Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience (Climate CARe)

Climate resilience can be generally defined as the capacity for a socio-ecological system to:
(1) absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change, and
(2) adapt, reorganize, and evolve into more desirable configurations that improve the sustainability of the system, leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tackling the duality of threats, i.e. poverty and inequality, as well as, climate change and disasters is essential. By building resilience and ensuring that all development is risk-informed, communities can protect against losses and simultaneously boost economic growth, create livelihoods, strengthen access to health and education, and ensure that no one is left behind.

UNDP’s support to countries on climate change and disaster resilience is shaped by three important global agreements: the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Climate change clearly has two vital aspects – one is mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for low carbon growth and the other is adaptation to impacts of climate change on eco-systems and its services, assets and critical infrastructures and human beings.

UNDP works with countries to help them reduce greenhouse gases and advance a long-term goal of zero-carbon development. At the same time, we work together with partners to adapt to the impacts of climate change, enhance access to clean energy, reduce the risk of disasters and, where needed, support resilient disaster recovery. Taken all together, these efforts are the path towards sustainable development that is risk-informed, zero-carbon and resilient.

EduCARE India works with and support various projects of UNDP in partnership with local government / inter-governmental agencies.

The current projects focuses on Community-Based Adaptation and Resilience to climate change for the following reasons:

i) Generating adaptation strategies with communities and other local stakeholders improves the uptake and sustainability of the process because communities develop a strong sense of ownership and their priorities are met.
ii) Enhancing communities’ awareness and understanding of climate change and uncertainty enables them to create responsive plans and make more flexible and context-appropriate decisions. (e.g. disseminating information on climate-smart agriculture practices and outcomes is an important part of the capacity building process.)
iii) Embedding new knowledge and understanding into existing community structures expands and strengthens those structures as well as institutional mechanisms.

For effective community-based adaptation to occur. These enabling factors are achieved through the use of four interrelated strategies:

i) Promotion of climate-resilient livelihoods strategies
ii) Disaster risk reduction strategies to reduce the impact of hazards on vulnerable households
iii) Capacity development for local civil society and government institutions
iv) Advocacy and social mobilisation to address the underlying causes of vulnerability