UN Climate Change News, 23 March 2020 – In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Climate Change secretariat is embracing telecommuting and teleconferencing options in order to carry on with its work, as demonstrated by the upcoming 17^th Meeting of the Adaptation Committee (AC 17), which will take place virtually on the originally scheduled dates, 24-27 March 2020.

Now everyone has the opportunity to follow proceedings every day of the meeting during the time-frame 13:00 - 15:00 CET (Berlin time) via YouTubeLive.

The live broadcast ensures that the Adaptation Committee’s work continues to be transparent, and that it can continue to benefit from the presence and inputs of observers. Observers that have registered for the physical meeting in Bonn are invited instead to actively participate in the virtual meeting.

Youssef Nassef, Director of the Adaptation Programme of UN Climate Change, said:

“In agreeing to move ahead with the virtual meeting, Adaptation Committee members have shown great flexibility and steadfast commitment to their work despite the challenging circumstances. Whilst the world is grappling with the COVID-19 crisis, climate change continues to accelerate, and we must continue to build resilience to its inevitable impacts as quickly and effectively as we can."

A further recent example of the UNFCCC secretariat’s commitment to continuing its work under the current difficult circumstances relates to transparency and tracking the progress of governments’ 2020 emissions pledges. During the last two weeks, reviews were carried out remotely of biennial reports of 10 developed countries and technical analysis of biennial update reports (BURs) of 11 developing countries, as well as analysis of REDD+ of 2 countries.

A pool of 43 reviewers of biennial reports and 41 technical experts of BURs and REDD+ were connected from home and collaborated through the audio/video tools with the review officers of the UN Climate Change secretariat, while national teams of transparency experts in 21 countries engaged with the reviewers and technical experts.

Adaptation Committee meeting programme

With Adaptation Committee members hailing from 16 countries across the world, time zone differences mean that each day’s meeting can take place for two hours, as opposed to the usual 8-hour meetings that take place when the Committee meets in Bonn. As a result, the meeting will take a two-tiered approach to addressing all agenda items.

The Committee’s virtual discussions this week will focus on agenda items that require immediate extensive inputs and guidance from members, as follows: 

1. All items addressing mandates from the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA), including:

• Launching consideration of the approaches to reviewing the overall progress made in achieving the global goal on adaptation of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change by considering a draft technical paper that reviews and discusses the scientific literature on this topic and existing national-level approaches to assessing progress on adaptation.  
   
• Reviewing a draft of the first synthesis report, which is addressing the topic of How developing countries are addressing hazards as a first in a series of synthesis reports addressing various adaptation themes in the context of the recognition of developing countries’ adaptation efforts, that will be prepared biennially under the guidance of the Adaptation Committee and the Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG).
   
• Discussing information collection and preparation for the global stocktake more broadly. The Adaptation Committee, along with other constituted bodies, has been asked to prepare a synthesis report as an input into the global stocktake.
   
• Discussing an initial draft outline for supplementary guidance for voluntary use by governments as they prepare their adaptation communication.
   
• Finally, finalizing its development—in partnership with the LEG, partner organizations of the Nairobi work programme, and other stakeholders—of an inventory of methodologies for assessing adaptation needs related to action, finance, capacity-building, technological support, and other areas.

2. Consideration of its technical paper on data for adaptation at different spatial and temporal scales. Sufficient, high-quality data is critical to planning and implementing adaptation efforts, and the paper helps elucidate the data required and provided for adaptation.

Further, Adaptation Committee members will work via e-mail, collaborative online spaces, and other virtual platforms as needed over the coming weeks to ensure that the other items on the agenda also move forward. This includes the Adaptation Committee’s ongoing work on topics related to mainstreaming gender, engaging the private sector, awareness raising and outreach, and more. 

Further information, including drafts of the papers under discussion during AC 17 are available here.