International policy in supporting adaptation

The world is committed to a certain amount of human-induced climate change over the next few decades. Some negative impacts of climate change are inevitable. These impacts are likely to affect developing countries most severely. Developed countries and wealthier people in less developed countries may be able to cope with, or adapt to, these impacts. However, poor people across the world may require assistance to adapt to climate change and to offset its potentially unequal effects.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came into effect in 1994 with the objective of reducing the rate of human-induced climate change through mitigation and adaptation. The "rich" countries, listed by the UNFCCC, have all accepted their obligation to assist poor countries to adapt to climate change, particularly small island states and least developed countries (LDCs). The Seventh Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC, held in Marrakech, Morocco, in 2001, created several new funds specifically for this purpose. The LDCs also developed guidelines for carrying out National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPAs) to identify and prioritise adaptation actions in each country. These new funds include:

• the Least Developed Countries Fund to support LDCs in carrying out their respective NAPAs
• the Special Climate Change Fund to assist all developing countries in adaptation and mitigation
• the Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol to assist all developing countries in carrying out adaptation measures.

So far, only the Least Developed Countries Fund is operational. In addition to these "Marrakech Funds", the Global Environment Facility (GEF) also provides funding for climate change activities, as part of the UNFCCC. While most funding for climate change over the last decade has been for mitigation, the GEF has recently set up a special fund for adaptation in developing countries, worth US$ 50 million over three years. However, one barrier to using these funds is the GEF rules, which state that they can only be used for the "incremental costs of global benefits". While it is relatively easy to calculate the costs of global benefits arising from mitigation projects, it is more difficult to do so for adaptation projects (as benefits are usually local rather than global).

UNFCCC funds are likely to form a relatively small part of the financial assistance that developing countries will need to adapt to climate change. It is therefore useful to distinguish between adaptation actions and international funding support. Adaptation will have to be done by the vulnerable communities, sectors and countries themselves, with whatever resources they can provide. International funding support for adaptation in developing countries is the responsibility of the UNFCCC and its associated funds.

Most adaptation in developing countries will need to be done as part of normal development activities. These will probably come out of existing development assistance funding, including official development assistance. Other funding may be available through bilateral and multilateral funding agencies and through non-governmental organisations, both national and international, as illustrated in the diagram (below).

Click to enlarge

A key challenge will be to find ways in which overseas development assistance and UNFCCC funds can be complementary, rather than repeating each other's activities. This process has only just begun and needs to be accelerated if developing countries (and their poorest communities) are to be assisted effectively in adapting to climate change in the near future.

Saleemul Huq
Climate Change Programme,
International Institute for Environment and Development,
3 Endsleigh Street,
London, WC1H 0DD, UK
T: +44-20-7388 2117
F: +44-20-7388 2826
Saleemul.huq@iied.org

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