IPCC Report.pdf - Adam Curry

Managing the Risks: International Level and Integration across ScalesChapter 7Box 7-2 | Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptationin the Context of International DevelopmentVulnerability to extreme weather and to climate change is strongly conditioned by socioeconomic development, including income levelsand distribution, supportive institutional frameworks, and the capacities of specific sectors. Conversely, the effects of climate change,including through any increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, can also set back economic development (Stern, 2007).Countries that are relatively poor, isolated, and reliant on a narrow range of economic activities are particularly vulnerable to suchshocks (UNISDR, 2009a). The objectives of climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable development are thereforeintricately linked, and while the HFA and UNFCCC are the main international frameworks for CCA and DRR, a wider range of othergovernance and institutional mechanisms have a major influence. These range, for example, from the agreements of the World TradeOrganization (affecting development and potentially technology transfer for adaptation; WTO, 2011), to the International HealthRegulations (affecting the way that epidemics of climate-sensitive infectious diseases such as cholera are managed across borders; WHO,2007), to the codes of practice of international humanitarian organizations (such as the Code of Conduct for the International Red Crossand Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief; ICRC, 1995).While approaches such as poverty reduction strategies are important in development planning at the national level, arguably the centralframework for defining global development objectives is the Millennium Declaration and the associated MDGs. These have been agreedby all members of the United Nations as well as 23 international organizations, with a target date of 2015 (UN, 2011). These are alsosupported by international aid agreements, such as the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative to cancel US$ 40 to 55 million dollars’ worth ofdebt (IMF, 2011), and the commitment of economically advanced countries to commit 0.7% of gross national income to overseasdevelopment aid (UN ,1970). The eight MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators (UN, 2011).Neither DRM nor CCA are explicitly covered in the MDGs. However, they are strongly linked in practice. First, if disasters occur they canset back progress across many of the goals. Second, progress toward the MDGs can help to increase resilience to extreme weatherevents, and to climate change (Schipper and Pelling, 2006). Linking CCA and DRM with the MDGs is therefore important for the coherenceof international development, and the target date of the Hyogo Framework for Action coincides with the intended completion of theMDGs (UNISDR, 2005b).While there are exceptions, the majority of the LDCs, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are currently off track to reach most of the MDGs(UN, 2011). This has been attributed in part to financial, structural, and institutional weaknesses in the affected countries, and also byfailure of most developed countries to reach the 0.7% aid target. Failure or delays in reaching the MDGs are therefore likely to be both acause and a consequence of vulnerability to extreme weather and climate change (UNISDR, 2005b).has three objectives of (1) influencing DRR public policy formulation(development); (2) increasing public accountability for effective policyadministration (implementation); and (3) raising resources and politicalwill for community-based DRR (mobilization). One of the five corestrategies of the GNDR is to develop synergies between DRR and climatechange to address underlying risk factors (sustainable development),including adapting local-level DRR monitoring infrastructure for climateadaptation, and input to the UNFCCC COP negotiations. Given therecent launch of the initiative there is no evaluation of effectiveness sofar.7.3.3.3. International Finance Institutions and Donors7.3.3.3.1. Global Environment FacilityThe GEF is an independent financial organization established in 1991that provides grants to developing countries and countries witheconomies in transition for projects related to biodiversity, climatechange, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, andpersistent organic pollutants. It has become the largest funder ofprojects to address global environmental challenges and it serves as thefinancial mechanism for the following conventions:• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC)• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)• UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).The GEF administers the main international funds that have been madeavailable under the UNFCCC for adaptation: the SCCF, which supportsadaptation alongside development, technology transfer, capacitybuilding, and sectoral approaches, and the LDCF, which particularlyfocuses on the development and implementation of NAPAs in the leastdevelopedcountries (LDCs). Ten international agencies [UNDP, theUnited Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank, the Food and410