Climate change adaptation

Assessing adaptation and development progress

Countries need to know whether their efforts to adapt to climate change are working. The first in a new series of webinars discussed approaches that can help governments assess their progress

The International Centre for Climate Change and Development

Building long term capacity for adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh and across the Global South

Tiempo

Tiempo was a printed bulletin published quarterly by IIED and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).

Responding to climate change in Kenya by strengthening dryland governance and planning

The Kenya Adaptation Consortium is demonstrating that local climate adaptation planning, supported by county government-managed devolved funds, informed by community priorities and enhanced by climate information services, renders significant benefits for people in poor and marginalised households in the most drought prone areas

Book summary: Enhancing Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries Through Community Based Adaptation

IIED's Saleemul Huq contributes to a chapter in a new book, 'Enhancing Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries Through Community-Based Adaptation', published by the African Centre for Technology Studies and partners. 

Call for feedback: inventory of tools to support ecosystem-based adaptation

IIED, IUCN, UNEP-WCMC and GIZ are seeking feedback on an inventory of ecosystem-based adaptation tools, designed to help practitioners and policymakers incorporate EbA into climate adaptation planning

Monitoring and evaluation in a local context

Assessing how climate change adaptation and development investments can strengthen local people's resilience to climate extremes

1st International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA1)

In January 2005, IIED and partners organised the first major conference on community-based adaptation (CBA) in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Comparing approaches to riverbank vulnerability in Indonesia

What lessons can be learned from two markedly different cases of vulnerability among urban riverbank settlements in Indonesia?

Q&A: We need long term actions on climate change

In the first of our interviews with representatives from the Least Developed Country Group ahead of the UN climate talks in Paris (COP21), Tracy Kajumba shares some of the challenges created by climate change in Uganda

Supporting the LDCs on climate change adaptation

As climate negotiators meet in Bonn, Batu Uprety says the mandate of the Least Developed Countries Expert Group must be renewed at COP21 to continue to support the LDCs on climate change adaptation

The political economy of financing climate resilient development

IIED is undertaking a three-year research programme to understand the policy linkages between the two themes of climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. This research focuses on countries that are investing in what has been termed 'low-carbon climate resilient development' (LCRD) – policies and strategies that address the challenges posed by climate change in an integrated response.

Conflict resolution: a key part of adaptation in North Darfur

As CBA9 gets under way in Nairobi, Kenya, Jodi Sugden from Practical Action highlights how work on conflict resolution is a key part of the adaptation process

Award win highlights collaboration for Kenya climate resilience

A consortium working to support climate change adaptation in Kenya has won a prestigious UK award. The Adaptation Consortium is a partnership of six organisations, including IIED

How to measure a global goal for adaptation?

Climate negotiators are discussing how to set a global goal for climate change adaptation. It's important for the negotiators learn from experiences and evidence gained at country level – so they can develop a goal that reflects differing national realities

From knowledge to action – how top down training is driving bottom-up resilience in Tanzania

Supporting government engagement with communities in Tanzania has identified three key ways in which the government can improve climate resilient planning

Recognising the concerns of women and girls can improve the effectiveness of climate change adaptation

Including the perspectives and experiences of women and girls in monitoring and evaluation can lead to better outcomes for climate change adaptation measures, IIED research has found

Toulmin: "Soil is the foundation for a prosperous society"

IIED director Camilla Toulmin tells the BBC's Science in Action that much of the soil across sub-Saharan Africa needs urgent attention if it is to feed the continent

Negotiating a fair future at COP20

On Monday 1 December, the UN Climate Change Conference 2014 kicks off in Lima. Peruvian IIED board member Francisco Sagasti discusses his hopes for a successful conference

Africa moves ahead to tackle climate change

As last month's fourth conference on Climate Change and Development showed, Africa will need strong leaders such as Fatima Denton – who will deliver IIED's 2014 Barbara Ward Lecture on Thursday – to tackle the issues of climate change

IIED responds to IPCC climate change report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its Fifth Assessment Report, issuing the starkest warning yet on the perils of continuing with 'business as usual'

Tracking Adaptation and Measuring Development (TAMD): Country work

TAMD is being piloted in countries in Africa and Asia. Each country adapts the framework to its own needs and contributes towards the further development of the framework

Latest news and events on Tracking Adaptation and Measuring Development (TAMD)

International meetings allow organisations to share their experiences of applying the TAMD framework and make plans for developing it further

