Private money for climate resilience: what’s the ‘sell’? CDKN’s Hammad Raza took on this tough question, by analysing opportunities for private investment in resilience in Bangladesh.

The private sector is Bangladesh’s primary engine of growth. It accounts for the vast majority of the country’s economic activity: some 93% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“The business case for private sector investment in resilience is already clear,” said Mr Raza – because increased temperatures and changing rainfall are already interrupting production and operations.” In a salutary example, Bangladesh’s garment industry lost US$3 million a day when the country was hit by major floods in 2004 and an outbreak of flood-related disease kept employees away from work.

Far-sighted “first movers” in the Bangladeshi private sector are responding to climate change by spotting new business opportunities. These include agribusiness companies, which are researching and developing climate-resilient seeds and fertilisers and already increasing their sales of these varieties. ‘Climate resilient’ in this context means seeds that are tolerant of drought and increasingly saline soils –as rising seas encroach on the country’s low-lying deltas.

Meanwhile, new markets beckon for Bangladesh’s energy industry: although the country’s greenhouse gas emissions are miniscule compared to others, that hasn’t stopped businesses seizing new opportunities  or energy efficiency including in the brick kiln industry, in biogas development and solar-powered irrigation pumps.

The attraction in all cases is the profits to be gained in these emerging markets. On the twin motivators for businesses, the World Bank’s Stephane Hallegatte summarised: “We have to answer the question: how to monetise losses? And because private sector investment needs profits, we need the instruments to create the profits that the private sector are looking for.”

Government could do even more to channel private funding to climate-resilient development, Mr Raza proposed. A CDKN-commissioned report by Acclimatise on private sector investment in resilience recommends:

• Supportive government policies for private sector engagement on climate adaptation and clear mechanisms for implementing policy;
• Development of capital markets and capacity to develop long-term financial products;
• Access to low-cost finance for businesses to take action on climate adaptation;
• Access to data and technical support.

Download Hammad Raza’s full powerpoint presentation here.

A comparative case presented at COP22 by Acclimatise’s Virginie Fayolle showed how targeted government investment can prove catalytic in pulling in private funds for resilience. In urban Jamaica, homeowners are crippled by increasingly scarce freshwater. There are opportunities for integrating smart water efficiency measures (a kind of climate adaptation) “everywhere from the kitchen to the bathroom, in terms of rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling,” said Dr Fayolle  – and these are measures that Jamaica’s construction industry could build into new houses from the beginning. However, it took strategic government investment to pay the extra costs of water-saving measures in new houses and convince private companies to get on board.

The Bangladesh and Jamaica experiences show in microcosm why and how private companies could respond even more effectively to climate change impacts.  Although low-lying Bangladesh and water-stressed Jamaica, with their sizeable low-income (and therefore relatively vulnerable) populations seem to be at the frontlines of climate change in every way, the dynamics of business and the need for greater awareness about and strategic investment in climate risk reduction are universal lessons that could surely be applied anywhere.

Image: Bangladesh business, courtesy Asian Development Bank.

The post FEATURE: How Bangladeshi businesses can profit from climate resilience appeared first on Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

Global measures for climate resilience

Stephane Hallegatte is on a mission to get national and international policy-makers to recognise the true impact of climate-related disasters on the world’s poorest people – and do something about it. “Natural disasters affect wellbeing more than traditional estimates suggest,” he pointed out – speaking at COP22 in Marrakech this week. Traditional accounting looks at the economic value of people’s losses, so of course “dollar amounts only look at anyone who has something to lose in the first place.” By this measure, countries like the USA and Japan, which have exposed and highly valued assets, are near the top of world rankings for losses from hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.

But is this a fair way to measure the true human cost of disasters?

According to Dr Hallegatte, a far more sophisticated measure is needed. In his recently released World Bank report “Unbreakable”, he and his fellow authors try to put disasters into real human terms. “We model losses according to wellbeing, not just assets,” he added.

His team calculates how ‘asset losses’ – such as homes swept away, crops inundated and spoiled – affect people’s income, and how their consumption suffers as a result. Households may lose access to the basics of human survival: food, water, shelter.  Other aspects of their wellbeing could be dented, too: their ability to earn income from diverse sources, their ability to borrow and save, as well as the distribution of income among households.

