SEI experts contribute to Blair report on climate change

Climate change specialist and lead author Richard J.T. Klein along with contributors Frank Ackerman, Thomas E. Downing, Sivan Kartha, Bo Kjell�n, �sa Persson, Lisa Schipper and Paul Watkiss provided the analysis on adaptationto climate change and recommended that funding for adaptation should be increased from hundreds of millions US dollars to tens of billions US dollars per year.

The contribution from SEI to the Blair report, Breaking the Climate Deadlock, represents the most up-to-date information about the level of adaptation required and argues that funding and support for adaptation in developing countries is a precondition to a global climate deal.

Adaptation has become key to the success of global climate policy. Without an agreement on supporting adaptation in developing countries, there will be no agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the 2009 UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, said lead author Richard J.T. Klein.

Developed countries should generate new and additional money for adaptation programmes in developing countries. This includes levies on carbon market transactions and auctioning emission permits.

Report conclusions

• Regardless of the efforts put into mitigation, some impacts of climate change are already unavoidable.
• Adaptation to climate change has therefore become a key component of domestic climate policy, along with mitigation. - Strong mitigation efforts make it more likely that adaptation will be effective and affordable. The world cannot rely on adaptation alone: it would eventually lead to a level of climate change to which adaptation is no longer feasible.
• Government action is needed to create an enabling environment for adaptation. This includes removing existing financial, legal, institutional and knowledge barriers to adaptation, and strengthening the capacity of people and organisations to adapt.
• The success of adaptation relies on the success of development, and vice versa. Poverty reduction, good governance, education, environmental protection, health and gender equality all contribute to adaptive capacity.
• Substantially more money is needed to support adaptation in developing countries. Current levels of funding, from developed countries, private sources and within developing countries, will soon have to be scaled up by two orders of magnitude (from hundreds of millions to tens of billions US dollars per year).