The “2020 Adaptation Gap Report” released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the 14th stated that as temperatures rise and the impact of climate change intensifies, countries must take urgent action to adapt to the new climate reality, otherwise they will pay a great price and bear serious loss and destruction. The report pointed out that although the covid-19 pandemic is expected to affect the ability of countries to adapt to climate change, investing in climate adaptation is a reasonable economic decision.
Climate adaptation is one of the key pillars of the Paris Agreement on climate change. It aims to reduce the vulnerability of countries and communities to climate change by improving their ability to withstand climate shocks and impacts. The Paris Agreement requires all signatories to implement adaptation measures through national plans, climate information systems, early warning, protection measures, and investment in a green future.
On January 12, 2021, Wadi al-Murr, a village in the southwest of Muscat, Oman, is about to disappear in the desert. Experts say that climate change is one of the factors driving this phenomenon in different parts of the world.
The “2020 Adaptation Gap Report” of the UNEP found that although countries have made some progress in climate adaptation planning, there are still huge gaps, especially in the financing of developing countries, and whether the adaptation projects have been promoted effectively so that they can play a protective role in dealing with climate impacts such as drought, flood and sea level rise.
The report calls for urgently increasing public and private financing for adaptation, while accelerating the implementation of adaptation projects. Nature-based solutions, namely to carry out local actions tailored to local conditions to address social challenges such as climate change, and to improve human well-being and bring biodiversity benefits through protection, sustainable management and restoration of natural/improved ecosystems, also must become a priority.
“Climate change is all around us. This is an indisputable fact.” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UNEP, said on the same day that even if we fulfill the goal of the Paris Agreement, that is, keeping the global temperature increase below 2°C and striving to achieve the 1.5°C temperature control target, the impact of climate change will continue to intensify, hitting the most vulnerable countries and communities the hardest. ” As the Secretary-General of the UN said, we urgently need to reach a global commitment to ensure that in the next year, half of the total global climate financing is used for climate adaptation. This requires us to greatly advance all aspects of climate adaptation, from early warning systems to water resilience, and then to nature-based solutions, etc.”