The “Unbreakable” study suggests that by taking this broader view of what people have to lose from disasters, different countries could be ranked for their resilience and national governments, donors, and other actors could be motivated to invest further in strengthening resilience. (On the world map, resilience levels for Germany showed 76 percent; for Malawi, 60 percent.)

As for recommended policy measures, “Insurance is very fashionable but the transaction costs are too high if there are only a few small assets to be covered. So we have been looking at potential of social protection” to brace societies against the increasing number of natural disasters that are expected in a changing climate, Dr Hallegatte said.

Local partnerships for climate resilience

At the other end of the scale, the COP22 event heard Fiona Percy of CARE International describe how village savings and loans associations in Niger have transformed local people’s ability to bounce back from climate shocks.

“Savings and loans associations have been pivotal responding to needs of communities and addressing the lack of financial services in the community”, she said. In this dry and increasingly drought-stricken part of Africa, the BRACED programme has been training and providing material support for villagers to grow their incomes. Villagers are figuring out how to add value to farm products, set up enterprises and find new markets for their goods. For example, villagers grow neem and peanut, and can learn how to process the valuable oils of these crops on the farm. They are also beginning to store produce on their farms, so that they can sell it over time at a higher price rather than flooding the market at once and driving down prices for their goods. The BRACED programme has also worked with local people to diversify into activities such as soap-making and knitting “which are not climate sensitive”, Ms Percy said.

As well as giving village savings and loans association members the ability to diversify their incomes, gain new skills and reduce their vulnerability to climate shocks and stresses, the programme has made women more confident in their communities and has improved gender relations.

Small and large scale action for resilience works in harmony

Although the neem oil-makers of Niger and the national social protection systems promoted in “Unbreakable” seem worlds apart, they can and should reinforce each other – said Dr Hallegatte. “What is really important is to create synergies among these different systems,” he said. “These informal systems make communities more robust to bigger shocks – the better the small community systems are, the better the larger scale social protection systems will be.”

So far, so good: the experts saw a way for public-financed policies and programmes to work together in step. But what about investment from the private sector, which will be needed from the micro to the macro level to ensure societies are climate-resilient? Read part two of this blog to see what insights Bangladeshi and Jamaican businesses can bring to company leaders everywhere.

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The reference case presents historical emissions in Pakistan from 2000 to 2012/13 and a projection of annual emissions out to 2030, and is the reference case against which the abatement potential of low-carbon development options that emerge from the Low- Carbon Scenarios Analysis project are assessed.

Click here to download the full report that provides additional detail and analysis.

Picture Courtesy: Abbas Mushtaq

The post BRIEFING NOTE: Greenhouse gas emission reference case projection for Pakistan appeared first on Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

The purpose of this Low Carbon Scenario Analysis project conducted with the support of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) was to improve this evidence base through activities designed to:

• Improve understanding of low-carbon options – identification of priority opportunities for low-carbon development; and
• Improve mitigation planning – creation of the evidence base for INDCs, national communications, GHG inventory, Biennial Update Reports, Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and REDD+ actions.

This document provides a condensed summary of the Low-Carbon Scenarios Analysis project, highlighting two critical parts of this project: the development of a reference case for emissions, as well as the identification of options for Pakistan to reduce its GHG emissions across key sectors.

Picture Courtesy: Abbas Mushtaq

The post LEARNING PAPER: Pakistan low carbon scenario analysis appeared first on Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

Kamlesham Pillay and Charlotte Ellis discuss two key factors to financing climate-resilient infrastructure: bankability and the private sector. Here they share a presentation they gave at COP22 in Marrakech. 

To fully unpack the issues around financing climate resilient water infrastructure in Africa, it is critical to first understand the climate finance landscape – specifically the barriers and opportunities to accessing finance.

A team is currently evaluating the 27 climate finance related projects in developing countries that CDKN supported. Lessons learnt will fall under two themes: bankability and private sector engagement. The aim of the project is to highlight these learnings such that National Implementing Entities (NIE) and National Designated Authorities (NDA) can streamline their project development processes thereby accessing greater climate finance flows.

Bankability was selected as a theme as it is concerned with the ability to create successful proposals. Bankability can influenced by the source of funding (private vs. public sector), objectives of the stakeholders and the needs of the recipient, project type (mitigation or adaptation) and the use of financial instruments in packaging the project.

The private sector is critical to ensuring climate finance is scaled to the appropriate levels. Sustainable development needs to be continuous and extends into the long term – something with which the private sector should be concerned.

