Secretariat Director and Head of Development & Institutional Affairs, Mr Ryuji Tomisaka, and Dr Linda Anne Stevenson, Head of Knowledge Management & Scientific Affairs and Deputy Head of Development and Institutional Affairs, attended the first week of UNFCCC COP27 and had the opportunity to chair, moderate and present at two side events.
The first event was led by the CAPaBLE project referenced CBA2021-07-Magotra. The project leader, Mr Rohit Magotra, from the Integrated Research & Action for Development (IRADe) hosted a side event on Addressing Heat Equity through Vulnerable Community Focused Heat Adaptation Plans. The event, chaired by Dr Stevenson, focussed on the impacts of heat stress on vulnerable communities and heat adaptation needs and solutions to address heat equity.
The second event, organized by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), and co-organized by APN, was on the Formulation and Implementation of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in the Asia Pacific – Establishing a System to Promote Adaptation Towards the Achievement of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). The hybrid seminar, attended by 85 people, was part of the Japan Pavilion program of events. A report of the event can be found here.
APN also met with members and organisations and attended a wide array of events, where many opportunities were presented to disseminate information on APN’s annual call for proposals and an upcoming special publication on APN projects on Loss & Damage. Resources on the outcomes of COP27 can be found in the IISD Summary Report, and CarbonBrief Key Outcomes.
Other Selected Events
Key messages from frontline champions to COP27 from different geographies in South Asia.
The event took place at the Resilience Hub on 7 November. The Resilience hub was set up following COP26 in Glasgow and the the South Asia regional component was arranged online from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prof. Saleemul Huq of ICCCAD stressed that the South Asia resilience hub has created “constituencies” to hear from local champions, mountain communities, mangrove communities and the youth community.
Current status and future perspectives on greenhouse gas emission mitigation and impacts
The event took place at the Japan pavilion on 8 December and discussed emerging science on the controls of greenhouse gases emissions and sinks, and future challenges to achieve the climate mitigation goals, including future climate feedbacks using Earth System Models and multiple types of observations. APN had the opportunity to meet with former project leaders Dr Prabir K. Patra and Dr Josep Canadell (online) working on the Global Carbon Project, and Prof Shobhakar Dhakal of AIT. Details of the event can be found here.
National Capacity in the LDC countries for accelerated climate action
The event took place at the Capacity Building Hub on 9 December and was co-organised by ICCCAD and GGGI. Key messages from the event noted that LDC universities need to engage in climate education; LDC countries should focus on in-house capacity building to ensure sustainability. Further, increased awareness on climate finance is needed through multi-stakeholder dialogues and government need to support and include universities in their adaptation and mitigation activities. More information on the event can be found here.
Climate information for decision making
This event took place at the IPCC-WMO Pavilion on 9 November and was facilitated by WCRP’s Michael Sparrow. The session explored priorities and requirements for improving the quality and t usefulness of regional to local scale climate information for decision-making, adaptation planning, mitigation monitoring, reporting and verification. The event can be viewed on YouTube.
Strengthening climate resilience in the Pacific through capacity building and training
This event took place at the SPREP-hosted Moana Pacific Pavilion on 10 December and was chaired by Pacific Climate Change Center’s Ofa Kaisamy. The event showcased the e-Learning training perspectives on climate resilience viewed from the governments who received the training. Hosted by SPREP in Samoa, PCCC aims to deliver capacity development programs in adaptation, mitigation, climate science and services, and climate finance, promote and foster applied research, drive innovation in these areas and improve the flow of climate change information. A recording of the event can be viewed here and a report of the event can be viewed here.
Networking:
Ofa Kaisamy and Masako Ogawa, PCCC; Saleemul Huq, ICCCAD; Sanjay Vashist, CANSA; Harjeet Singh, Climate Action Network; Shobhakar Dhakal, AIT; Prabir K. Patra, JAMSTEC; Michael Sparrow, WCRP; Suneetha Subramanian and Akio Takemoto, UNU-IAS; Keiko Yoshikawa, CCCA/NIES; Yasuo Takahashi, IGES; Hiroshi Ono, Gen’ichiro Tsukada, MOEJ, Japan; Krishan Pratap, Ministry of Economy, Fiji; Kunzang, NEC, Bhutan; Ajay Raghav, MOEFCC, India;
