|
|
|
Nations must step up climate actions or face costs: UN report
|
|
|
|
Top Stories |
|
|
|
|
IANS | 14 Jan, 2021
As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must
urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face
serious costs, damages and losses, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
report said on Thursday.
Adaptation - reducing countries' and
communities' vulnerability to climate change by increasing their ability
to absorb impacts - is a key pillar of the Paris Agreement on Climate
Change.
The agreement requires its signatories to implement
adaptation measures through national plans, climate information systems,
early warning, protective measures and investments in a green future.
The
UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020 finds that while nations have advanced
in planning, huge gaps remain in finance for developing countries and
bringing adaptation projects to the stage where they bring real
protection against climate impacts such as droughts, floods and
sea-level rise.
Public and private finance for adaptation must be
stepped up urgently, along with faster implementation. Nature-based
solutions -- locally appropriate actions that address societal
challenges, such as climate change, and provide human well-being and
biodiversity benefits by protecting, sustainably managing and restoring
natural or modified ecosystems -- must also become a priority.
"The hard truth is that climate change is upon us," UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said.
"Its
impacts will intensify and hit vulnerable countries and communities the
hardest -- even if we meet the Paris Agreement goals of holding global
warming this century to well below 2 degrees and pursuing 1.5 degrees
Celsius."
"As the UN Secretary-General has said, we need a global
commitment to put half of all global climate finance towards adaptation
in the next year," she added.
"This will allow a huge step up in
adaptation -- in everything from early warning systems to resilient
water resources to nature-based solutions."
The most encouraging
finding of the report is that 72 per cent of countries have adopted at
least one national-level adaptation planning instrument. Most developing
countries are preparing National Adaptation Plans.
However, the finance needed to implement these plans is not growing fast enough.
The
pace of adaptation financing is indeed rising, but it continues to be
outpaced by rapidly increasing adaptation costs. Annual adaptation costs
in developing countries are estimated at $70 billion. This figure is
expected to reach $140-300 billion in 2030 and $280-500 billion in 2050.
There
are some encouraging developments. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has
allocated 40 per cent of its total portfolio to adaptation and is
increasingly crowding-in private sector investment.
Another
important development is increasing momentum to ensure a sustainable
financial system. However, increased public and private adaptation
finance is needed. New tools such as sustainability investment criteria,
climate-related disclosure principles and mainstreaming of climate
risks into investment decisions can stimulate investments in climate
resilience.
Implementation of adaptation actions is also growing.
Since
2006, close to 400 adaptation projects financed by multilateral funds
serving the Paris Agreement have taken place in developing countries.
While earlier projects rarely exceeded $10 million, 21 new projects
since 2017 reached a value of over $25 million. However, of over 1,700
adaptation initiatives surveyed, only three per cent had already
reported real reductions to climate risks posed to the communities where
the projects were being implemented.
Nature-based solutions for adaptation can make a huge contribution, says the report.
It
places a special focus on nature-based solutions as low-cost options
that reduce climate risks, restore and protect biodiversity and bring
benefits for communities and economies.
An analysis of four major
climate and development funds -- the Global Environment Facility, the
Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund and the International Climate
Initiative -- suggested that support for green initiatives with some
element of nature-based solutions has risen over the last two decades.
Cumulative
investment for climate change mitigation and adaptation projects under
the four funds stood at $94 billion. However, only $12 billion was spent
on nature-based solutions -- a tiny fraction of total adaptation and
conservation finance.
According to the report, cutting greenhouse
gas emissions will reduce the impacts and costs associated with climate
change. Achieving the two-degree Celsius target of the Paris Agreement
could limit losses in annual growth to up to 1.6 per cent, compared to
2.2 per cent for the three-degree Celsius trajectory.
All nations
must pursue the efforts outlined in UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2020,
which called for a green pandemic recovery and updated Nationally
Determined Contributions that include new net-zero commitments.
However,
the world must also plan for, finance and implement climate change
adaptation to support those nations least responsible for climate change
but most at risk.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to hit
the ability of countries to adapt to climate change, investing in
adaptation is a sound economic decision.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
|
66.20
|
64.50 |
UK Pound
|
87.50
|
84.65 |
Euro
|
78.25
|
75.65 |
Japanese
Yen |
58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
|
|
Daily Poll |
|
|
PM Modi's recent US visit to redefine India-US bilateral relations |
|
|
|
|
|
Commented Stories |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|