However, one of the primary determinants to private sector involvement is the type of project to be financed. Certain projects types such as those within the renewable energy sector tend to be more attractive to the private sector as there is a defined revenue stream which can enhance the return on investment. Conversely, other projects types under adaptation tend to less attractive owing to the issue of tangibility. Such projects do not always have obvious outcomes for the private sector.

The private sector may also be reluctant to invest owing to significant risks being prevalent. Risk reduction measures such as the use of insurance or guarantees can possible entice the private sector.

One of the most significant barriers in Africa is the lack of capacity of local financial actors, which translates into difficulties in selecting financial instruments as well as the different climate funds that may be approached for particular project types. In addition, climate finance access is limited by the credit rating of many countries which can further deter private investors.

Enhancing climate finance access in Africa must focus on the identification of the appropriate financial instruments. It will also be necessary to package project finance into a form that aligns with the investment frameworks of different climate funds. Lastly, if projects require private sector involvement then it is critical that these actors be involved from the outset during the planning phases of the project.

To enhance the climate finance instrument understanding amongst NIEs and NDAs, CDKN is currently developing a handbook that seeks to illuminate on the different forms of financial support recognised by different climate funds. This will be supplemented by case studies from each climate fund demonstrating the practical workings of different instruments.

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Developing regions such as Southeast Asia show the highest urbanization rates, thus representing some areas that face significant challenges in urban resiliency. Cities are dynamic places where resilience is critical to avoiding prolonged or irrevocable outcomes of slow onset climate change impacts and stresses on urban systems. Among these areas in the region are second-tier cities such as Cagayan de Oro (CDO) City in the Philippines.

CDO is one of the cities in Northern Mindanao that was devastated by Tropical Storm Washi (“Sendong”) in 2011, which caused catastrophic flash floods, costing billions of pesos in damages and lost lives. This extreme weather event tested the resiliency of the “Kagay-anons”, (the local people of Cagayan de Oro) challenging its local government to continuously improve their disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation (DRR-CCA) programmes.

CDO’s existing adaptation measures are geared toward disaster rehabilitation, which is a common practice. However, this limits the capacity of the community to become proactive rather than reactive to current situations.

Under a CDKN project ‘Finding the Finance: Climate compatible development in Asian cities’, Germanwatch and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities partnered with Xavier University—Ateneo de Cagayan organised series of workshops and community discussions on bridging the gap between local climate change adaptation planning in the urban sector and access to climate finance. Through these events, participants from various communities, government sectors, and key officials all recognized climate change as a growing concern in CDO.

Slow-onset impacts of climate change such as changes in temperature that result in changes in topography, unpredictable weather conditions, health related risks and water supply insufficiency have affected settlers from the upland and city centre, as well as the livelihood of farmers and fishing communities. Furthermore, power shortages causing city-wide power interruptions have become relatively frequent and their effects are particularly evident in the business sector.

The participants identified various measures to identify risks and vulnerability in the communities such as indigenous knowledge systems, government-interceded risk monitoring, and research. On the other hand, adaptation measures (disaster risk reduction, policy creation, engineering solutions, environment-friendly alternatives) and mitigation measures (solid waste management, promotion of alternative energy sources, greening programmes, arresting denudation) were identified as priority plans to support their DRR-CCA programmes.

However, despite the recognition of the participants that these policy tracks are vital, a stakeholder analysis conducted by Xavier University reveals the challenge of striking a balance between (political) power dynamics, the interest of the different sectors and stakeholders, and the availability of financing mechanisms that can support adaptation projects down to the grassroots communities.

The local government’s officials perceive disaster risk reduction management as necessary but insufficient to address climate change, especially with the lack of other financing opportunities apart from the allocated budget from the national government. However, they believe that strong governance is a requisite to push for climate change actions in the locality. ICSC and Xavier University steered the synergy of the local government in a planning assembly for the People’s Survival Fund (PSF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF). The meeting involved different sectors of the government as well as civil society organizations and an academic institution (XU) to plan for an adaptation (and mitigation) programme that the local government can propose to these funding mechanisms. The local government recognized the position of Xavier University as a support through science based research and development.

Sharing experience, insights, and technical knowledge does not stop with the successful undertaking of the climate-compatible cities workshop. The end goal was to encourage stakeholder partnership to deliver development-enhancing services in the integration of mitigation and adaptation programmes through climate-sensitive local planning and implementation.

