Global Commission on Adaptation Unveils Report and Launches Year of Action

On September 10th, the Global Commission on Adaptation released the report, Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience. The Commission, co-managed by the World Resources Institute and the Global Center on Adaptation, seeks to accelerate adaptation to climate change by elevating the political visibility of adaptation and focusing on concrete solutions.

Currently, climate risks—to society, the environment, and business—are not adequately incorporated into the decision-making apparatus of global finance ministers and private industry leaders. The Global Commission on Adaptation’s report states that, without climate adaptation, sea level rise could force millions of people from their homes and cost $1 trillion per year over the next thirty years. The number of people with insufficient access to water every month could jump from 3.6 billion to 5 billion. Furthermore, by 2030, climate change could push 100 million people in developing countries below the poverty line.

According to the report, three revolutions must take place to reshape the global community’s approach to climate adaptation to reduce these negative climate outcomes. These “revolutions” are intended to change how climate adaptation is understood, planned, and financed by public and private organizations.

 

Revolution One: A Revolution in Understanding

 

Finance leaders only consider the cost of taking action in the face of climate change, but do not have enough information on the potential costs of not taking action, or the potential value of investments in climate adaptation. According to the report, investing $1.8 trillion globally in five areas—early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, improved dryland agriculture crop production, global mangrove protection, and investments in resilient water resources—from 2020 to 2030 could generate $7.1 trillion in total net benefits.

The report argues that, to catalyze investment in adaptation, the global community must identify who precisely is at risk, how they are at risk, and exactly why. The report proposes that the public and private sectors should work together to more explicitly price risk and to mandate the consideration of these risks into public works projects and general decision-making at all levels of business and governance.

 

Revolution Two: A Revolution in Planning

 

The report also outlines the need for financiers to incorporate uncertainty into their decision-making frameworks at the onset of climate adaptation projects. This means that financiers need to be comfortable investing in projects that are likely—but not guaranteed—to improve an area’s resilience and generate a return on investment. The report points to the Thames Barrier in London as an example. The Thames Barrier has provided London with valuable flood protection, yet predicting, at the onset of the project, exactly how much benefit the project would eventually generate would have been impossible for investors. Nevertheless, the project is now critical infrastructure for London and drastically improves the city’s resilience.

Losses might also be an outcome of uncertain financing decisions. For example, there may be cities where, despite resilient infrastructure, the population is eventually required to leave the area due to sea level rise. While these losses seem problematic to investors, the report suggests that, overall, investors will see a return on their investment as well as co-benefits including job creation and disaster mitigation.

 

Revolution Three: A Revolution in Finance

 

To catalyze investment in resilient infrastructure, there must be a change in how these projects are financed. According to the report, public-private partnerships are crucial, because they can lower the risks of investment, thereby allowing critical resilience infrastructure to be built. The report states that the public sector, first and foremost, is “an essential provider of finance to protect people and livelihoods,” but, secondly, is a key tool in enabling the private sector to increase its investments in infrastructure as well. This is accomplished through disclosure requirements, metrics, and incentives, such as buying down the risk of providing financial services to small-scale agricultural producers.

 

The Year of Action

 

The Commission’s report is underpinned by the moral imperative to take action on climate change, which is why the report also launches a Year of Action on climate adaptation. The Year of Action centers around eight areas of climate adaptation: food, natural environment, water, cities, infrastructure, and disaster risk management.

The Commission is catalyzing adaptation in these eight areas by mobilizing political, technical, and financial support for existing initiatives; forging new coalitions for change; doubling the scale of agricultural research for climate resilience; and scaling-up investment to improve people’s ability to act ahead of extreme weather events, reducing deaths and human suffering, and lessening economic impacts.

EESI staff attended the official release of the report in Washington D.C., and board member Rosina M. Bierbaum, Ph.D., served as one of the Commission’s advisors. In October, EESI, in coordination with the World Resources Institute, will hold a Congressional briefing on the report’s findings and the Commission’s Year of Action.

To learn more, follow #AdaptOurWorld and check out the Global Commission on Adaptation’s report.

 

By: George Davidson