What can we learn from 10 top climate reports published in 2019?
How has the last year advanced our understanding of the current state of climate change – and the challenges and opportunities for adaptation? Here is our selection of 10 reports published during 2019 that should be on your reading list.
1. Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience
Adaptation is both a “moral responsibility” and an “economic imperative”, Ban Ki-moon, Kristalina Georgieva and Bill Gates emphasise in their Foreword to this report by the Global Commission on Adaptation – but “so far the response has been gravely insufficient”.
The report sets out research finding that investing USD 1.8 trillion between 2020 and 2030 could generate USD 7.1 trillion in net benefits. The needed investments are in five areas: strengthening early warning systems, making new infrastructure resilient, improving dryland agriculture crop production, protecting mangroves, and water resources management.
These investments, says the report, can bring a “triple dividend” of avoided losses, economic benefits, and social and environmental benefits. To achieve this, three revolutions are needed – in understanding the risks, planning policy and investment decisions, and finance to mobilize the necessary funds.
2.IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land
The second of three in a series of special reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, following up on 2018’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, this comprehensive report looks in detail at challenges with land – including desertification, soil erosion, wildfires and unstable crop yields – and how sustainable land management can help with adaptation.
The report explores various options which often have societal as well as environmental benefits. These include “sustainable food production, improved and sustainable forest management, soil organic carbon management, ecosystem conservation and land restoration, reduced deforestation and degradation, and reduced food loss and waste”.
3.IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate
The third in the series of three special reports from the IPCC, this in-depth report covers the impacts of climate change on the 71% of the Earth’s surface covered by oceans, and the 10% of land area covered by glaciers or ice sheets. Rising sea levels, extreme weather events affecting coastal communities, and disruption to ecosystems are among the main threats.
The report warns that “the impacts of climate-related changes in the ocean and cryosphere increasingly challenge current governance efforts to develop and implement adaptation responses from local to global scales, and in some cases pushing them to their limits. People with the highest exposure and vulnerability are often those with lowest capacity to respond”.
4.Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2019
The third annual update of the Marrakech Partnership, which aims to increase the pace and ambition of climate action, this yearbook assesses the impact of regional “Climate Weeks” in 2019 and the current state of action in seven areas: land use, oceans and coastal zones, water, human settlements, transport, energy and industry, and finance.
5.Wellspring: Source Water Resilience and Climate Adaptation
Published by The Nature Conservancy, this report explores options to adapt to the threats posed by climate change to source water – that is, the freshwater ecosystem on which communities rely for drinking, irrigation, and industrial and domestic use, encompassing rivers, lakes and aquifers.
The report shows how climate change is reshaping when, where and how much freshwater is available. It identifies essential steps for greater resilience in managing source water, including planning timescales that stretch over decades, and explicitly including climate-related uncertainties in decision-making processes.
Water is one thread common to most reports
6.The Cost of Doing Nothing
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimates that the number of people needing humanitarian assistance because of climate change may almost double by 2050 – but effective action on adaptation now could lead to a 90% reduction in that number instead.
The report recommends action in three areas: reducing vulnerability by improving buildings and infrastructure; improving early warning systems in vulnerable communities and financing for humanitarian response; and rebuilding from emergencies with the next emergency in mind.
7.Creating a Sustainable Food Future
Based on a multi-year collaboration among organisations including the World Resources Institute, the World Bank and United Nations agencies, this report introduces a 22-item “menu” of actions to meet rising food demand in the face of climate change in the coming decades. These include more efficient resource use, shifting towards plant-based diets, and spurring technological innovation through more funding and flexible regulations.
Agriculture needs to adapt to changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, and rising sea levels. The report explores strategies to improve water and land management, breed crops with traits that can cope with likely changes in conditions, and make it easier for farmers to choose alternative crops.
8.Social protection and climate change
How can social protection programmes help people to adapt to climate change? Focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean but with relevance for other regions, this World Food Programme report explores options such as cash transfers, public works programmes and support for households to diversify their sources of income – alongside measures such as climate risk insurance and behavioural change communications to address relevant social norms.
9.Climate Resilience Principles: A framework for assessing climate resilience investments
So far discussion of investment vehicles such as green bonds has focused on mitigation. This report introduces a framework of principles to assess their use in adaptation, defined as “investments that improve the ability of assets and systems to persist, adapt and/or transform in the face of climate-related stresses and shocks in a timely, efficient and fair manner that reduces risk, avoids maladaptation, unlocks development and creates benefits”.
10.Various approaches to long-term adaptation planning
In this brief report, the Adaptation Committee explores how to integrate a multi-decade perspective into adaptation planning. It considers different approaches – such as ecosystem-based, community-based or risk-based – and the question of incremental versus transformative change.
The ideas presented in this article aim to inspire adaptation action – they are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Center on Adaptation.