The experience shows how greater engagement with institutions such as Xavier University, Germanwatch, local based government agencies, as well as community leaders (barangays) can promote better dialogue, yield greater ownership, and motivate a city’s diverse stakeholders to work towards common aims.

The post FEATURE: The Philippines’ challenge for urban resilience appeared first on Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

Friday 18th November

Kenya celebrates steps toward achieving its “ambitious but doable” climate plans – by CDKN’s Daphne Amevenu

The Government of Kenya and its development partners celebrated their recent successes in mainstreaming climate change, during a COP22 side event in Marrakech this week.  The event showcased the different forms of legislation – including a new climate law and other complementary laws – that help integrate climate action into national development priorities.

Cabinet Secretary Judy Wakhungu opened the event by highlighting Kenya’s Climate Change Act, which was passed in May 2016. The Act provides a framework for action to promote low carbon, climate resilient development. The Cabinet Secretary said the Act places a responsibility on non-state actors including the private sector and citizens to pursue climate action. The private sector is active through its permanent seat in the Kenya Climate Change Council and by holding monthly meetings with the Ministry of Environment. Companies like Safaricom also reach out proactively to government on climate affairs, according to Professor Wakhungu.

The private sector has an important role to play, not only by driving climate action within their internal activities but also by promoting it to their consumer base.

In addition to passing the Climate Change Act, Kenya also has an environmental and land court (established 2011) to resolve disputes. The speakers – including Winfred Lichuma, Head of the National Commission Gender Equality – also noted that access to justice on human rights and gender equality issues has a profound effect on households’ and communities’ contribution to climate mitigation and adaptation. This may involve land tenure and people’s associated ability to manage forest and land sustainably. Deborah Murphy of IISD echoed the sentiments that more needs to be done on gender mainstreaming despite Kenya’s achievements to date on this front.

Kenya’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution aligns with its ‘Vision 2030’, which sets out the national agenda to 2030. This marriage of goals allows the integration of climate change in national priorities which is important for successful climate compatible development. Trigg Talley, the United States’ Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, spoke of the partnership between the US and Kenya to develop a community land act and enhance capability to track sectoral climate action and adaptation.

Transparency is a key element of the Paris Agreement so efforts to improve this capability will support the implementation of the agreement. Sam Bickersteth, Chief Executive of CDKN, emphasised the importance of pursuing climate goals within the framework of the overall Sustainable Development Goals – and moving away from “working in a climate silo”.

Deborah Murphy noted that Kenya’s Climate Change Act will help development partners such as the US Government and CDKN to work with the Government of Kenya to identify priority areas for support and enable projects to be more country-led. “It’s been said that some African INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions – the commitments to the UNFCCC) were “over ambitious”, she said. However, the “Kenyan INDC is doable but conditional on external support”, she stressed – support that continues to be provided by CDKN and other partners.

Thursday 17th November

Ben Bostock, Daphne Amevenu and Kiran Sura of CDKN’s Negotiations Support team, along with Mairi Dupar, round up the day’s developments:

• The draft Marrakech Call has been released, referred to as the ‘Marrakech Action Proclamation‘. It both highlights the ‘extraordinary momentum on climate change’ seen this year, but warns of the urgent need to upscale action.
• John Kerry gave his last COP address before his handover to the Trump administration. He gave an emotional speech, remarking that “Climate Change shouldn’t be a partisan issue in the first place…no-one has the right to make decisions that affect billions of people…without proper input” [full speech here]
• Kellogg, Nike and Mars joined a group of 300 US businesses in sending a statement to Trump on the importance of Climate Action. The statement stresses the need to stick to the commitments of the Paris Agreement, highlighting the significant economic as well as environmental benefits which it can bring. Other non-US multinationals also put their names to the statement, including IKEA and Unilever
• The first long term, 2050 strategies have been released – by none other than the US, as well as Mexico, Germany and Canada. This is part of the ‘2050 Pathway Platform’ which will be officially launched today – which at least 20 countries and 200 companies will sign up to
• The Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) is now operational – with eight developed country donors (including the US and UK) pledging $50million. The CBIT aims to strengthen technical and institutional capacity of developing countries in order to meet the transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement . The Global Environment Facility has approved projects already in Costa Rica, Kenya and South Africa.
• The Earth Negotiations Bulletin reports that the President of Zambia – speaking at the Biennial High Level Ministerial Climate Finance Summit – said he regrets Parties have not yet agreed on a quantified adaptation financing goal. Meanwhile, in what must be a heartening move for least developed countries, the Adaptation Fund surpassed its goal to raise US$ 80 million in contributions for the coming year – hitting a total of US $ 81 million once commitments from Germany, Sweden, Italy, Wallonia and Flanders were announced this afternoon.

