Climate adaptation and resilience vision: what will success look like?

Webinar

This IIED and ICCCAD hosted online event on Thursday, 11 February 2021 heard expert perspectives on what climate adaptation and resilience success in 2021 looks like.

Online
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UN climate change conference (COP26)
A series of pages related to IIED's activities at the 2021 UNFCCC climate change summit in Glasgow
Last updated 22 February 2021
Landscape with mountains in the background

Ethiopia has also long grappled with drought-related food insecurity, particularly in rural areas. Climate change exacerbates these profound challenges (Photo: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR, via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The impacts of climate change demand urgent action. There has been considerable attention on climate mitigation ambition in the lead up to COP26, with some strong commitments coming through and more expected.

But what about adaptation and resilience? As we move towards COP26, what should our adaptation ambition look like and what more is needed in 2021 to drive a strong post-COP26 adaptation agenda?

Strong adaptation commitments need to include a range of matters to have the best chance of success. This includes ensuring quantity and quality of financing and resourcing, increasing transparency and accountability, enabling locally-led actions by people and communities most affected by climate impacts, and leveraging the power of nature to drive resilience for both local communities and the environment. The world is up against the clock to design and commit to strong and enduring adaptation commitments. How do we ensure we get there at COP26?

Following on from the 1st Gobeshona Global Conference and the Climate Adaptation Summit, this event brought together speakers from government, business and civil society to pitch what strong adaptation ambition at COP26 needs to look like, what they are doing about it, and how to judge what success looks like for us all.

Event coverage

Watch a recording of the entire event below or on IIED's YouTube channel. Thomson Reuters also published an article summarising some of the key contributions made during the event.

Speaker Thinley Choden wrote the blog Perspective of LDC youth: what COP26 outcomes will enhance global action on adaptation and resilience?, covering some of her main points about LDC youth during the webinar.

About the speakers

Saleemul Huq (moderator) is the director of ICCCAD in Bangladesh, and is an expert on the links between climate change and sustainable development, particularly from the perspective of developing countries.

Sheela Patel is the founder and director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) India, which is based in Mumbai, and works in partnership with the National Slum Dweller Federation and Mahila Milan.

Mike Barry is a change agent, committed to helping business to prepare for and succeed in the great sustainability disruption that will wash through the economy in the 2020s. He is the former director of sustainable business at Marks & Spencer and is currently a senior associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Trustee at Blueprint for Better Business .

Clare Shakya is the director of IIED’s Climate Change research group. She has over 25 years of experience in development, in climate, energy and natural resources.

Thinley Choden is a social entrepreneur and consultant possessing a portfolio of ecosystem careers in climate change and sustainability issues encompassing entrepreneurial leadership/solution building, impact investing, green economy, climate governance, and youth. She is a Climate Reality Leader.

Vel Gnanendran is the climate and environment director for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

Gebru Jember Endalew is technical lead of the LDC Initiative for effective adaptation and resilience (LIFE-AR). He is also a former chair of the Least Developed Countries Group of the UNFCCC.

Dr. Tom Mitchell is the chief strategy officer for Climate-KIC. He has 15 years’ experience of working on climate change policy and research and has published widely on climate resilience.

About the series

This was the fourth online event in a series hosted by IIED and ICCCAD on the climate crisis and COVID-19 – working together for the change we need. In conversation with colleagues around the world, from civil society organisations, universities and governments, this series will look at what we can learn to make us more ready for the new ways of working we need to tackle the climate crisis.

See other events in the series:

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Contact

Juliette Tunstall (juliette.tunstall@iied.org), IIED's internal engagement and external events officer