Developing countries must adapt to reality of climate change

New information on threats that climate change poses to developing countries and on steps such nations can take to prepare for the changes ahead was presented at international meetings in Nairobi, Kenya this weekend (11–12 November).

More than 200 delegates attended the ‘Development and Adaptation Days’ meetings, which took place at the sidelines of a major United Nations conference on climate change.

The meetings were organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and its partners: the Stockholm Environment Institute; the International Institute for Sustainable Development; the African Centre for Technology Studies; and the RING alliance of policy research organisations.

Scientists, economists and nongovernmental organisations presented new papers on the vulnerability of various economic sectors to impacts of climate change, and offered policy recommendations to enable countries and communities to adapt to these impacts.

“Climate change threatens to derail efforts to reduce poverty in the developing world,” says Saleemul Huq, head of IIED’s climate change group. “But such efforts could also be used to help the world’s poor face and adapt to the threat of climate change. It is essential to act now to prevent catastrophic impacts, rather than carry on with business as usual and face terrible consequences later.”

Delegates heard presentations on the risks climate change could bring, and the capacity of communities to adapt to them, in Algeria, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa, Tajikistan, Zambia and Zimbabwe, among others.

Studies in sub-Saharan Africa have predicted, for example, that areas suitable for growing important crops could shrink drastically as the climate gets warmer and drier.

Tharsis Hyera, programme manager at Environmental Protection and Management Services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania told delegates that a wide zone in the middle of the country could degenerate to the point of being unsuitable for growing maize. “The anticipated shift would leave only the highlands in the southern and northern fringes of Tanzania suitable,” he says.

Also presenting research was Charles Nhemachena, a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa, at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

He says: “Government policies need to support research and development that prepares the appropriate technologies to help farmers to adapt to changes in climatic conditions. Examples include crop development, improving climate forecasting, or promoting and even subsidising certain farm-level adaptations such as the use of irrigation technologies.”

Agriculture is not the only problem. Nearly every sector of a country’s economy is sensitive to climate change and will need to adapt to future conditions. Fiji, which faces rising sea levels, has identified water-associated health risks (such as diarrhoea and insect-borne diseases) as the priority health issue linked to climate change.

Research presented by Courtenay Cabot Venton shows that investment in adaptation to climate-related extreme events in drought and flood-prone parts of India can be cost effective. “The study presents a clear argument for integration of adaptation and development planning,” says Cabot Venton, of UK-based consultancy Environmental Resources Management.

Other presentation topics included water management in India and Peru; clean energy in Bangladesh and Nigeria; applying climate forecasts to policymaking; Cape Town’s city-scale plan for adapting to climate change; transferring adaptation technologies to rural communities; and climate change and livestock in Burkina Faso.

For a full list of speakers, and downloadable presentations from the conference, please see: http://www.iied.org/CC/COP12.html

The 'Development and Adaptation Days' are intended to help build links between different stakeholders, particularly the climate change and development communities, and to share findings through printed and web-based reports.

"The development agenda is rapidly expanding to include climate change, and this experience will be collected during the Development and Adaptation Days , linking practitioners with researchers,” says Tom Dowling, director of Stockholm Environment Institute Oxford Centre.

To interview the head of IIED's climate change group, Saleemul Huq, please call: +254 (0)725 054767 (Kenyan mobile phone), or IIED’s climate change and communication assistant Isabelle Lemaire on: +254 (0)726 029143 (Kenyan mobile phone). If you are at COP12, you can also meet IIED staff at booth G14 (green zone).

The International Development Research Centre (Canada), the Swedish International Development Agency and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development funded the event.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Mike Shanahan

Press Officer

International Institute for Environment and Development

Email: mike.shanahan@iied.org

Tel: +44 (0)20 7872 7308

Fax: +44 (0)20 7388 2826

NOTES TO EDITORS

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is an independent, non-profit research institute. Set up in 1971 and based in London, IIED provides expertise and leadership in researching and achieving sustainable development.

The Stockholm Environment Institute is an independent, international research institute specialising in sustainable development and environment issues (see: http://www.sei.se).

The International Institute for Sustainable Development c ontributes to sustainable development by advancing policy recommendations on international trade and investment, economic policy, climate change, measurement and assessment, and natural resources management (see http://www.iisd.org/).

The African Centre for Technology Studies is a Kenya-based organisation that promotes the use of scientific and technological information to enable African countries to make effective policy choices for improved living standards (see: http:// www.acts.or.ke).

The RING Alliance is a global alliance of research and policy organisations that seeks to enhance and promote sustainable development through a programme of collaborative research, dissemination and policy advocacy (see http://www.ring-alliance.org/).

On 30 October, the UK Treasury published the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, which concluded that climate change could shrink the global economy by up to 20 per cent but that acting now to face the threat would cost just one per cent of global GDP (see: http://tinyurl.com/ye5to7).

Policymakers from around the word are meeting in Kenya from 6–17 November at the 12th United Nations Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (see http://unfccc.int/2860.php).

To coincide with the conference, IIED has published 14 two-page policy papers on various aspects of climate change. They are available for free at: http://www.iied.org/pubs/search.php?s=SDO