Wednesday 16th November

10:00pm Mairi Dupar and Jean-Pierre Roux report from a side event at COP22 about how decision-makers can tailor adaptation programmes to get the best results:

Read Mairi and Jean-Pierre’s full length blog: How to tailor adaptation programmes.

You may also enjoy this report by our partners REEEP about last week’s side event on the important role of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in delivering the Paris Agreement.

12:00pm Ben Bostock, Daphne Amevenu, Kiran Sura and Mairi Dupar summarise the latest developments at COP22:

• Excitement was in the air yesterday for the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (…or just CMA for short). French President Francois Hollande remarked that the Paris Agreement was ‘irreversible’.
• The High-Level Address also involved an intervention by King Mohammed VI of Morocco and United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Both men urged developed countries to follow up on their pledge of $100 billion in climate finance each year by 2020, and identified the need for facilitating technology transfer, with the UN acting as a ‘science champion’.
• The High Ambition Coalition is back in force –  and is calling for countries to come forward with additional pledges planned for this Thursday to complement the final COP22 output document, the ‘Marrakesh call’. The group of over 100 nations had significant influence in driving a particularly strong deal in Paris this time last year – you can read more about this in CDKN’s Negotiations Support Outlook newsletter.
• There is increasing tension on the matter of ensuring sufficient adaptation finance for developing countries. A pipeline of adaptation projects awaits approval by the Adaptation Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund and GCF. Approvals are time consuming in the GCF. The Adaptation Fund looks forward to its Contributors’ Meeting tomorrow (17th November), which developing countries hope will bring cheering news.

8:00am  Claudia Martinez, CDKN’s strategic advisor for Colombia, reports how low emissions solutions are moving from theory to practice:

The Low Emissions Solutions Conference organised by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, ICLEI and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network at COP 22 has pointed out real solutions at different levels.

Local governments are providing fantastic examples.The government of Jalisco in Mexico holds the 2025 goal of using 100% renewable energy for public transport and other services. The mayor of Jalisto said: “Is not an easy challenge to convince the municipalities to understand climate change”. Of 125 municipalities, 50% have understood and have agreed to lead the way. Today they are creating a green fund, giving subsidies and fiscal incentives to the private and public sectors.  It is important to undertake actions at subnational levels, while waiting for national strategies to happen.

California is the sixth largest economy in the world. Deep decarbonisation pathways depend on an analysis of sectors.  California is not only pushing energy efficiency and fuel switching (from higher emission to lower emission alternatives), but has taken a closer look at land use change and planning as a critical element of climate action.

South Australia has a strategy with an ambitious target for the state to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. This new target responds to the findings of the SA Low Carbon Economy Experts Panel, which was appointed by the government to provide independent advice about climate change targets and objectives for the state to 2050. The new strategy builds on South Australia’s achievements in renewable energy and climate change adaptation and the leadership that has been demonstrated by industry, the community and government to date. The Strategy also responds to advice of the Premier’s Climate Change Council in South Australia’s climate change vision: Pathways to 2050. Different jurisdictions have created a coalition to learn and share knowledge on policies, funding options and solutions.

Mission Innovation is also getting off the ground. Mission Innovation aims to reinvigorate and accelerate global clean energy innovation with the objective to make clean energy widely affordable. Countries are joining with good prospects.

Finland puts a significant amount of resources into research and innovation and is, for example, embracing innovative energy efficient buildings as one of its innovation paths.

Saudi Arabia is an energy nation. It built the economy on oil, but developed the competency within the Kingdom to innovate.  The country is currently doubling its funding of research and development on clean energy. All universities have research on renewables in partnerships with companies. Transforming methanol into urea at large scale is also happening. The kingdom is beginning a shift towards a low carbon economy.

France supports the Mission Innovation coalition by bringing together the public and private sectors. Smart grids will be totally redefined, with opportunities for flexibility and storage. These will be linked to consumers who are willing to consume less energy and produce energy linked to the grid.  Thirty demonstration projects are in place. For example, Carros near Nice on the French Riviera has used demand management measures to curb electricity consumption dramatically. Private – public partnerships like these are needed with companies willing to invest for the future.

