23 March 2023 - Experts and leaders attending next week’s Global Adaptation Week in Chile will focus on accelerating efforts to adapt to the increasingly severe effects of climate change and addressing loss and damage.
More than 400 people from around the world are expected to attend the week’s events, which will include the NAP Expo (27-30 March), the second UN4NAPs Forum (27-30 March) and the regional scoping workshop on loss and damage under the Santiago network for the Latin America and Caribbean region (3-4 April).
At the heart of the first two events are national adaptation plans (NAPs), which are the primary instrument to guide adaptation planning and implementation to climate change at national levels. They contain prioritized adaptation actions for a given period to inform implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and play a central role in informing the intergovernmental process on the efforts and needs of the developing countries in adaptation.
“With global temperature increase already at 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, we are experiencing more frequent and more intense weather events with increasingly devastating impacts around the world,” said Ovais Sarmad, UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary. “No region is spared. The need to scale up financing and capacities for adaptation and loss and damage is clear, as well as to normalize climate resilient development. The national adaptation plans have a central role to play in all of these, at a time when the opportunity costs of inadequate action are higher than ever and climbing.”
Jointly organized by the Government of Chile and UN Climate Change, the week is one of the main adaptation events on the global climate change calendar, putting a spotlight on the importance of adaptation at a time when global average temperatures continue to climb, bringing more frequent and intense extreme weather events with increasingly dangerous impacts on people and nature.
"The fact that Chile is hosting NAP Expo this year shows the commitment that our country has to advance in the fight against climate change, promoting international collaboration to achieve more and better initiatives, work plans and other instances that allow us to have concrete measures in an adverse global scenario", said Gloria de la Fuente, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of Chile. "Our government has among its priorities the care of the environment and this event is a tremendous opportunity to discuss issues such as food security, sustainable management of natural resources, resilience to natural disasters, among other topics that require collective measures to promote large-scale responses."
Chile’s Global Adaptation Week is expected to welcome experts and representatives from national and sub-national government, funding agencies, including the Green Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility and the Adaptation Fund, United Nations organizations and other international organizations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, representatives of civil society, regional centres and networks, private sector and academia.
NAP EXPO: Scaling up Adaptation
The theme for this year’s NAP Expo is scaling up adaptation. Participants will explore how to increase the scope and depth and adaptation action through the NAP process, including how to increase the volume of adaptation projects being supported through the various climate funds.
2023 UN4NAPs Forum
The 2023 UN4NAPs Forum will bring together least-developed countries (LDCs), small island developing States (SIDS) and UN partner organizations to discuss needs for technical assistance in advancing the formulation and implementation of NAPs. The organizations will get a better understanding of the needs of countries in the context of NAPs, while the countries present will learn more about opportunities for assistance. At this year’s Forum, topics will include human mobility in the context of NAPs, and adaptation in urban areas.
Regional Scoping Workshop on Loss and Damage
Under the Santiago Network, this workshop will engage countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region to identify and synthesize information and insights on their experiences in addressing major loss and damage from adverse impacts of climate change, particularly from hydro-meteorological hazards and extremes like hurricanes and sea level rise. Outputs from the workshop will be used to better define and scope typical technical assistance needs of developing countries in the context of the Santiago network. It is the first such workshop under the Santiago Network and one of three; the others will focus on Asia and the Pacific and Africa.
To find out more about these events and their background, please go to https://napexpo.org/chileweek/.
More information:
For specific queries about UN Climate Change, please contact press@unfccc.int
For specific queries on the Global Adaptation Week in Chile, please contact Sofia Merino, Strategic Communications Directorate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chile, smerinoc@minrel.gob.cl or Gonzalo Perucca, Communications and Press Office, Ministry of the Environment, Chile, gperucca@mma.gob.cl
For specific questions on the NAP and the Adaptation work, please contact Julie Amoroso-Garbin, Associate Programme Officer, UN Climate Change, JAmoroso-Garbin@unfccc.int or Dawn Lee, Associate Programme Officer, UN Climate Change, dlee@unfccc.int