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This report serves as an input for the preparatory work Ghana would undertake in 2020 to update its NDC which was submitted in 2015.

In order to fully address climate change learning needs within the Zimbabwean development context and framework, there are some important considerations that should be given to the country’s priority and focus areas. These are detailed in the various national documents and plans which include the National Climate Policy, National Climate change Response Strategy, the Nationally Determined Contributions, as well as a the Comprehensive Stakeholder Needs Assessment as guided by the National Priority Areas.

This background report is written in the context of the One United Nations Climate Change Learning Partnership (UN CC: Learn) initiative. The UN CC: Learn initiative was established in 2009 as a collaboration of more than 30 multilateral organizations committed to support and contribute to effective, results-oriented and sustainable learning to address climate change and related development challenges. The UN CC: Learn Project in Zambia is coordinated by the Climate Change and Natural Resources Department in the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. A Technical Team involving the Climate Change Department, the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) and the Zambia Climate Change Network (ZCCN) has been put in place to spearhead the development of the National Climate Change Learning Strategy. The implementation of the Zambia UN CC: Learn Project is supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Zambia Country Office, through the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Support Programme.

This Background Report on National Climate Change Priorities and Relevant Capacity Development Goals and Initiatives in Zambia foregrounds the development of the National Climate Change Learning Strategy. The report is a compilation of national climate change priorities and relevant ongoing and planned capacity development initiatives which will form part of chapter one of the National Climate Change Learning Strategy.

This document gives an overview of the current education system of Zimbabwe and the national climate change learning framework. 

To achieve a state of having a knowledgeable and educated population that is able to respond better to the effects of climate change as well as to be able to mitigate against it there is a need to adopt a comprehensive strategy that has a mix of different learning methodologies. To this effect Zimbabwe is in the process of developing a National Climate Change Learning Strategy as part of the UNCC: Learn Southern Africa Initiative which started in 2009 as a collaboration of UN Agencies that support and contribute to effective, sustainable and result-oriented learning to address climate change-related development challenges. 

This technical document provides methodological and organizational guidance to countries interested in taking a strategic approach to climate change learning and skills development. In particular, it lays out the process of developing a National Strategy to Strengthen Human Resources and Skills to Advance Green, Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development – or short “National Climate Change Learning Strategy” – through cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder collaboration, and with engagement of national education and training institutions.

The analysis is based on 27 in-depth interviews with officials of local and national authorities as well as 198 semi-structured interviews and 11 focus group discussions conducted with farmers along three salinity transects in both deltas in 2015-2016. The results show that a dynamic interplay and feedback of various drivers of change such as policy intervention, farmers’ desire for profit maximization, changing salinity conditions, and technological development at different levels of the deltaic social-ecological system have shaped the changes and adaptations in agricultural systems over the last decades. In response to increased salinity intrusion, as exemplified by the historic salinity levels recorded in the Mekong Delta in 2015–2016, various adaptation options have been considered. These include adaptations that would lock-in agricultural production in particular systems or constrain changes in others, which is potentially problematic in light of the high uncertainty related to future changes. The study recognizes the need to apply both incremental and transformative changes and select adaptation pathways which allow for continuous change or that are reversible in order to avoid lock-ins and address future challenges. Additionally, attention should be drawn to interactions and feedbacks in future changes within and across adaptation pathways in order to prevent further increases in salinity intrusion and lock-in effects in agricultural systems within the deltas.

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This policy brief highlights the key findings of the migration component of the research. It presents data and findings on migration patterns, drivers and impacts. It ends with a discussion of the results, with a focus on the tension between being prepared to move and fortifying to stay in place.

The resilience concept has provided a new insight and approach to the conventional perspective of agricultural management by emphasizing the need to maintain a diversity of future options to adapt to inevitable and often unpredictable changes. The concept has been taken up by various academic disciplines and development sectors, yet ways to define and operationalize resilience as a measurable concept are still being developed. We contributed to this ongoing effort by implementing a subjective resilience assessment method based on farmers’ perceptions of three resilience components: (1) the sensitivity of their agricultural systems to increased salinity intrusion, (2) the capacity to recover from salinity damage, and (3) the capacity to change to other systems if salinity increases in the future. We conducted 27 in-depth interviews with local and national authorities, 11 focus group discussions, and 118 semistructured and 219 structured interviews with farmers in case study villages located along salinity transects in the Mekong Delta and at different distances to sea dikes in the Red River Delta in Vietnam in 2015-2016. Results from the subjective resilience assessment reveal that none of the agricultural systems studied systematically scored higher than the other systems on all three resilience components, implying that an increase in one resilience component by switching agricultural systems would negatively affect others. Agricultural responses to this salinity problem will influence current and long-term adaptability of the systems to future changes in salinity intrusion and other social-ecological developments in the deltas. Improving resilience components, e.g., through policies and interventions, resource allocation, and farming system changes, to sustain agricultural production or facilitate transformation to alternative systems when necessary is critically important for agricultural systems facing stress. Complementing subjective resilience assessments with qualitative data is thus crucial for understanding the drivers of resilience to improve components of resilience for agricultural systems in the respective deltas.