Tuesday 15th November

8:00pm When it comes to discussing the characteristics of this  22nd Conference of Parties, CDKN’s Mairi Dupar has her own angle:

Read Mairi’s full-length blog on why this is a “COP of communications and accountability” here.

5:00pm Ben Bostock has a factual round-up of COP22 developments here:

• Over 80 heads of state and ministers have arrived at COP22 to show a united front and deliver high level messages of support to the conference.
• A number of capacity building decisions were approved yesterday which will particularly help the Least Developed Countries (LDC) to accelerate progress. The Paris Committee on capacity building can now become operational as soon as next year.
• Developing countries feel left behind in key issue areas of negotiation – particularly on climate finance. LDC Chair, Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu remarked that “Climate finance is a matter of survival and we still do not have a clear roadmap for the $100 billion. Unfortunately we see many developed countries still blocking progress.”
• The LDC Group will have a new Ethiopian Chair – Mr. Gebru Jember Endalew of Ethiopia will take the role from 2017-2018.
• The Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Partnership has been launched which will be a coalition of developing and developed countries, and international institutions. This will aim to ensure countries receive both the technical and financial support they need to achieve the targets set out in their NDCs.
• 2016 will be the hottest year on record – with an average temperature of 1.2degC above pre-industrial levels as revealed by the UN WMO.

Monday 14th November

12:00pm Ben Bostock of CDKN’s Negotiations Support team reports on political happenings at COP22 over the weekend:

• The Presidency of the next UNFCCC Conference of Parties – the 23rd Conference (COP23) – was announced late on Friday night. It will be the Pacific Island nation of Fiji. As Fiji lacks the physical facilities to host tens of thousands of delegates, it will provide political leadership and the late 2017 meeting itself shall take place in Bonn, Germany.
• Despite ongoing uncertainty, negotiators within the various bodies of the UNFCCC are making some progress, with bodies having completed work on many agenda items already – yet with fault lines re-emerging on finance and compliance. Outstanding items to be discussed include the review of the Warsaw International Mechanism (relating to loss and damage) and the postponing of the CMA – (the main decision making body of the Paris Agreement). Suspending the CMA for 1-2 years will allow those countries which are yet to ratify the Paris Agreement a chance to do so – and therefore be parties to CMA debates, rather than just observers. A long list of elements of the CMA outcome have been circulated – and progress thus far is arguably not at the pace required to come out of COP22 on Saturday with the strong result desired.
• Countries continue to ratify the Paris Agreement – with Botswana, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Italy and Pakistan now taking the total up to 109 parties.
• The High Ambition Coalition – which spearheaded a strong deal at COP21 – is convening once again, and will look to release a number of ‘key statements’ at the conference this week in the wake of the election results. This follows their initial statement on Friday indicating their continuing strength of resolve to work with “…the whole international community, including the United States”.
• Global Carbon Project have released analysis showing global Co2 emissions have remained flat for three years in a row. This is mainly due to the reduction in Chinese economic growth, and a reduction in US coal use.

9:00 am Mairi Dupar reports from Development and Climate Days at COP22:

Participants at this year’s Development and Climate Days got a master class in how to make the political case for ambitious climate action. Although 189 countries submitted their national climate commitments or ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contributions’ to the UNFCCC last year, the premise of this side event was that INDCs don’t necessarily have the buy-in of governments’ most powerful politicians – including those holding the purse strings.

Contestants in a COP’s got talent competition each had five minutes to convince a panel of judges to buy in to their climate solution. The judges represented cynical politicians, who needed to be convinced of the case for investment.

Colin McQuistan (Practical Action), Katie Peters (ODI), Harjit Singh (ActionAid), Isilda Nhantumbo (IIED) and Ed Cameron (We Mean Business) formed the contestant line-up. Their pitches included: government reorganisation to make development more climate resilient, and government funding for sustainable forestry management.

Following a tightly-run race based on judges’ marks and audience votes, the winner was declared as Ed Cameron, who pitched for a local-to-global alliance of climate resilient women. Mr Cameron argued that women are the primary producers of cotton and other agricultural inputs for Southern garment industries, and women make up most of the garment manufacturing workforce in Southern countries. Meanwhile – on the other side — women are primary consumers of clothing and fashion. They have the potential to use their consumer power to pressure companies to drive more climate-smart and resilient practices — from high street retailers, along the whole supply chain.

