Volume 1
Global climate change and sustainable development : third report of Session 2001-02 / International Development Committee.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. International Development Committee
- Date:
- 2002
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Global climate change and sustainable development : third report of Session 2001-02 / International Development Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
61/92 page 59
![Donor action and coordination 105. In general, donors do not recognise climate change as a development problem and overall there has been little funding of work on adaptation.”” Effort among donor agencies and specialist bodies established to deal with climate change and climate protection is often duplicated. In addition, many organisations are now being asked to work on areas that are beyond their core competencies.” It has not been possible to quantify the aid flows that directly support the UNFCCC or that relate directly to climate change.”* However, interest in donor activity is growing; the German technical cooperation agency, GTZ, recently commissioned a paper on adaptation to climate change.”° DFID could influence the - focus on adaptation and work to develop a greater understanding of the importance of adaptation among donors.” 106. Adaptation to climate change must be considered by donors in cases where a development project or programme has long-term goals expected to last for decades.” Examples might include infrastructure projects, or projects, such as forestation, that cause slow changes in patterns of land-use. Climate change could affect the sustainability or even success of donors’ projects and programmes in several ways: * there may be a risk to a project and its deliverables from climate change impacts; ¢ the intended beneficiaries may be vulnerable to climate change impacts or to the effects of mitigation policies; or, e the project could increase a community’s or an ecosystem’s vulnerability to climatic hazards.”*8 107. Donors need to establish evaluation criteria and performance indicators relevant to climate change. They should also consider developing a general criterion for development investment that focuses on long-term sustainability, in addition to existing criteria for poverty focus, gender balance and environmental protection.”” Some form of climate impact assessment is needed, just as environmental impact assessments have become the norm for large infrastructure projects.’ At the very least, risk and vulnerability assessments should be conducted alongside environmental impact assessments.*’' The Tyndall Centre recommended assessing the impact of climate change on existing and planned projects.*°? They also recommended identifying vulnerability hot-spots, so that capacity building and adaptation programmes can be properly targeted. DFID told us that it was currently reviewing its environmental screening procedures and would consider how climate impacts should be incorporated into the process.*°? We recommend that DFID encourage other donors, bilateral and multilateral, to develop evaluation criteria and performance indicators for climate change. Donors, including DFID, should begin carrying out climate impact assessments that review both the potential impact of climate change on a project and the impact of any project on climate. DFID could 292 Q97 ‘ Financing Climate Change: Providing Public Goods, preventing public bads, Dr Peter Newell, Institute of Development Studies (IDS). An abridged version of this paper appears in Financing and Providing Global Public Goods: Expectations and Prospects, prepared for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden by IDS. Ibid. 5K Jein, R, 2001: Adaptation to Climate Change in German Development Assistance—An inventory of activities and opportunities, with a special focus on Africa, Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Zusammenarbeit, Eschborn, Germany. ol 28 hid. 29 hid. 300 301K ein, R, 2001: Adaptation to Climate Change in German Official Development Assistance—An inventory of activities and opportunities, with a special focus on Africa, Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Zusammenarbeit, Eschbom, Germany. 3025-y 68 [para 3i] 3°3Ry 124 [para 24]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32221356_0001_0061.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
