JUNE 12, 2017
PRESS RELEASE
Available at: http://climate.gov.ph/15-press-release/227-ph-unfccc-hold-climate-adaptation-training-in-manila
Asian countries convene in Metro Manila for a four-day training workshop aimed to enhance their national capacity to address climate vulnerabilities and risks through the formulation of the National Adaptation Plans (NAP)s, as the main vehicle for adaptation including for accessing climate finance.
Sixty foreign delegates from developing countries from the region will join the Regional Training Workshop on NAPs for Asian Region held in Pasig City from June 13-16, 2017 that will advance the formulation and implementation of NAPs.
NAPs were first introduced during the 2010 climate talks in Cancun, Mexico as a “means of identifying medium- and long-term adaptation needs and developing and implementing strategies and programmes to address those needs,” by employing a country-driven, gender-sensitive, participatory, and progressive process.
The event is organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Least Developed Countries Experts Group (LEG) and the NAP technical working group and hosted by the Government of the Philippines led by the Climate Change Commission. The LEG has been providing technical guidance and support on adaptation to the least developed countries since 2001, and is the group entrusted by the UNFCCC to develop technical guidelines for the formulation and implementation of NAPs. The NAP technical working group includes experts from various UN and non-governmental organizations working with the LEG to provide comprehensive support on NAPs.
Participants will be trained on how to formulate their country’s National Adaptation Plan through the identification and application of relevant approaches, methods and tools for risk, vulnerability, and adaptation assessments, putting emphasis on how NAPs can serve as a vehicle for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as targets under other international frameworks such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction.
“With the multitude of issues that countries are facing today, it is imperative that we employ holistic approaches that will allow us to achieve effective and lasting solutions. Climate change affects many of the SDGs directly, making the NAP a powerful tool for achieving climate-resilient development,” says Sonam Khandu of Bhutan, Vice Chair of the LDC Expert Group.
The week-long activity will also serve as a platform for developing countries to enhance their capacity to access the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for their NAP. Delegates will be equipped to design a country-specific work plan, customized to their national situation, to guide the preparation of proposals to the GCF for the formulation of their NAP.
“The Paris Agreement has affirmed the critical importance of adaptation and has established clear financial support for the formulation and implementation of NAPs through the Green Climate Fund, as well as other relevant sources. Implementation of the NAPs will directly support the achievement of national ambitions set out in Nationally Determined Contributions”, says Dr. Paul Desanker of the UNFCCC, leading the UN team supporting the LEG and the international workshop.
Secretary Vernice Victorio of the CCC said in a statement that such capacity building activities will be helpful to developing countries to further prepare against the adverse effects of a changing climate.
“Vulnerable developing nations such as the Philippines can enhance its resiliency through the provision of capacity-building and knowledge-enhancing initiatives similar to this event”, she said.
“Immediate and easier access to international funding sources lessen the burden from national coffers to finance local adaptive measure of vulnerable countries,” Victorio added.
She noted that though the country already had its National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) signed in 2011, the Philippines is currently in the process of updating its NCCAP. The country will follow the UNFCCC NAP technical guidelines as it updates the NCCAP.
Victorio also said the country’s NAP will be integrated with the Philippines’ Nationally Determined Contributions, a document stating the voluntary climate actions that will be committed by a Party to the Paris Agreement to curb the increase of global temperature to “well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
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For inquiries:
Asec. Romell Antonio O. Cuenca
925-8954
More information about NAPs available at: http://unfccc.int/nap
More information about the workshop is available at: http://napexpo.org/workshops/asia
