In Q1, UN Climate Change organized more than 10 mandated events to advance adaptation efforts, including a meeting of the Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG) that resulted in a work programme for 2023-24. The work programme will accelerate support to least developed countries (LDCs) in formulating and implementing their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
In February, NAP writing workshops were held for African LDCs resulting in 30 new project ideas added to the existing 50 from 2022, with some ideas already submitted to the Green Climate Fund.
The Executive Secretary also underlined the need to boost the capacity of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change at the Fifth Least Developed Countries Conference in Doha. Acknowledging that to date only 18 out of 46 LDCs have a NAP, he committed UN Climate Change to come up with a plan by COP28 to get all LDCs on the journey to delivering a NAP.
The Adaptation Committee met in Bonn, in March, focusing on addressing capacity gaps in adaptation finance and supporting Parties in NAP formulation and implementation. Also in March, the fifth Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) workshop took place in the Maldives, where work advanced discussions on developing the GGA framework.
The Transitional Committee on the operationalization of the funding arrangements and new fund for responding to loss and damage held its first meeting at the end of March in Egypt, adopting a workplan to COP28. The workplan sets out key substantive and procedural milestones and steps to be taken towards the delivery of recommendations to COP28. Prior to this meeting, the COP27 Presidency organized a retreat for Committee members to pave the way for the discussions. A technical support unit (TSU) has also been established to support the work of the Transitional Committee. The TSU consists of staff seconded from UN agencies, international financial institutions, multilateral development banks, and the operating entities of the financial mechanism.
At the UN Water Conference in New York, the Executive Secretary announced a new action pledge under the Nairobi Work Programme to address knowledge gaps, unlock innovation and scale up action to address the nexus of water-climate challenges in developing countries.