From: 27/04/2010
To: 28/04/2010
Location: Tunis, Tunisia
Policy makers, development partners and experts to brainstorm on issues and costs of economic adaptation
Major initiatives expected to expand Africa's and AfDB's adaptation network, perspectives and programmes.
The role of information in the economics of adaptation to be emphasized
In partnership with the Observatory of Sahara and Sahel (OSS), the Stockholm Environment Institute, and the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP), the African Development Bank (AfDB) will on 27 and 28 April 2010 organize a two-day Roundtable on the Economics of Adaptation in Africa. The roundtable will bring together key global experts to develop a common understanding of climate change impacts and adaptation costs estimates. The roundtable is also expected to engender a better understanding of the inter-linkages between adaptation and development.
The roundtable is the outcome of a dialogue that the Gender, Climate and Sustainable Development (OSUS) Unit Head, Anthony Nyong, has been having with global experts over the past 4 months on the need to develop a more coherent metric for costing the impacts of climate change on Africa and the cost of adapting to the impacts. It is one of the programs that OSUS has scheduled to position the Bank as a clear leader on climate change issues on the continent. A similar roundtable on reducing green house gas emissions is in the pipeline.
The Roundtable will review regional and sectoral economics of climate change, as most studies thus far are at the continental scale. The Bank's activities on climate change and its strategic focus will be highlighted. The roundtable will also review sectoral costs of adaptation based on studies carried out by the participating partners. The UNEP will present results from the AdapCost project it is sponsoring, while the UNDP will present its recent work on investments and financial flows for climate change. The World Bank will also present outputs from its recent country and global studies and strategies.
To facilitate discussion after the plenary presentations, break-up sessions will be organized around financing Africa's adaptation, sectoral adaptations in agriculture and water, with emphasis on land degradation synergies as well as other environmental threats including desertification and ecosystem degradation, infrastructure and health.
Expected key outcomes of the Tunis roundtable include a more coherent and robust metric for estimating the cost of impacts and adaptation to climate change, which will better inform African negotiators to develop a clear science-based position on the cost of climate change as well as the costs required for adaptation in the on-going negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change.
In addition, it will enable the Bank, as a development institution, to better understand the costs of adaptation in order to adequately design effective interventions in the Regional Member Countries (RMCs). Bank task managers will be better informed on how to cost adaptation in their projects and programs.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Head of the African Delegation at the December 2009 15th Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (COP 15) tasked the Bank to "play an important role in climate change finance under the Copenhagen Green Fund". In this regard, the roundtable represents an important event for the Bank to demonstrate its understanding of the issues and its ability to tackle them.
Related Sections
Links
Climate Change & Mitigation Website
Contacts
Ernest Achonu
