We were trying to sound the alarm bell on the need for climate adaptation at COP26
Katherine Meighan
General Counsel, UN International Fund for Agricultural Development
That’s why IFAD developed its Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP), which has raised US$305 million in grants since 2012 to help an estimated 6 million vulnerable smallholders across 41 countries. It’s now targeting a further $500m to scale up its efforts as part of the programme’s recently launched new phase.
For some, like those who live on low-lying islands, adaptation financing may literally be the difference between life and death. In May 2019, eight inhabitants of a group of islands in the Torres Strait launched a claim against the Australian federal government, alleging it had failed in its legal human rights obligations to take adequate action to reduce emissions or to implement proper adaptation measures on the islands. The government submitted a response to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva in which it said it felt it was already doing enough to combat climate change.
As the islanders await the Committee’s final decision on the complaint, the government has already committed AU$25 million in climate adaptation spending for the region – one of the key asks by the claimants.
Sophie Marjanac, the ClientEarth lawyer leading the case, says it may be too little too late. ‘As the Torres Strait claimants are only too aware, climate change is already here now, and having a significant impact on everyday life on low-lying islands,’ she says. ‘People from the Torres Strait are witnessing, in real time, the destruction caused by rising seas, more extreme storms and hotter marine environments.’
Marjanac says heavy-emitting countries like Australia must invest in both mitigation and adaptation. ‘Countries like Australia have a responsibility to protect their most vulnerable communities, both by reducing overall emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, and by investing in adaptation measures for those most affected,’ she says. ‘In the Torres Strait this means investing in coastal infrastructure, like sea walls.’
There’s growing awareness of the toll the climate crisis has taken on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which are already highly vulnerable to extreme weather events. Island nations’ scarce financial resources and low capacity has made the threat facing them even more ‘immediate’, says Maria Vizeu-Pinheiro, Environmental and Sustainability Policy Officer on the IBA Environment, Health and Safety Law Committee.
Vizeu-Pinheiro says actions to manage climate risk must be taken immediately and that SIDS need funding if they’re to undertake the range of adaptation and mitigation measures required to improve their resilience. ‘Measures might vary from improving coastal infrastructure, investing in nature-based solutions, protecting marine and terrestrial ecosystems zones, investing in coastal areas, mangroves and reinvesting in all the measures that they need,’ she says. ‘Otherwise, we'll be too late.’
She points to countries like Costa Rica, which has pioneered several hugely successful ‘green’ initiatives to help the country adapt and promote a more sustainable economy. These include the payment for environmental services (PES) programme, which remunerates farmers and landowners for any environmental services produced by their lands using sustainable techniques. This programme is primarily funded through a nationwide gas tax.
She says an intercropping and shade tree programme has also made coffee production more sustainable and helped to reforest the country. ‘The country has been incredible in terms of being proactive and looking for innovative ways to finance different solutions to increase sustainability and climate change resilience,’ she says. ‘What Costa Rica shows is there are innovative ways to fund climate smart policies.’
Image: Degraded mangrove forest from climate change, Borneo. Borneo Rimbawan/Shutterstock.com