Room for optimism on Africa, the "hopeful" continent

Climate expert Fatima Denton from the Economic Commission for Africa will say it's time for more optimism on Africa and climate change at an IIED lecture to celebrate Barbara Ward's birthday

Tracking adaptation and measuring development (TAMD)

IIED is working with partners to develop and pilot a framework, called Tracking Adaptation and Measuring Development (TAMD), to track adaptation and measure its impact on development

Indigenous mountain communities call on governments to support traditional knowledge-based adaptation

An International network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples has been formed to advocate for community biocultural heritage rights and help achieve food sovereignty and climate change adaptation

Indigenous spiritual values guide climate change adaptation in mountain communities

Cultural and spiritual values of indigenous peoples and climate change will be the focus of an international event in the Potato Park, Cusco, Peru

The IPCC rings the warning bell louder. Is anyone listening?

IIED Senior Fellow Saleemul Huq, one of the co-authors of the latest IPCC report on climate change, highlights the key findings of the publication and what policymakers need to do next

Six nations to share progress on measuring adaptation to climate change

The governments of six countries will share their experiences of assessing the effectiveness and developmental impacts of climate change adaptation, at an international meeting in Kenya on 24-27 March.

Nepal: Measuring resilience to climate change from the community up

Effective monitoring and evaluation of changes in community resilience that arise from both development and climate change resilience, can help Nepal can make smart moves to protect its people, says Susannah Fisher.

Maps that build bridges

Thanks to digital participatory mapping, pastoralists are proud of their local knowledge and policymakers want to act on it.

Seven ways equity can promote success at the UN climate talks

For a new global climate agreement to be truly equitable —and get global buy-in — it must share the burden of adaptation as well as that of mitigation.

Offer extended: Free access to papers on cities and climate change

The new edition of the journal Environment and Urbanization focuses on ways cities can increase their resilience to climate change.

Inclusive environmental investments

Inclusive environmental investments — from both public and private sector finance — are essential if local forest people are to benefit from deals that are both fair and support climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.

Promoting biodiversity within climate response strategies

Biodiversity conservation both affects and is affected by climate change. IIED is working to promote biodiversity within plans and strategies aimed at responding to climate change.

8 points on financing climate change adaptation in urban areas

As the urgency for governments and international agencies to address climate change increases, an expert meeting identified eight key points on finance priorities.

CBA7: Highlights from day three

Missed our live blog and webcast? Here are some highlights from the third day of the 7th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation

Challenging inequality is at the heart of climate change adaptation

People won’t become more resilient to the impacts of climate change unless the underlying causes of their vulnerability are analysed and addressed.

Vulnerable communities tackling climate change are our best teachers

The poorest communities (and poorest countries) are leading the world in learning about and practising adaptation to climate change. The rich would do well to learn from them.

Rwanda: test case on international commitment to financing climate change adaptation?

Rwanda hopes climate change will provide an opportunity to secure additional climate finance. Will its new finance mechanism succeed?

How do we tell whether climate change adaptation is making headway?

IIED and its partners are developing tailored frameworks to help developing countries evaluate their climate adaptation investments.

New fund to help Kenyan communities adapt to climate change

On 29 October, the government of Kenya will launch a new fund to help communities in the north of the country adapt to climate change and other development challenges.

Analysing the cost of adapting to climate change

How do you estimate the cost of adapting to the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities, and involve stakeholders in identifying the costs and benefits of the approaches identified?

CBA6: tweet by tweet and blog by blog

Given that the theme of the 6th International conference on community-based adaptation to climate change was communications, it's only fitting that participants embraced social media with open arms.

Where honey means money and climate means change

Ngan lives in a village called Ri in the remote highlands of Vietnam's Thanh Hoa province. It's beautiful. Everywhere you look is green-green-green, from the forested limestone mountains that look like the humps of long dead dragons to the flat sheets of emerald rice fields that shimmer in the sun.

Vietnam: Mangroves break waves and help the people of Dai Hop Commune break even

Well-fed women smile out from under their hats as they pull in their catch of fish, shrimp and crabs from the mangrove forest. The simple images are in an educational booklet on the benefits of mangroves, with tips on how to grow seedlings.

Taking the long view on adaptation

The impacts of climate change do not happen overnight but play out over decades. Funders looking to support people to adapt to those impacts must take the long view and accept that their investments may not provide measurable outcomes for ten years or more.

UN climate negotiations video update: Trying to find "common ground"

This is the last video update from Saleemul Huq, Senior Fellow of IIED's climate change group, from Durban, South Africa where high-level Ministers have arrived and are making statements.

