Regional Workshop on Climate Vulnerability Monitor: Focus on East Asia

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Background

Climate change is an existential crisis for the people of all countries. However, climate change poses an even more undeniable threat to countries that are particularly highly vulnerable due to their underlying biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. Climate change risks can be well understood and addressed only if the underlying vulnerability characteristics are understood. Various methodologies have been developed and proposed to conduct climate change risk and vulnerability assessments. Despite these developments, the uptake of this scientific knowledge for decision-making is still in the nascent stages. While the national-level risk and vulnerability assessments are relatively well developed, thanks to the UNFCCC and related processes that support the climate change risk and vulnerability assessments to be the basis for national adaptation planning, the same cannot be said at the sub-national level and the sectoral level. There is a need to ensure that policymakers, administrators, and practitioners actively use the latest scientific information for taking decisions that influences the lives of millions of people today and tomorrow.

With the above need and intent in view, the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) in collaboration with Vulnerable Twenty Group (V20), Climate Analytics, finres, and the Lancet Countdown formed the consortium of organizations for developing the third iteration of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor (CVM3). This endeavour is supported by dedicated expert panels and regional partners including that of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan. The CVM3 is a unique output in that it provides a global assessment with national-level information on the current and future climate change impacts in the important sectors of the environment, economy and health. Using 32 distinct indicators covering environment, economy and public health, the monitor presents and projects how the impacts evolve for countries throughout the 21st century.

Having developed the monitor, the consortium is now calling the potential users of CVM3, including practitioners, policymakers, researchers and professionals, to gain an understanding of how the CVM3 could be effectively used for fulfilling the climate change adaptation and development agenda. While introducing the purpose, methodology and global-level results, the workshop also endeavours to discuss region-specific results of the CVM3. The ensuing dialogue will also aim to answer some of these questions:

1. 1. How would the findings of the report affect the region?
2. 2. What do the findings mean for the policymakers and/or financial and economic planners in the region?
3. 3. Suggestions on how the region can best apply the findings of the report.
4. 4. How the future iterations of the monitor could be improved?