COP27 Presidency announces climate change adaptation agenda

Visitors enter the Green Zone of the U.N. COP27 Climate Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. [AP]

The COP27 Presidency on Tuesday, November 9, announced 30 climate change outcomes that are expected to address the adaptation gap and achieve a resilient world by 2030.

Christened the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, the shared set of adaptation actions should be implemented by the end of this decade across five impact systems, namely: food and agriculture, water and nature, coastal and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure, including enabling solutions for planning and finance.

"The Marrakech Partnership, the High-Level Champions and a number of specialized UN agencies will work together- as partners- to accelerate an agenda of global adaptation action through following up on the implementation of Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda," said Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President and Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The 30 Adaptation outcomes include urgent global 2030 targets related to:

1. Transitioning to climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture can increase yields by 17 per cent and reduce farm-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 21 per cent without expanding agricultural frontiers, and while improving livelihoods including those of smallholder farmers;
2. Protecting and restoring an estimated 400 million hectares in critical areas (land and freshwater ecosystems) supporting indigenous and local communities with use of nature-based solutions to improve water security and livelihoods and to transform 2 billion hectares of land into sustainable management;
3. Protecting three billion people by installing smart and early warning systems;
4. Investing USD four billion to secure the future of 15 million hectares of mangroves through collective action to halt loss, restore, double protection and ensure sustainable finance for all existing mangroves;
5. Expanding access to clean cooking for 2.4 billion people through at least USD 10 billion/year in innovative finance;
6. Mobilising USD140 to USD300 billion needed across both public and private sources for adaptation and resilience and spur 2,000 of the world's largest companies to integrate physical climate risk and develop actionable adaptation plans

The interventions are timely as climate change becomes a major threat to human well-being globally, with particular intensity on the African continent.

The 6th Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in August 2021, singled out Africa as singularly vulnerable to climate and weather extremes.

An IPCC AR6 WG II report research also warns that nearly half of the world's population will be at severe risk of climate change impacts by 2030.