Consensus grows behind the scenes at the UN climate negotiations

It’s too early to talk about the end-game in the 17th conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks that are underway in Durban. But amid the shifting diplomatic sands of talks and texts, there are signs that some of the ground is starting to solidify.

Five-nation study sheds light on costs of adapting agriculture to climate change

Research in Africa and Asia has shown that efforts to assess the costs of adapting agriculture to a changing climate often fail to reflect the diversity of the sector.

Multi-billion dollar climate change fund hits barrier

Plans for a multi-billion dollar fund to help developing countries deal with climate change hit a big barrier this week when countries could not agree on the design of the fund.

Responding to climate change in the Caribbean

How can air travel contribute to the costs of adapting to climate change?

Climate change negotiators are still meeting this week in Bonn to try and find a way forward on, amongst many other subjects, climate change mitigation, adaptation and finance. Sources of ‘innovative’ finance, such as taxes on international transport, have been proposed. Might these provide a way to break the deadlock on finance and prove to be sources of significant and stable financing to address the impacts of climate change?

VIDEO: Saleemul Huq on new research into how communities adapt to climate change

In this short video Dr Saleemul Huq — senior fellow in IIED's Climate Change Group — talks about an international research project that is looking at how communities can adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The opportunities of climate change

It's not always a great idea to acknowledge that bad things can create opportunities – but they can. Bad things cause suffering and tragedy, but they can also destabilise the status quo, open space for new discussions, and give an impetus to groups looking for positive change.

Better science and communication needed to help vulnerable adapt to climate change

A major international conference in Bangladesh has ended with strong recommendations on how to help communities in developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Tiny flight tax could raise billions to protect people from climate change

A small tax on international airline tickets could raise US$10 billion a year to help people to adapt to the impacts of climate change, say economists at the International Institute for Environment and Development.

Adapting to climate change in Bangladesh

Climate adaptation: old wine in new bottles?

Reality check: climate change and the poor

Hannah Reid reports on a field trip to a site in Manikganj District, about three hours from Dhaka city in Bangladesh, to see how vulnerable people are coping with climate-change related impacts

Lessons from vulnerable communities show how to adapt to climate-change

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, will next week open an international conference at which more than 250 delegates will share the latest knowledge on how vulnerable communities can adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Afloat: Bangladesh adapts to climate change

'Afloat', a film from IIED and Panos, shows how in Bangladesh they are combining tradition and innovation to adapt to climate change

Storm watch for Cancun climate talks

Striking a deal at this month’s UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico will largely depend on negotiators’ ability to settle stormy disputes, particularly between the developed and developing world, over six key issues.

Adaptation finance: Why not just give it to the poor?

A new book argues that the best approach to reducing poverty is the simplest: giving money to the poor. In Just Give Money to the Poor, Hanlon, Barrientos and Hulme argue that cash transfers put money directly in the hands of those that need it, and that the poor are both willing and capable of using the money to benefit themselves and their families. Given the uncertainties and pitfalls of spending money on climate change adaptation, could we do worse than simply giving money to the poor themselves?

4th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA4)

The 4th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA4) to climate change took place in February 2010 in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Road to recovery: mapping a sustainable economy

THE WORLD has a unique but brief opportunity to tackle several major challenges together. Evidence of the linked causes of financial, energy and climate crises – and not just their symptoms – is on the table.

Expert Group Meeting on Population Dynamics and Climate Change

London. June 09 Papers from this meeting are now available as downloadable pdfs.

Least Developed Countries

Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are the poorest countries in the world. A number of criteria determine this status. As of May 2009, LDCs number 50. Roughly 65 per cent are in Africa; a number of others are known as Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Many SIDS are low-lying and located in parts of the world already prone to extreme weather events, factors that make them highly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as sea level rise and fiercer and more frequent tropical storms.

Q&A: Admit

Highlights the key elements about this ethical and effective new way to compensate your carbon emissions and support adaptation, now in its pilot phase.

Just the beginning

Yvo de Boer, who runs the UNFCCC secretariat, laid out clearly where we are with agreement on the text in his inimitable laconic style: ‘We are near to the end of putting things in and near to the beginning of taking things out.’

Supporting Adaptation to Climate Change: What role for Official Development Assistance?

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has instigated several funding mechanisms in an attempt to meet adaptation needs in developing countries, however these funds have been heavily criticised by both the development and academic communities for being both fiscally and technically inadequate.