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The objective of the Adaptation and Climate Vulnerability Project is to elaborate a methodology for mainstreaming climate analysis into sustainable development programmes and to test the methodology in selected countries, including Tanzania, India and Peru.

There is growing evidence that global climate is changing and will continue to do so with profound effects on people’s wellbeing. Climate change is likely to cause more general future changes in temperature, precipitations and other parameters as well as changed variability and more extreme events including increased frequency of floods, droughts, and storm surges, rise in sea level as well as other events.

These changes may potentially cause economic and human losses and have various impacts on sustainable development opportunities. Hence, assessment of risks and possible impacts from projected changes of the global climate becomes increasingly important in national planning.

The objective of the Adaptation and Climate Vulnerability Project is to elaborate a methodology for mainstreaming climate analysis into sustainable development programmes and to test the methodology in selected countries, including Tanzania, India and Peru. Work in the area of mainstreaming climate activities in development planning has been initiated by others, i.e. the World Bank and the Interagency Initiative on Climate Change and the Vulnerability of the Poor. However, the methodological guidelines on how to incorporate climate events into sustainable development planning are still very general.

The Adaptation and Climate Vulnerability Project aims to provide simple but effective steps by which national activities, such as land use planning, energy policies, transportation, health, disaster management and others, can be designed to take account of future climate risk. The assessment of risks, how to evaluate different options for mitigating the risks and steps to implement the measures are the main components of the project work. The methodology will be applied on the country level to test it in relation to different cases.

Main outputs of the project are a Methodological framework for mainstreaming of climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessments, country case studies based on the methodological framework and a project workshop with representatives of all partners. A final project report will include the methodology and the case studies.

The Project is managed by the UNEP Risø Centre (URC) with Sustainable Development and Climate Change Coordinator Dr. Kirsten Halsnæs as the project leader. FEEM is responsible for collaborating with URC about the methodological work and for supporting the country study work in Tanzania (shared with URC) and in Peru.

In late May 2006 FEEM researcher Emanuele Massetti visited Peru to establish ties with project partner CONAM in view of the involvement of local consultants for the preparation of the Country Case Study. Meetings with senior officers at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, Swiss Cooperation and local NGO Predes were organized to assess the current practices of weather related risk management and the state of adaptation towards increasing vulnerability from climate change. Risks from extreme weather events are very poorly addressed in Peru and adaptation to future climate change are virtually non existent. For this reason stakeholders have all expressed strong support to the project. Similar visits have been conduced by project partners in India and Tanzania.

In September 2006 a first draft of the methodological guidelines prepared by Richard Boyd of University of Bath under the guidance of Dr. Kirsten Halsnæs and Prof. Anil Markandya was distributed among project partners for a critical review. Methodological guidelines are evaluated and applied in country case studies starting from early October 2006. Feedback from local consultants is used to shape the final draft of the methodological guidelines.

The work takes its starting point in existing documents such as the Danish Climate and Development Action Programme and the UK Climate Impacts Programme but the work will also include an assessment of the recent literature on climate change impacts.

Through consultations of relevant partners and documents, the project aims at identifying the key vulnerable sectors in the case countries and their exposure to specific climate change parameters. It aims also at carrying out an assessment of main vulnerabilities and potential adaptation options.

Following tasks are included:

  • Develop methodological guidelines for mainstreaming climate analysis into national development programmes.
  • Support country studies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology.
  • Discuss the results from the country studies with partners (workshop) and prepare a final report on lessons learned and future actions.