Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Mainstreaming National Adaptation Programmes of Action
- Noticeboard
- Announcements
- Conferences
- Courses
- Mailing lists
- Climate treaty
- Latest news
- Secretariat
- National reports
- IPCC
Action point
Jim Salinger describes his priority for action on global warming. You can play the low bandwidth or the high bandwidth version
Featured sites
Plan B, from the Earth Policy Institute, details how to rescue a planet under stress by cutting carbon emissions 80 per cent by 2020.
The e-newsletter from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat provides a comprehensive overview of major news and announcements regarding the climate negotiations.
The OzoneAction Education Pack provides primary school teachers with practical, hands-on and entertaining curricula material to educate their students about ozone depletion.
The Youth Climate Pledge is a collaborative plan of action that young people can sign on to and get others to commit to.
And finally,
The United Nations Paint for the Planet exhibition features paintings by child artists on the theme of climate change.
About Newswatch
Tiempo Climate Newswatch is a weekly on-line magazine with news, features and comment on global warming, climate change, sea-level rise and development issues. It is edited by Mick Kelly and Sarah Granich and maintained by Mick Kelly and Mike Salmon. The cartoons are created by Lawrence Moore.
The news stories carried by Newswatch are updated weekly. Comment, features, interviews and other sections of the magazine are updated on a weekly to monthly basis.
Newswatch automatically scans a number of news sites once an hour, searching for a set of keyphrases. The raw news feed can be accessed in standard or PDA format.
Part of the Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary, Tiempo Climate Newswatch is hosted by the Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia.
The Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary is a co-production of the Stockholm Environment Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development, sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
While every effort is made to ensure that information on this site, and on other sites that are referenced here, is accurate, no liability for loss or damage resulting from use of this information can be accepted.
 |
Bubu Pateh Jallow describes how efforts to mainstream adaptation are bearing fruit, in project design and in capacity to plan policies. |
| The author is chair of the Least Developed Countries Expert Group. | |
National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) should complement, and be integrated into, existing national development plans. Effective mainstreaming, so that NAPA policies and measures are integrated into national and regional development policies and processes, requires cross-sectoral cooperation, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches and considerable political will.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary:
- to engage other development sectors (particularly ministries and agencies responsible for national development) from the beginning and throughout the preparation and implementation process;
- to raise awareness from a scientific and socio-economic perspective of the implications of climate change for various sectors and groups within a country, to engage key stakeholders on this issue;
- to link adaptation efforts to established policy-making processes; and,
- to promote cross-sectoral and interdepartmental coordination, accountability and transparency in implementing NAPAs.
All the NAPA Teams are multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary with a varying number of key sectors. For example, the NAPA Project Steering Committee of The Gambia is chaired by a Permanent Secretary and includes Desertification and Biodiversity Convention Focal Points, the Global Environment Facility Focal Point, National Assembly and Civil Society. Comoros went further to establish a NAPA Island Committee, created to coordinate the NAPA process at the island level.
All NAPAs submitted so far relate to existing national plans and programmes. In selecting priority NAPA projects in Bhutan, one of the criteria was to assess whether the projects complemented country goals such as overcoming poverty, or enhancing adaptive capacity or other multilateral environmental agreements. Key activities laid out in Mozambique's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper include measures to manage its vulnerability to disasters and strengthen its capacity to respond to them. This resulted in disaster risk management and reduction being the highest priority in the Mozambique NAPA.
All NAPA teams conducted stakeholder consultations at regional and island levels to solicit perceptions about impacts and vulnerability to climate variability and change. Comoros evaluated vulnerability and adaptation using a sample of 1000 people. In Malawi, participatory rural appraisal methods were used during the consultations, and in Samoa, the community vulnerability and adaptation tool was the main approach used in the national consultation.
Further information
Bubu Pateh Jallow, Department of Water Resources, 7, Marina Parade, Banjul, The Gambia. Fax: +220-225009. Email: bubujallow@hotmail.com.
Bright Ideas
Offsetting air travel with atmosfair buys solar mirrors that provide energy for the preparation of thousands of meals daily in India
Dow Building Solutions has prepared a short information sheet covering the construction of green roofs
The fabric in Asics Commitment range of sportswear is woven from bamboo yarn
SolidNav has developed electric propulsion units for small water craft and sailboats
WATT, a nightclub in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has a dancefloor that generates electricity and toilets that flush with rainwater
During play, the Energy Merry-go-round generates electricity that is transferred to a battery and 220V invertor for use in the classroom
Waste Management provides home recycling kits for compact fluorescent bulbs, batteries and electronics
Norwegian music festivals, Canal Street and Hove, have joined the Climate Neutral Network
The PlayPump water system doubles as a water pump and a merry-go-round for children
Honda is leasing the hydrogen-powered fuel cell FCX Clarity to private individuals in southern California
TIDE, in southern India, markets energy-efficient stoves that reduce fuelwood use by as much as 30 per cent
Curitiba's BioCity Program (0.3Mb download) aims to halt the rapid rate at which cities develop and reduce biodiversity loss
Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Updated: November 16th 2008