Impacts of increasing climate variability and the scientific evidence of accelerating climate change require increased and urgent measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
The recently launched project, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, looks at opportunities to improve adaptation and mitigation synergies in climate change financing.
“Taking into account the already experienced impacts of increasing climate variability and the scientific evidence and signs of accelerating climate change, there is an urgent need to ensure that mitigation and adaptation are addressed in a balanced and effective manner. Hence, it is important to assess whether identifying and systematically harnessing synergies between adaptation and mitigation may have potential to make climate policy more comprehensive and efficient compared with considering the two strategies as separate and parallel options”, says Julia Illman, Senior Consultant and Project Manager from Gaia.
The Nordic countries have been at the forefront of pushing mitigation on the global climate change agenda. During the past years, Nordic countries have also been developing and promoting approaches and tools for climate proofing of development cooperation. “The aim is to strengthen the adaptive capacity of developing countries that are often the most vulnerable to climate change and variability”, says Pasi Rinne, Gaia’s Chairman of the Board.
The scoping study, prepared under the responsibility of the Nordic Working Group for Global Climate Negotiations (NOAK), reviews existing definitions and identifies various types of synergies that have been recognized to date. It identifies existing funding streams for synergetic adaptation and mitigation and explores opportunities to improve financing of activities that provide demonstrable synergies or avoided trade-offs between climate adaptation and mitigation. The results of the study will include recommendations that intend to serve further decision-making on whether it is useful to initiate e.g. a more detailed Nordic feasibility study or a pilot project in this area.
The scoping study is conducted by Gaia together with Mr. Saleemul Huq (among others, Director at International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Bangladesh, Senior Fellow at International Institute for Environment and Development as well as Lead Author and coordinating Lead Author for IPCC reports) and Mr. Svein Tveitdal (among others, Director of Klima2020, www.climate2020.no, and climate ambassador to the city of Arendal, Norway). The study will be completed in December 2012. Gaia Consulting Oy is a sustainability consultancy that operates globally from Finland, Switzerland, China, Ethiopia, Argentina and works with corporations, governments, international organisations and NGOs to provide innovative solutions to sustainability.
For further information:
- Gaia / Julia Illman, Senior Consultant, gsm +358 44 533 5723, firstname.surname@gaia.fi
- Nordic Council of Ministers / NOAK / Outi Leskelä, Planning Officer, gsm +358 40 154 9701, firstname.surname@ymparisto.fi
