Adaptation

This paper (PDF) presents an overview of existing practices by summarizing the findings from an extensive survey of various institutions, drawing on the lessons learned from development finance, the public and private activities of international financial institutions and experience with market-based instruments. The paper mainly focuses on mitigation, and it seeks to discern lessons for policymakers by addressing two key questions: What makes climate finance effective? and what tools, methods or systems might improve the effectiveness of climate finance?  

This working paper explores what historical patterns of investment reveal about the potential for the private sector to play a significant role in raising and delivering climate finance, specifically in the context of the adaptation needs of developing countries. The author finds that private-sector finance is unevenly distributed among countries and among sectors, and it often does not match developing countries' most pressing needs. Also important is to differentiate between different financial flows - foreign direct investment equity vs. portfolio equity, for example, and equity vs.

This web-based programme allows technical and non-technical users alike to visualise the effects of climate change. Users can view historic temperature and rainfall maps overlaid with predictions of temperature and rainfall based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. Users can review three greenhouse gas emission scenarios laid out by the IPCC with additional data layers from which more detailed forecasts can be drawn. ClimateWizard was developed by the Nature Conservancy and the Universities of Washington and Southern Mississippi.

CARE has developed the Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA) process to help communities to better understand the implications of climate change for the lives and livelihoods of the people impacted by climate change. By combining local knowledge with scientific climate information, the process builds people's understanding about climate risks and adaptation strategies. It provides a framework for dialogue within communities, as well as between communities and other stakeholders. The handbook is available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

German development agency GIZ created the Climate Proofing for Development tool based on a methodology used in Government-financed development projects. The tool is applicable to many levels - national, sectoral, project, and local - and enables analysis of policy, projects, and programmes in relation to the risks of climate change, which can assist users in identifying appropriate adaptation measures. Climate Proofing for Development determines the bio-physical and socioeconomic impacts of climate change in order to plan appropriate adaptation strategies.

In this paper, the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) assesses the current status of the climate finance landscape, mapping its magnitude and nature along the life cycle of finance flows, i.e. the sources of finance, intermediaries involved in distribution, financial instruments, and final uses. After presenting estimates of current flows based on available data, describing the methodology, and discussing the sources of data, we offer recommendations to improve further data-gathering efforts.  

CEDRA is a strategic-level environmental field tool for agencies working in developing countries. It helps agencies to access and understand the science of climate change and environmental degradation and ensure their full portfolio of projects is resilient. Using CEDRA, civil society organisations can prioritise which environmental hazards may pose a risk to their existing project locations, enabling them to make decisions to adapt projects or start new ones. Adaption options are discussed, and decision-making tools are provided to help organisations make their projects resilient.

The public sector will have to leverage several hundreds of USD billions of private investments per year in order to enable low-carbon development limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. The authors of this report have studied different tools for leveraging funds, ways to accounting for private funds, and finally whether the ratio of leveraged private funds to leveraging public funds is a good indicator for efficiency.  

This report summarizes the proceedings of the El Salvador conference (June 2010) "Strategies for Adapting Public and Private Infrastructure to Climate Change". It outlines the multiple development benefits of climate-proofing infrastructure. While these proceedings address the specific context of El Salvador, the methodologies outlined can be applied to a wide range of situations.