In the lead up to Paris, firm commitments were made by both State and non-state actors to work together to build climate resilience. These commitments were reflected in the Paris Agreement, which for the first time, set global ambitions to strengthen climate resilience and reduce vulnerability. At COP23, under the framework of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action, leaders will again come together to reaffirm their commitments, raise the ambition for implementing the Paris Agreement, and demonstrate how climate resilience can only be achieved by working together with all stakeholders.

Climate resilience is a cross-cutting issue for the Global Climate Action Days of COP23 culminating in three-high level events designed to identify concrete actions needed to build resilience:

• Unblocking investment in climate resilience. (13:15 to 14:45, 13 Nov, Room 3, Bonn Zone)
• Why climate resilience matters for people in SIDS and other vulnerable countries (11:30 to 13:00, 14 Nov, Room 6, Bonn Zone)
• Working with nature to build climate resilient and sustainable development. (15:00 to 16:30 on Tuesday 14 November, Room 2, Bonn Zone)

This note provides a background on resilience and has been prepared by partners of the UN Climate Resilience Initiative (A2R) who are organizing the GCA high level resilience events.

Why climate resilience?

People around the world are already affected by extreme weather events and long-term changes in climate. As the impacts increase, the economies of all societies will be affected, but the hardest hit will be the poorest and most vulnerable communities. To implement the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and to achieve the overarching Sustainable Development Goals, climate risks must be addressed. Strategies to manage the unavoidable and to avoid the unmanageable need to be implemented urgently and at scale. A shared understanding of climate resilience is essential to formulate and implement converging actions and this is why resilience is a cross-cutting thematic focus of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action (MPGCA) in COP23 and beyond.

What is climate resilience?

In the context of climate change, resilience involves the capacity to anticipate climate risks and hazards, to absorb the impact of shocks and stresses and to reshape development pathways in the longer term. Climate resilience can be achieved by building these three essential capacities through measures such as: the adoption of comprehensive early warning early action systems; the use of insurance and other social protection mechanisms; and longer term risk informed policies, planning and investment including for both grey and green infrastructure. Reshaping for climate resilience encompasses transformation and a recognition that people are not just part of the climate, but that they have the ability to change the future climate in caring for the earth and its life support systems.

How can we achieve climate resilience?

Successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development over the course of next 15 years will be defined by how well countries can integrate climate, humanitarian and development policies and practices. Yet effective integration that makes a difference on the ground and that builds the resilience of the most vulnerable communities cannot be achieved by states alone. The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action is a key vehicle for facilitating State and non-state actors to achieve progress on climate resilience together. 

Collaborative action is already gaining momentum through new partnerships that bring together UN and international organisations, governments, civil society, academia and the private sector in ways we would have never imagined a decade ago. Facilitating the work of these groups, such as the UN Climate Resilience Initiative (A2R), is crucial to meeting the resilience-related ambitions of the Paris Agreement.

What is needed to build climate resilience?

To address the needs of the most at-risk populations, cross-sectoral action by public and private stakeholders is urgently required in five areas:

• Awareness raising from global to local levels of the importance of building climate for the implementation of the Paris Agreement around 3 essential capacities of Anticipating, Absorbing and Reshaping convergent actions.
• Promotion of climate resilience information, knowledge, good practices as well as available technologies and innovation and mechanisms to facilitate and scale-up actions to build climate resilience.
• Mobilization of targeted resources and investment for vulnerable countries and especially the most vulnerable within those countries to develop their capacities for climate resilience.
• Putting local contexts and the perceptions of climate risk of the most vulnerable people at the centre of global and national decisions, policies, plans and interventions related to resilience.
• Analysis of progress towards building the three capacities (Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape) for climate resilience in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals - especially SDG 13.1 target on resilience.

For more information please contact [email protected].