Climate change - adaptation programme: progress report 2021

Chapter 7: Progress towards "our international networks being adaptable to climate change"

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a stark example of the need for international cooperation on tackling cross-border issues such as climate change. It has also highlighted that while large system stressors such as a pandemic or extreme weather affect everyone they do not affect everyone equally. The Scottish Government champions a climate justice approach to building climate change resilience, recognising that the most vulnerable in society will be impacted more by climate change yet have often done the least to contribute to its cause.

The January 2021 Climate Adaptation Summit saw global heads of state come together to support accelerated action on adaptation. The Summit launched a number of initiatives such as the Adaptation Action Agenda. The next major milestone will be COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, which will be a key opportunity to review progress to the aims of the 2015 Paris Agreement in terms of both emissions reductions and adaptation.

Ahead of COP26, the Scottish Government will publish its indicative nationally determined contribution in the spirit of the Paris Agreement. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the Paris Agreement, and embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change^[3]. As part of the Scottish Government's commitment to engaging with and raising global climate ambition ahead of COP26, the indicative nationally determined contribution will set out Scotland's ambitious approach to tackling climate change.

The document will include a specific section in the style of an Adaptation Communication which sets out Scotland's innovative programme for climate change adaptation including its people-centric and place-based approaches and the climate justice thread which runs through Scotland's domestic and international adaptation actions. The Scottish Government, along with the other Devolved Administrations, inputted into the UK's NDC which was formally submitted to the UNFCCC in December 2020.

Whilst not covered in detail in this year's report, the Scottish Government also continues to seek to minimise the impacts of the UK's Exit from the European Union on our approaches to collaborative action on global issues such as climate change.

Examples of progress towards achieving the sub-outcome that "Scotland is active in international governance, helping to manage the potential international instability caused by climate change."

International Governance: The Scottish Government plays our part in international governance through our participation in international fora such as:

• RegionsAdapt - As a member of the RegionsAdapt initiative, the Scottish Government has submitted information on our most pressing climate risks, and actions being taken to address them, through the Carbon Disclosure Project platform. This information fed into the RegionsAdapt Brief Report 2020, published in December 2020, which presents the climate adaptation efforts of 28 regional governments for a resilient future. In March 2021, RegionsAdapt was announced as an official partner for the UN Race to Resilience initiative.
• British-Irish Council - The Scottish Government continues to engage through the adaptation working group of the British Irish Council. The group hosted a major online symposium in October 2020 to review and discuss approaches to climate resilient infrastructure across Britain and Ireland.

The Scottish Government also supports our developing country partners build more resilient and equal societies.

Climate Justice Fund support for developing countries: The Scottish Government provides support through its world-leading funds:

• Climate Justice Fund (CJF) - The Scottish Government has now exceeded its commitment made at COP21 in 2015 to provide an extra £12 Million to support projects in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda through our world-leading Climate Justice Fund. In March 2021, we commissioned an independent evaluation to look at the CJF. This evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the fund in delivering climate justice objectives and appraise the programme's achievements to date. We are also ensuring that, at its centre, the evaluation be built on the experiences of communities in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda who have implemented or are supported by CJF projects. The findings will help inform the next phase of the Fund so that it is remains influential and at the cutting edge of climate justice work globally.
• Climate Challenge Programme Malawi (CCPM) - was launched in 2017 as a £3.2m programme running to 2020 to help vulnerable rural communities in Malawi design their own solutions to the problems resulting from climate change. Activities implemented have been centred upon key themes of food security, water access, renewable energy and community advocacy. In August 2020, the Scottish Government confirmed an additional fourth year of the CCPM to now run until September 2021, with an additional spend of £1.5m, which brings total spending on the CCPM throughout its lifetime to £4.7m.

• Climate Justice Innovation Fund - Between 2017-21 The Climate Justice Innovation Fund (CJIF) has supported 15 projects in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia develop innovative solutions to the problems caused by climate change. Previous projects have ranged from Voluntary Service Overseas Scotland providing sustainable energy for school meals in Malawi to the Malawi Fruits project which aims to address post-harvest losses in northern Malawi (Mzimba) and generate increased farming profit for women farmers and persons with disabilities through combining training with the establishment of a co-operative-owned and solar-powered cold store. More recently CJIF has supported Scottish Environment Protection Agency in empowering women, youth and other vulnerable groups to hold NGOs and other service providers to account for water provision.

Other support for developing countries: The Scottish Government also provides support through a range of other routes, including:

• Young Malawian Climate Leaders - Beginning in 2018, Malawi's Climate Leaders, a partnership between the 2050 Climate Group and the Malawi Scotland Partnership, has built a network of young people in Malawi who are active in advocating for action on climate change. The Malawi's Climate Leaders project has recruited and trained 50 young people from thousands of applicants, to be climate leaders. As well as working with young people in Malawi, the project establishes knowledge-sharing relationships with young people working in Scotland to help them build international relationships focused on a shared ambition to tackle the global climate emergency. Events involve young people in both countries building their skills and learning from each other, and deepening peer-to-peer relationships. In September 2020 during New York Climate Week, the First Minister announced £103,012 to fund a third year of the project.
• Support for Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre - This project ran from January 2017 to September 2020. The project worked to change agricultural practices in Zambia across six provinces and has led to Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre becoming a more financially sustainable organisation. Despite the challenges presented by drought and COVID-19, progress was made in areas such as influencing farming practices at government institutions and valuable learning generated for future. A project report is available on the Scottish Government website.
• International Knowledge Sharing through Hydro Nation - Hydro Nation supports the Climate Justice Fund Water Futures Programme in Malawi which continues to provide assistance to the Government of Malawi to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 through four main work streams: rural water asset analysis and new urban and peri-urban asset analysis; policy support; capacity building; and, research and knowledge exchange. The project will publish its final report in summer 2021. Through the Malawi Scotland Regulatory Partnership, Hydro Nation also supports SEPA knowledge exchange on regulatory functions related to the management of water resources. SEPA is also helping to establish Malawi's own Environment Protection Agency.

How the Adaptation Scotland Programme is supporting this outcome

Adaptation Scotland collaborates with a range of international partners to share learning on adaptation and ensure that Scotland's own approach is informed by international best practice. One forum for such engagement is the Programme's current participation in the KE4CAP – Knowledge Exchange Between Climate Adaptation Platforms – project which brings together platforms from around the world to share learning and develop their resilience expertise. For example, through this project the Programme has recently engaged with Natural Resources Canada to share learning on Scotland's approach to developing risk assessment guidance for built environment and adaptation projects.

The Adaptation Capability Framework (see chapter 1) is recognised by international partners as a leading example of a capability maturity approach to adaptation. The Framework is being used as key source material for such frameworks being developed globally, including a recent resource published by the Canadian Adaptation Learning Network and a new framework being developed through the Irish and UK Transboundary Adaptation Learning Exchange. It was also included as part of the media library for the global Climate Adaptation Summit in January 2021.