The debate about Mr Cameron’s winning tactics revealed top tips for any climate champion who is trying to win a politician over to the cause:

• It’s completely unrealistic to think you have five minutes to make the case for climate action to a top politician, said the Honourable Wilber Ottichilo, Member of Parliament in Kenya. If s/he has not grasped the relevance of your pitch in the first 30 seconds, you have lost them.
• The politician’s self-interest is core to winning his/her attention, said Maarten van Aalst, Director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. Consider the checklist: electorate, parliament, budget. “Something has to be fantastically interesting or a threat to getting things done,” to get noticed, he added.
• The winning contestant had enough substantive analysis to back his points.
• The unsuccessful COP’s got talent contestants got bogged down in detail: keep it simple.

The session validated some of the tactics CDKN has used successfully in the past six years – and it was a reminder to our engagement teams never to be complacent about communications. CDKN tries to develop its knowledge products and communication messages to be layered so the reader or viewer can browse rapidly for information and dive deep where they need to: from blog headlines, tweets and ’30 second pitches’ about our work all the way to technical reports. As CDKN’s knowledge and communications lead, I can’t say we always get it right, but we know that preparing layers of information like this is a winning approach.

My take-home message from COP’s got talent is this: be realistic about your objectives for every person you are trying to influence. Consider the cynical politician: you don’t expect her or him to write the climate adaptation plan her/himself, do you? You want enough of the politician’s attention that s/he will commit time to digest a short briefing on the benefits of your proposal and then, when they see the merits, they will designate others to follow it up. Or, or at minimum, you want her/him to assign a staff person to read your briefing!

And all budding advocates and influencers would do well to heed Ed Cameron’s parting shot: “Advocacy without analysis and analysis without the capacity to advocate get you nowhere.” To make the case successfully for climate action, you need to be an articulate advocate and have the facts to back you up.

The post OPINION: CDKN’s live blog from COP22 – Marrakech, Morocco – Week Two appeared first on Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

Listen to Ali Tauqeer Sheikh discuss how Pakistan is approaching its national climate plan developed at the Paris Agreement:

“Many of the issues in the NDC are new issues and require institutional capability development and coordination. This is a process the Government of Pakistan has unleashed and we hope it will build momentum. The Quick Start Guide has many useful tips and tools for journalists, civil society actors…far associations, chambers of industry and others.”

Listen to Revocatus Twinomuhangi talk about how Uganda is approaching its NDC:

“The route to implementation of the commitment is first to come up with an implementation plan. Uganda is in the process of enacting a climate change law to facilitate climate action. Implementation of the NDC will take a sectoral approach.”

Hear Maggie Kamau detail how Kenya is approaching its national climate plan under the Paris Agreement:

“Kenya has held a number of stakeholder sessions, consulting them on NDC implementation. The Government has consulted particularly the key mitigation sectors…culminating in the preparation of sectoral reports. The Guide will identify any gaps that exist in the process of NDC Implementation. [With] the five modules, it allows the Government to choose those of interest.”

Hear Ram Chandra Khanal talk about how Nepal is approaching its national climate plan constructed at the Paris Agreement:

“The Government of Nepal has initiated the process of ratifying the Paris Agreement by the Parliament. The Government is developing a low carbon economic development strategy that will open the avenue to work in mitigation and adaptation.”

Listen to Robi Redda discuss how Ethiopia is tackling its NDC:

“To a large extent, Ethiopia’s work since Paris has concentrated on attracting climate finance and developing bankable projects.”

Find out more about the CDKN Quick-Start guide to NDC implementation.

Photo: Neil Palmer (CIAT)

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Build on existing development priorities. Adapting to climate change will be essential for sustaining development progress. This is our new reality: now well documented in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report and in communities at the frontlines of climate change around the world.

That’s why it didn’t surprise us to hear – at this important COP22 side event – that effective adaptation initiatives must build on governments’ and local communities’ existing development priorities. Bara Gueye of IED Afrique, whose team works in West African communities, said his starting point for adaptation plans was always “existing response mechanisms used by community. We make a basic assumption that the community members are the solution  providers and the project is there to build on these solutions and facilitate further support.”

