Managing climate risks: Adaptation Without Borders

This event, organised by ODI, SEI and IDDRI, formally launched the Adaptation Without Borders Initiative.
Bags of grain arriving on the Creekside
Photo: Stephan Geyer , via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Speakers

Welcome remarks James Cameron @Jamesogradycam – Chair, ODI

Chair James Corré – Programme Director, Wilton Park

Panel Emma Howard-Boyd @EmmaHowardBoyd – Chair, Environment Agency and UK Commissioner, Global Commission on Adaptation

Rebecca Nadin – Head of Risk and Resilience, ODI

Ayman Cherkaoui @AymanCherkaoui – Coordinator, Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection and Climate Change Lead Counsel, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law

Further panellists to be announced.

Closing reflections

Måns Nilsson @mansanilsson – Executive Director, Stockholm Environment Institute

Description

We live in a globalised world. Just as people, goods and services cross borders, so do the impacts of climate change and our subsequent adaptation responses. A localised drought, occurring more frequently and intensely as a result of climate change, disrupts a global supply chain, which in turn affects consumers many thousands of miles away. An adaptation response, to increase irrigation by tapping a transboundary river, affects a shared ecosystem and shifts sensitive political dynamics across a region. The stakes are high, yet our current adaptation plans often fail to recognise or account for such transboundary risks or our global interdependence.

Ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, ODI and Wilton Park convene a high-level discussion to present new research on transboundary climate risk. Together with our partners, SEI and IDDRI, we are also launching a new initiative–Adaptation without borders–to harness the international cooperation needed to effectively govern and manage such risks.

We explore how we can raise visibility of transboundary climate risks, gather evidence and analysis, build connections between stakeholders and drive action from both policy-makers and practitioners, to ultimately reposition adaptation as a global public good.

We cannot afford to wait. The last four years were the hottest on record. Winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3°C since 1990. As governments grapple with the adaptation actions required today and tomorrow, we must complement local action with enhanced multilateral cooperation–’adaptation without borders’ is a global imperative.

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