Climate change and developing countries

The presentation was aimed at improving the understanding of post-graduate and doctoral students, enrolled in Nagoya University Global Environmental Leaders Program, on climate change mitigation and adaptation circumstances of developing countries with specific focus on Asia and Pacific region. Though developing countries (represented as G77+China) as a whole emit more GHGs than developed countries (OECD) put together, the per capita emissions, both current and historical emissions, are multiple folds higher in OECD countries. Mitigation cost estimates available for Annex I countries of Kyoto Protocol suggest costs to the tune of 2% of GDP by 2020. Developing countries lack such capacity to invest on mitigating climate change, have immediate developmental needs over long-term mitigation actions, and are projected to be exposed to severe climate change impacts with poor adaptive capacity. Hence, mitigating the climate change impacts through adaptation is of paramount importance for developing countries, while reaping the mitigation co-benefits wherever possible. Adaptation priorities of developing countries were elaborated, various bottlenecks were identified for mainstreaming climate change adaptation in developmental planning, and critical steps were suggested for enhanced adaptation. As a means of improving the adaptation governance, a framework for measuring and reporting progress in adaptation was proposed with two-pronged approach to manage climate change risks.

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presentation file can be obtained by contacting the author.