Poverty Reduction and Adaptation to Climate Change: Synergies and Contradiction

1. Poverty Reduction and Adaptation to Climate Change: Synergies and Contradiction Reinhard Wolf, GTZ Climate Protection Programme for Developing Countries (CaPP)

2. derived from the shared goals of the international community Millennium Declaration and the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) inter-ministerial Program of Action 2015:Germany's strategy paper for realising these development goals poverty is not defined solely by low income, but is a complex state of life, characterised by need, vulnerability, injustice and a lack of prospects Poverty reduction as overarching task of German development policy

3. Negative impacts of climate change are more severely felt by poor people and poor countries • impacts of climate change are likely to intensify further • Identifying appropriate responses to climate change should be key element of the sustainable development strategies • At present little experience of how to manage this adaptation process • Poor people often directly dependent on the natural environment and agriculture for their survival, are therefore most vulnerable and have least adaptive capacity

4. There are clear synergiesbetween successful climate change adaptation and poverty reduction Deaths from droughts and related famines International Disaster Database 1992-2001/ Ian Noble/WB • 􀂾 High income 0 • 􀂾 Upper-middle few 10s • 􀂾 Lower-middle few 1000s • 􀂾 Lowest incomes many 100,000s

5. GTZ approach with regard to adaptation to climate change: mainstreaming (1) • screening of GTZ supported projects • 330 projects contacted with questionnaires, 104 replies • Identification of relevant sectors (agriculture, water) • Identification of pilot projects • Awareness creation

6. GTZ approach with regard to adaptation to climate change: mainstreaming (2) • Initiation of (small) pilot projects, which are integrated into ongoing large scale development programmes • Due to uncertainties in climate predictions: Favour “win-win” and “no regret options” • gain experience on methods for climate change adaptation, which can be fed into national policies and planning process (e.g. NAPAs) • India, Tunesia, and Benin on Watershed Management / Agriculture, combat desertification • Mozambique and Nicaragua: Desaster Risk Management / Early warning systems

7. Possible contradictions • construction of unappropriate dams to prevent floods or protect coastal areas • Maladaptation: introduction of drought resistant crop varieties which are, however, also prone to diseases • introduction of shrimp farming for income generation, for which mangrove forest, vital for coastal protection, are destroyed

8. Outlook and open questions • uncertainties with regard to precise regional trends of climate change bring about uncertainties with regard to the cost – benefit ratio of climate change interventions • In order to „kick start“ successful mainstreaming of adaptation and integration into development policy-making and planning, additional funds have to be made available to initiative successful pilot projects which can be used as learning ground and models for larger scale implementation

9. Hinweis: + 3 Bilder / Graphiken zum Anstieg des Meeresspiegel (Nildelta, Bangladesch) und zur Veränderung der Kaffeeanbaufläche in Uganda bei 2 Grad Temperaturanstiegabrufbar unter: www.germanwatch.org/termine/2005-11-18/wolf.ppt