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South African President Jacob Zuma giving the opening address the Durban Local Government Convention. During his speech President Zuma highlighted the important role of local governments in addressing climate impacts. We will be adding more quotes from the address later, but thought we’d share while it’s happening! Posted by Fern

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Adaptation Fund Contact Group meeting at COP17

The first informal consultation of the Contact Group on Adaptation Fund at COP17 heard back from the Chair of the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) on the draft Performance Review Report which has been conducted since Cancun. It was noted that the AFB invites NGOs to comment on the report. Several parties made general statements following the update of the report status, notably the Bahamas (for G77) who noted that they had expected that the donors’ contributions to the Adaptation Fund would have been more substantial. The EU took note of the findings of the Report including the recommendations for improvement of the Fund made in the review. The Philippines representative noted that the [potential?] use of markets for raising funds is very important and hopes that this issue will be taken up in subsequent discussions.

posted by Fern

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How do local governments become a key player in the UNFCCC?

Through concerted effort to bring a clear message to the UNFCCC!

The Durban Local Government Convention, hosted by the eThekwini Municipality, opened today at the City Hall to great enthusiasm from the participating local government representatives from around the world. The mandate of the Convention (a side event at the COP17) is for the participating local governments to collectively develop a charter which has a strong focus on climate change adaptation and which will be carried by the president of ICLEI to the UNFCCC during the high-level COP17 segment next week on behalf of local governments.

It was great to hear recognition of the important role of local governments in addressing the climate challenge – both adaptation and mitigation - by many leaders – at the local, national and global levels.

From the Mayor of the COP17 host city, James Nxumalo, “Africa expects more than just the mitigation deal in Durban, we expect an inclusive, fair and effective outcome that prioritises both adaptation and mitigation. Africa has been identified by the IPCC as one of the most vulnerable continents to the impacts of climate change. This vulnerability is exacerbated by the continent’s lack in adaptive capacity due to high level of poverty and under development…the issue of adaptation, therefore, must be given priority in Durban. Adaptation is no longer a choice; it is a development necessity.” The Mayor went on to invite the participating local government representatives to use the time together in the next few days to craft the Local Government Adaptation Charter.

The President Jacob Zuma noted that “Local governments are the sphere of government that is the closest to the people and it is directly responsible for the implementation of climate change response programs... We look to local governments to help shape the outcomes of the COP…”

The Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres, in her speech, recognised the tremendous efforts already made by local governments in both mitigation and adaptation. And she urged them to take the many projects that have been implemented to scale. She urged that the investments made should be multifunctional – both increase resilience and reduce emissions…and help the poor- that is, the triple bottom line for city leaders. (Not surprisingly, a local government representative made a comment later on in the day around the slow-coming resources, in particular from developed countries, to fund these efforts.)

The Local Government Adaptation Charter will be a political document and will be introduced in the high-level segment in the second week of COP17. The local governments will reconvene tomorrow to work on the draft Charter.

Posted by Fern

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Welcome to the ACCCRN Blog at COP17!

Who’s ACCCRN?

The Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) is a network of (currently) 10 cities in India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam that are experimenting with a range of actions to improve their ability to withstand, prepare for, and to recover from current and future impacts of climate change. Since the start of the initiative in 2008, the cities have been working to understand the current and new risks and vulnerabilities they face as a result of climate change and rapid urbanisation through a range of assessments and targeted studies. Through these assessments and development of comprehensive City Resilience Strategies, the cities identify and prioritise specific actions and investments aimed at building Urban Climate Change Resilience (UCCR) of their cities. In this process, multi stakeholders from across sectors (local governments, NGOs, academics, communities, private) are involved.

ACCCRN is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. The network aims to catalyze attention, funding, and action on building climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people in cities in developing countries.

ACCCRN at COP17 - issues we’re blogging about

A number of ACCCRN partners are at COP17 to share lessons and experience in urban climate resilience planning and implementation from the 10 Asian cities. They will be presenting at side events, notably at the Durban Local Government Convention ‘Adapting to a changing climate – towards COP17/CMP7 and beyond’  and Development and climate days. 

Some of us will be sharing what we hear at COP17 through is blog. Some of the topics we hope to cover whilst we’re here include:

Role of local governments in addressing climate adaptation challenge

Role of local governments in global advocacy

Sharing of lessons and experience in climate change adaptation efforts between Asia and Africa

Accessing the Adaptation Fund for the ACCCRN cities

The role of the private sector

Communicating climate risks

Bloggers at COP

Kai Kim is a Senior Staff Scientist (Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction) working primarily on ACCCRN and the USAID funded Mekong - Building Resilience to Climate Change in Asian Cities (M-BRACE) program since November 2010.

Fern is a Program Associate at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Asia Office. She has been working on ACCCRN for the last two and a half years, focusing particularly on the Thailand part of the program.

Posted by Kai Kim & Fern

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