O Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021 is the first major climate event of the year. The conference brought together key leaders from around the world to discuss the issue of adaptation to climate change. According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), adaptation is the process of adjusting to climate change and its consequences, which can be incremental, maintaining the integrity of the system, or transformational, changing the fundamental attributes of a system.
The limits of nature and climate are already being exceeded by the current development model. This means that we will increasingly witness the consequences already predicted by Science, such as the increase in extreme weather events, floods, fires, increasingly extreme rains and droughts, among other examples. To prevent these consequences from having increasingly greater effects on populations and nature, it is necessary to invest in adaptation actions.
Investing in climate adaptation is one of the messages expected from this meeting taking place this week. It was recalled how investments in prevention are more effective and more economical than dealing with the consequences: investments totaling US$1.8 trillion could generate US$1.8 trillion in future gains.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recalled that approximately 1/3 of the world’s population is not covered by the adaptation measures necessary for their security. Therefore, he listed five priorities necessary to support economic protection:
- Donor countries and other donor sources, such as development banks and funds, should increase the amount allocated to adaptation worldwide;
- Climate change must be considered in all recovery budget allocations;
- Scale up post-disaster recovery funds and develop innovative crisis relief instruments;
- Facilitate access to financing for the most vulnerable;
- Provide the necessary support for adaptation at the regional level.
Guterres stressed that we need to start investing at least US$70 billion per year to advance the adaptation actions needed today and plan to reach US$280 billion per year by 2050. He also called for 50% of the total funds earmarked for adaptation and resilience to be directed to developing countries.
The United States Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, stated that prevention is cheaper than cure, as was the case with the last three catastrophes in the United States, which together cost the country more than US$1.4 billion. Building resilience to climate change is urgent and he assured the United States that mitigation and adaptation to climate change is a priority for the administration of the new US President, Joe Biden, and that the country will therefore do everything it can to ensure that COP26 achieves its objectives. In this sense, the United States is reviewing its NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) and it will be published soon.
John Kerry reported that the country is committed to acting on three major fronts: a) fostering innovation and management of climate-related data; b) increasing the flow of financing, including through grants; and c) fostering collaboration between the U.S. private sector and that of developing countries to enable actions in local communities.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva noted that climate is a key risk to economic stability, and that addressing climate change will bring economic prosperity, including increasing global GDP and creating hundreds of millions of jobs.
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