This contribution presents an assessment of the potential vulnerabilities to climate variability and change (CV & C) of the critical transportation infrastructure of Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It focuses on potential operational disruptions and coastal inundation forced by CV & C on four coastal international airports and four seaports in Jamaica and Saint Lucia which are critical facilitators of international connectivity and socioeconomic development. Impact assessments have been carried out under climatic conditions forced by a 1.5 °C specific warming level (SWL) above pre-industrial levels, as well as for different emission scenarios and time periods in the twenty-first century. Disruptions and increasing costs due to, e.g., more frequent exceedance of high temperature thresholds that could impede transport operations are predicted, even under the 1.5 °C SWL, advocated by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and reflected as an aspirational goal in the Paris Climate Agreement. Dynamic modeling of the coastal inundation under different return periods of projected extreme sea levels (ESLs) indicates that the examined airports and seaports will face increasing coastal inundation during the century. Inundation is projected for the airport runways of some of the examined international airports and most of the seaports, even from the 100-year extreme sea level under 1.5 °C SWL. In the absence of effective technical adaptation measures, both operational disruptions and coastal inundation are projected to increasingly affect all examined assets over the course of the century. Access here

This project aims at strengthening the capacity of policymakers, transport planners and transport infrastructure managers in small island developing States to take appropriate adaptation response measures to climate change impacts on seaports and airports. Access here

Two Caribbean SIDS with different environmental and socio-economic characteristics were selected as case studies: Jamaica and Saint Lucia. Detailed assessments of the vulnerability of the islands’ transportation assets were carried out to: (a) improve knowledge and understanding at the national level, and (b) test new approaches in order to develop an appropriate methodology for assessing climate- related impacts on coastal transportation in other SIDS. The present report presents the assessment of the criticality of Saint Lucia’s major transportation assets (airports and seaports) and their potential vulnerabilities to Climate Variability and Change (CV & C).

Because of this heightened vulnerability [as further detailed in Chapters 1 and 2 of this report], development of climate change adaptation strategies and policies are of paramount importance to Jamaica at this time in its planning framework. No longer can Jamaica, or any of the other Caribbean SIDS, afford to ignore the looming impacts of climate change on their respective nations.

An examination of the cost of the impacts of climate change on Jamaica was examined in Chapter 2 of the report. The analysis revealed that the current cumulative loss of GDP due to damage associated with natural disasters was estimated to be in the order of $120 billion (roughly 7% of GDP). This is a significant number, which is even more grave given the already slow growth and fragility of Jamaica’s economy. When this is coupled with potential climate change-induced impacts, such as an increase in the number of extreme hurricanes, the figure is even more worrisome as it is likely to rise. Estimates indicate that it could reach as high as 56 per cent of GDP by 2025 if climate predictions are accurate.

The framework provides a structured way for organizations in SIDS to approach climate change adaptation. Climate change adaptation can be daunting, particularly when gaps in data create uncertainties around what conditions may arise and what the costs of impacts and the costs and effectiveness of responses may be over time. This framework is intended to help SIDS overcome these challenges by providing a practical approach that uses available data to inform decision-making at a facility, local, and national level. The primary audience is port and airport managers in Caribbean SIDS, though it will also be relevant to local and national government agencies.

The present report relates the key findings of the survey, together with some additional information about climate trends and climate-related impacts on seaports and some concluding remarks. The respondent port sample collectively handles more than 16 % of global seaborne trade and can be considered as representative. Although the majority of respondents had been impacted by weather/climate-related events, including by extremes, the study revealed important gaps in terms of relevant information available to seaports of all sizes and across regions, with implications for effective climate risk assessment and adaptation planning.

The Climate Research for Development in Africa initiative (CR4D) maximizes opportunities presented by climate change and variability while addressing challenges posed to Africa’s socio-economic development efforts.

The strategic plan is aimed at improving knowledge, access, quality, usability and the mainstreaming of climate information into development planning and programmes to attain Africa’s development objectives, as framed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want

The framework shows that the socio-economic benefits generated from higher-quality climate information services far outweigh the costs of investing in such services. In addition, the cost of investing in climate information services is minimal compared with the significant costs incurred if countries fail to invest sufficiently in them.

To address a specific gap, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has been using conventional approaches, policy and investment assessments along with forecasting tools. The analyses conducted are often comparatively static (mostly employing linear approaches) and narrowly focused on a sector or a specific set of thematic indicators. Instead, a systemic, nexus approach is needed that takes into account social, economic and environmental indicators within a sector, and link them across sectors to generate dynamic projections that make it possible to estimate policy outcomes for all economic actors