Sharm El-Sheikh (EGYPT), Nov 9: In response to the devastating impacts of climate change affecting vulnerable people all over the world, the COP27 Presidency launched the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda in partnership with the High-Level Champions and the Marrakech Partnership.
The Agenda outlines 30 Adaptation Outcomes to enhance resilience for 4 billion people living in the most climate vulnerable communities by 2030.
Each outcome presents global solutions that can be adopted at a local level to respond to local climate contexts, needs and risks and deliver the systems transformation required to protect vulnerable communities to the rising climate hazards, such as extreme heat, drought, flooding, or extreme weather.
It comes as research warns that nearly half the world’s population will be at severe risk of climate change impacts by 2030, even in a 1.5-degree world, according to analysis published by IPCC AR6 WG II Report and the UN Climate Change High-Level Climate Champions.
Collectively, these outcomes represent the first comprehensive global plan to rally both state and non-state actors behind a shared set of adaptation actions that are required by the end of this decade across five impact systems: food and agriculture, water and nature, coastal and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure, and including enabling solutions for planning and finance.
The 30 Adaptation Outcomes include urgent global 2030 targets related to: Transitioning to climate resilient, sustainable agriculture that can increase yields by 17 per cent and reduce farm level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 21 per cent, without expanding agricultural frontiers, and whileA improving livelihoods including of smallholder farmers.
Protecting and restoring an estimated 400 million hectares in critical areas (land and freshwater ecosystems) supporting indigenous and local communities with use of nature-based solutions to improve water security and livelihoods and to transform 2 billion hectares of land into sustainable management.
Protecting 3 billion people by installing smart and early warning systems and investing $4 billion to secure the future of 15 million hectares of mangroves through collective action to halt loss, restore, double protection and ensure sustainable finance for all existing mangroves.
In a sign of recognition of this major milestone for the global adaptation process, the Adaptation Agenda is being driven by the COP27 Presidency, the High-Level Champions and Marrakech Partnership and underpinned by the 2,000 plus organisations spanning 131 countries in the Race to Resilience campaign.
At the launch on Tuesday, COP27 President and Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry and High-Level Champions Mahmoud Mohieldin and Nigel Topping, called on all state and non-state actors to get behind this critical agenda.
Shoukry said: “It is our aspiration that the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda represents a significant contribution to enhancing global action on adaptation and resilience as an utmost priority.
“The COP 27 Presidency is keen to develop a governance arrangement to secure continuity in scope, priorities and reporting. It will lead the work building on: a) the adaptation focused initiatives launched by COP27 Presidency at COP27 that shall accelerate action across system interventions and b) the adaptation and resilience outcome targets identified by the High-Level Champions.
“The Marrakech Partnership, the High-Level Champions and a number of specialised UN agencies will work together, as partners, to accelerate an agenda of global adaptation action through following up on the implementation of Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda.
“The COP 27 Presidency will receive — before COP 28 — from the High-Level Champions, the Marrakech Partnership and a number of specialised UN agencies a report on the progress achieved in implementing the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda. Overall progress on implementation will be reported back to COP 28.”
The agenda emphasises the urgency for counting with evidence-based, actionable adaptation plans for all actors, making climate risks visible and accessible, and to deploy the locally-led adaptation principles.