A range of vulnerability assessment methods is available. There are different methods for assessing a country’s or a community’s vulnerability to climate change:  Catherine Simonet of ODI described a tool from PRISE that helps assess vulnerability in agriculture value chains. Geraldo Carreiro of Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) described how he used the GCCA+ adaptation index to prioritise which countries in a region needed climate adaptation support the most. For national, comparative analysis, the GCCA+ method uses 34 easy-to-track development indicators such as the number of nurses and midwives in a country and the proportion of the country’s population with access to clean water to flag which countries already have relatively more or less resilience to climate stresses.

Link efforts across scales. One major challenge for development planners is to design adaptation efforts that link and reinforce each other at different scales. Nowhere was this more clearly presented than by our colleague Maggie Kamau, CDKN strategic advisor for Kenya. Kenya’s recently reformed constitution (2010) devolves significant planning and budgetary authority to county governments. Now, effective resilience efforts depend more than ever on aligning visions, actions and resources from the local community to the county level, all within the framework of Kenya’s national climate compatible development goals.

Head off development that creates new vulnerabilities. As well as tackling current climate vulnerabilities, it may be just as important for countries to spot which development plans and policies threaten to undermine resilience and create new vulnerabilities. Mr Carreiro shared a stark example from the small island nation of Sao Tome and Principe. Here, he said, the untrammelled expansion of vegetable cultivation that is intended to improve food security is – in reality – destroying more sustainable agroforestry systems, which causes severe erosion to hillsides and increases the chances of landslides and flooding.

We were reminded of the ‘best practice’ work that the Future Climate for Africa programme is co-funding in Rwanda, where policy-makers seek to avoid just such a scenario. They are using information about climate changes in Rwanda in the next 30-40 years to plan for expansion of tea and coffee cultivation – taking into account how the climate conditions for the crop varieties will change and how management practices will have to adapt as a result (see our documentary film here).

Understand what’s new and additional about climate adaptation. There’s a longstanding tension to be resolved between framing climate adaptation as a free-standing exercise and integrating climate resilient measures into existing development plans and programmes – how to resolve this?

At the village level, it’s hard to make a distinction between adaptation and development, said Mr Gueye: good development makes people more resilient and equals adaptation. But because African institutions need to develop their capacity for climate adaptation, it’s helpful to classify the different and additional nature of adaptation actions, he said. There is also something of a tension between the (often) small scale and easily financed or self-financed adaptation actions that can be taken locally, CDKN’s Maggie Kamau said, and the “hard adaptation” measures that may be necessary in some places (like larger, built infrastructure. The latter require financing and stakeholder engagement at a much more significant scale.

Be ready to shape the world we want. We were reminded of the reality that – with evidence of climate change everywhere – climate change will change us whether we like it or not . The question is, rather, whether and how we take control of that change and shape the world the way we want it to be. At “centre stage” of climate resilient development projects must be the question of “how you build agency” – as Mr Gueye stressed. Whether it’s national governments, international agencies or NGOs, anyone investing in adaptation and development should consider how to leave behind greater capability, so that “the final objective is not the investment but the system you are building.”

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Simon Maxwell, Executive Chairman of CDKN, was the keynote speaker at the Annual Forum on Competitiveness that took place in Bogotá, Colombia on 9^th November 2016. He spoke on how the private sector could contribute to delivering climate compatible development in Colombia while enhancing its future competitiveness.

Simon addressed important issues and challenges that the private sector will have to face in order to boost future business and to raise the private sector’s competitiveness:

• First, there are challenges related to the new industrial and economic revolution that is taking place due to climate change. This implies that businesses must adapt and transform, innovate to go beyond business-as-usual and turn climate change into a new source of private competitiveness.

• Second, there will be both winners and losers, a disruption but also creation of new markets, the destruction and surge of new sectors. The winners and more competitive companies will be those who will have made early investments in innovation.

• Third, public policy-makers have a role in creating the right environment to help the private sector’s transition towards this new economy, which implies bolstering the enabling conditions such as institutional and legal frameworks, major public-private collaboration, higher investments in research and development (R&D), among others.

This conference contributed to raise awareness around the new opportunities for businesses of a new climate economy and green growth and will also help CDKN Colombia to keep engaging the private sector of Colombia on such strategic agendas, as part of the “Public-Private Collaboration” Project led by CDKN, the Private Council for Competitiveness, the National Planning Department and Green Growth Mission.

“Colaboración pública-privada para el crecimiento verde” was supported by CDKN in partnership with Consejo Privado de Competitividad de Colombia, Departamento Nacional de Planeación and Misión de Crecimiento Verde de Colombia.

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