Reuters photo
By
Jose Kalathil
About 1,000 scientists, development workers, academicians, representatives from international organizations and civil society from 50 countries are expected to converge in Manila from October 17 to 19, 2018 to discuss climate change adaptation topics. Held for the sixth time since 2010, this Climate Change Forum is organized by the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN), which is a regional programme for managing and applying adaptation knowledge in the region, and supports governments and other organisations working on adaptation, with special emphasis on the management of knowledge and capacity building. The three-day event is co-hosted by the Climate Change Commission, Philippines, the Government of the Republic of Palau, and the Asian Development Bank.
According to Dr Saleemul Huq, Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), the Asia Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable to adverse impacts of climate change. However, it is also leading the world in enhancing adaptive capacity of its people. The Adaptation Forum is an important element in knowledge sharing and enhancing adaptive capacity.
The 6th Forum will be built around four “streams” focusing on (i) resilience of social and human systems, (ii) resilience of natural systems, (iii) resilience of industry and the built environment, and (iv) resilience of island communities. The inclusion of islands recognizes that Asia and the Pacific’s numerous and diverse island communities face particular challenges associated with economic shocks and natural hazards, and building resilience is often an existential task.
The Forum will address the capacity building needs and priority issues in the Asia Pacific regions that would enable the scaling of tools and the means to resilience that will equip our human systems and communities with the capacity to withstand and moderate the worst-case scenarios.
It will facilitate the “how” part of adaptation knowledge and programmes, with actionable, scalable “next step” guidelines for communities, stakeholders, and governments. It will also report on the specific actions taken since the last APAN Forum regarding progress on addressing the priority knowledge, policy and funding gaps and act as a platform for discussions and outcomes that would accelerate action and provide the basis for complementary and concrete groundwork for the 2018 Global Stocktake facilitative dialogues, as well as for both ASEAN and Pacific country contributions leading to COP 24 in Katowice, Poland at the end of the year.
Jose Kalathil
Jose Kalathil is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. With more than three decades of experience in India and abroad, he is comfortable writing on any subject under the sun. He may be contacted at [email protected]
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