Climate Adaptation in Policy, Planning, and Finance - SAR-CLIMATE

Embedding Climate Adaptation in Policy, Planning and Finance

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Climate change policies are crucial for countries to adapt and mitigate climate change impacts in order to protect and enhance the well-being of citizens. Policymakers have recognized the need to develop climate change policies for achieving resilience. It is evident that countries in South Asia have formulated climate change policies and put in efforts to translate them into actions.

Under the Paris Agreement, each country has developed the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs), which are national climate plans highlighting climate actions including policies, measures, and targets. NDCs are required to be submitted every five years to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to show the progress and to enhance the commitments made to achieve the ambitions provided by the Paris Agreement.

Countries in South Asia have also developed their respective National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), or the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), which are critical tools to identify immediate, and medium- to long-term adaptation actions. An effective implementation of adaptation options under the NDCs, NAPAs, and NAPs needs to have an approach which integrates investments and policies into the planning and decision-making procedures.

Climate finance is critical in terms of supporting national adaptation and mitigation actions. Governments in South Asia are continuing to mobilize climate finance from various sources and channels such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and especially under public funds in order to meet the needs and priorities towards climate-resilient development.

The World Bank’s Policy Note on Moving Towards Climate Budgeting indicates that “Governments need to make a conscious effort to mainstream climate change into long-term budget planning in order to ensure the availability of domestic public resources and to continue participating in the evolving international climate change architecture for national policy”.

The CARE for South Asia project supports the region focusing on Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan in translating climate change policies into adaptation actions by enhancing the climate financing, budgeting, planning, and decision-making through the provision of policy and knowledge interventions.

The project will help strengthen national and local adaptation actions and investment plans, development of guidelines and advisory services on climate resilient design and standards to harmonize the mainstreaming of climate risk in the policy, planning, and investment process. It will also provide technical support and capacity building to support ministries, and local governments to integrate resilience into investment planning, design, and implementation.

To ensure that these objectives are achieved, the CARE for South Asia project has a mix of regional and country-specific activities. The regional focus will look to develop an action plan for climate and disaster risk-informed investments which is supplemented by a national appraisal and approval framework and a Country Action for climate-related fiscal risk mitigation measures in Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The project will also develop regional climate finance and planning guidelines in South Asia which will extend to the agriculture, water, and transport sectors.

Furthermore, technical support will be provided for the Ministries of Finance and Planning for climate- informed macro-level analysis, modelling, and climate- informed fiscal risk management, and provision of technical support for countries to gain access to international climate finance including the support accreditation process for national and sub-national entities to access the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Activities in Nepal include support for the formulation of the 2019 LAPA Framework, development of an implementation plan to roll out the climate change financing framework at the sub-national level, adapting climate change budgeting and planning guidelines developed by the Ministry of Forest and Environment for priority sectors, and providing training for local governments on climate change adaptation, expenditures, budgeting, and resilience in support of the federalization process.

In Pakistan, The CARE for South Asia project will focus on supporting the development of a climate change financing framework implementation plan in addition to formulating climate indicators that can be incorporated in the planning and policy documents. The project will also support Pakistan through technical support and capacity building for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of adaptation activities in the NDCs and the NAP.

In Bangladesh, the CARE for South Asia project will support the development and enhancement of the Bangladesh Climate Fiscal Framework, and will provide capacity building to budget officers to prioritize investment and determine tax incentives and subsidies with additional investments for climate resilience.

The writer is Climate Policy and Planning Specialist at ADPC

Email: israel.j@adpc.net

About Post Author

paul

paul@abu.org.my

http://wpx2.abu.org.my/

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