Korea Global Adaptation Week to Chart a Path to a Climate-Resilient Future

UN Climate Press Release / 05 Apr, 2019

Aftermath of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique

Credit: UNICEF/Juskauskas

UN Climate Change News, Bonn/Songdo, 5 April 2019 — Against the backdrop of increasing extreme weather disasters, world experts and leaders will meet next week at the Korea Global Adaptation Week in Songdo (8-12 April) to discuss ways to enhance adaptation to climate change.

Hosted by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea, the Korea Global Adaptation Week is organized by UN Climate Change, the Korea Environment Institute (KEI), the Korea Adaptation Centre for Climate Change (KACCC), and the Incheon Metropolitan City.

Representatives from governments, civil society, private sector, academia and the UN System will gather in four key events, starting with the sixth NAP Expo, under the theme “Raising Adaptation Ambition by Advancing National Adaptation Plans”. The NAP Expo aims to promote the exchange of experiences and foster partnerships to advance National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). The Expo is organized by the Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in collaboration with partners.

For the first time, Resilience Frontiers – an initiative undertaken by multiple agencies – will gather one hundred thought leaders for five days of foresight and collective thinking on how to maximize long-term resilience to climate change by harnessing the potential of emerging technologies and new sustainability trends, while mitigating associated risks.

In parallel, the Adaptation Forum will discuss ways to increase private sector engagement in adaptation planning. The event is organized by the Adaptation Committee under the UNFCCC.

The Regional Technical Expert Meeting on Adaptation will focus on how to enhance participation of the private sector in financing adaptation to climate change. The meeting’s theme will be “Adaptation finance, including the private sector." It is organized by the Green Climate Fund as part of the technical examination process on adaptation under the UNFCCC.

The Korea Global Adaptation Week will be kicked off by a high-level opening with the participation of Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Co-chair of the Global Commission on Adaptation and President and Chair of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI); Myung-Rae, Minister of Environment of the Republic of Korea; Park Namchoon, Mayor of Incheon; Je Yong Yoon, President of KEI; Ovais Sarmad, UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary; Hana Hamadalla Mohamed, Chair of the LEG; Yannick Glemarec, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund; Judith Karl, Executive Secretary of the UN Capital Development Fund; and Jae Chun Choe, NAP Champion from Republic of Korea. These speakers will set the stage for the week’s discussions.

More information:

The opening session will be live-streamed on the following websites:
- Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea: https://www.youtube.com/user/mevpr
- Korea Adaptation Centre for Climate Change (KACCC): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWSEv6voCJP3_svcMBl-IA
Visit the Korea Global Adaptation Week website: http://napexpo.org/koreaweek
Join the conversation on social media following @NAP_Central on Twitter and The Adaptation Exchange on Facebook, and using the hashtag #NAPExpo

About the UNFCCC

With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.

Media contacts:

For general queries about UN Climate Change, please contact press@unfccc.int
In Songdo, please contact David Oehmen, doehmen@unfccc.int