The Climate Adaptation Summit 2021 hosted by the Netherlands has come to an end. Over a period of 24 hours, global leaders and local stakeholders came together to set out future actions on climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. Here's an overview of the summit highlights from the distinguished speakers:
• Prime Minister Rutte reiterated that all Dutch public finance continues to be equally focussed – 50/50 – on mitigation and adaptation.
• UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for 50 per cent of the total share of climate finance provided by all donors and multilateral development banks to be allocated to adaptation and resilience.
• The new US Climate Envoy, John Kerry, assured world leaders in his first international public appearance, that the Biden-administration has made international climate action a top priority and will strongly push for more ambition in adaptation and resilience strategies.
• Chinese Vice-Premier Han Zheng called on the international community to redouble their national adaptation efforts and to implement the adaptation commitments made in the Paris Agreement on climate change.
• IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva announced the IMF is increasing coverage of climate actions in its annual country economic assessments – the Article IV consultations - and will incorporate climate risks in its financial sector assessments. The IMF will also scale up capacity development to support member countries with climate-related skills and announced the launching of a new data initiative to help countries track climate change risks and policies.
• The World Bank Group committed to maintaining the share of its total climate financing, earmarked for climate adaptation, to at least 50%. World Bank Group President Malpass also announced a $5 billion investment in the Great Green Wall, an initiative to combat the increasing desertification in Africa.
• The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) announced a new Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP). This flagship program will focus on agriculture, infrastructure, youth and innovative finance. The African Development Bank has committed to mobilise $25 billion as climate finance between 2020 and 2025, of which at least 50% will support climate adaptation and resilience building. AfDB and GCA will use this to leverage an additional $12.5 billion in funding from other key partners.
• French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that 2 billion euros – one-third of France’s climate finance aid – will be allocated for climate adaptation.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel committed a total of 270 million euros extra budget for climate adaptation, in support of vulnerable communities.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched the Adaptation Action Coalition, a group of leading nations that will be working with the Race2Reliance Initiative and the UN Climate Action team towards COP26 later this year. In partnership with Egypt, Bangladesh, Malawi, the Netherlands, Saint Lucia and the UNDP, the Coalition will aim to accelerate efforts to turn political commitment into tangible action on the ground to support those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced to contribute to the launch of the GCA Youth Leadership program focused on building the next generation.
• A call to action from youth leaders in more than 115 countries and more than 3,000 scientists, both first published on January 22nd, were presented to the world leaders during the opening session.
• Over 50 Ministers from different perspectives and regions joined the Ministerial dialogue, stating the importance of adaptation action and their contributions. The dialogue showed commitment for action on the ground and the readiness of this ministerial level to guide the Adaptation Action Agenda towards a climate-resilient future.
• Five Nobel Prize Laureates presented the "Groningen Scientific Declaration" in Groningen and this was signed by 3,000 scientists from over 100 countries. The amount that countries worldwide spend on this must increase at least by 5-10 times, to a maximum of $300 billion. This is stated in the State and Trends in Adaptation report.
• Young people from more than 115 countries presented a call to action among government leaders on Friday entitled "Adapt for our Future" to former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
For a complete summary of the events, please visit CAS2021's website for more here.
Photocredit: IWMI Flickr Photos/Flickr