involving both developed and developing countries
for the period from 2020 onwards is mandated to
be adopted by the 21st Session of the Conference of
the Parties (COP21) in Paris (30 November-11 Dec
2015). Acknowledging that the primary focus of the
future agreement is reducing global GHG emissions
and thus succeeding the Kyoto Protocol, Parties have
made several proposals to also address adaptation
and the issue of loss and damage, among other key
elements, under the future climate regime.
These proposals are intended to raise the profile,
enhance action and improve coordination of existing
initiatives under the Convention, often mirroring the
options being put forward on mitigation (e.g. a global
adaptation goal, universal individual commitments
on adaptation and an adaptation registry) (Helgeson
and Ellis, 2015). Several countries, especially
developing country Parties, have conveyed their
eagerness to cover adaptation-related matters in
the 2015 agreement by including an adaptation
component in the so-called Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions (INDCs) that were
requested to inform the negotiations towards COP21
(UNFCCC, 2015b).
The characteristics of adaptation as opposed
to mitigation (e.g. levels of implementation,
stakeholders, timescale of assessment and link with
Sustainable Development Goals), have raised great
controversy among Parties as to the possibility of
including binding provisions on adaptation in an
international agreement. While UNFCCC is global
in scope, science tells us that adaptation must be
tailored to the context and the subjects involved, as it
is a function of the specific impacts of climate change
of a country, region, or territory.
In addition, whether addressing loss and damage
should be considered as a component of adaptation,
or a distinct and separate category of measures and
commitments to adaptation and mitigation, is one of
the most critical issues under discussion.
With respect to the evolving scientific information
on climate change, the latest IPCC Fifth Assessment
Report (WGII AR5) dedicated to impacts, adaptation
and vulnerability has shifted the focus of the analysis
towards risks related to a changing climate. Such an
approach highlights that risks are generated by three
main components: vulnerability (lack of preparedness)
and exposure (people or assets in peril) resulting from
socioeconomic pathways and societal conditions
which depend on changes in both the climate system
and socioeconomic processes, coupled with hazards
(triggering climate events or trends).
Actions to reduce future risk should target each of
these factors either separately or jointly. In this light,
Approaches to address loss and
damage associated with climate
change in developing countries that
are particularly vulnerable to the
adverse effects of climate change
National Adaptation Plans
Workstreams
Groups and Committees
Adaptation Committee
Nairobi Work Programme on impacts,
vulnerability and adaptation to
climate change
National Adaptation Programmes
of Action
Executive Committee
of the Warsaw
International
Mechanism for Loss
and Damage
Least Developed
Countries Expert
Group
Institutional arrangements on adaptation under the UNFCCC