Climate Change and Developing Countries

This presentation is about how developing countries are placed within the issue of climate change building debate over who should take the burden and why. It begins with the circumstances of developing countries both as contributors to the climate change in terms of GHG emissions and as receivers of climate change impacts. In this context, developing countries are at cross roads with conflicting objectives of sustainable developmental needs, which are immediate, and reduction of GHG emissions that could impose initial costs. At the same time, developing countries in the Asia Pacific region are also vulnerable to the immediate impacts of climate change which makes adaptation as a priority issue. However, promoting adaptation too requires resources and capacity to implement adaptation actions which are largely absent with most of the developing countries. This necessitates that any efforts to help developing countries adapt to climate change should include provisions such as financing adaptation, facilitating transfer of adaptation technologies and capacity building to identify and implement adaptation actions. Due to the uncertainty in the available climate projections, there also exists the risk of mal-adaptation which could impose additional costs. The presentation will identify existing capacity gaps with developing countries to identify and implement effective adaptation actions and provides a framework that helps in identifying adaptation actions in absence of dependable climate information. During the presentation, different tools and techniques and existing decision making frameworks would be introduced to the students wherever appropriate.