Climate change adaptation programme: progress report 2023

10. Progress on SCCAP2 'International Networks' outcome

SCCAP2 Outcome 7: Our international networks are adaptable to climate change.

This outcome has three sub-outcomes. The first focuses on climate change adaptation and imported food quality and safety, the second on Scotland's role in international adaptation governance and the third focuses on the adaptive capacity of Scotland's international trade.

Updates in this year's annual report focus on the Scottish Government's climate justice work in the year of COP26 in Glasgow.

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"

Women's Environment and Development Organisation – For the last five years the Scottish Government has supported WEDO to address gender equality in climate action in the Global South by directly supporting women delegates attend COPs and represent their own respective interests. Funding also assists grassroots and indigenous women leaders to access funding to scale up climate solutions in Global South countries. These locally-led solutions centre human rights and gender equality while achieving sustainable adaptation and mitigation outcomes. Scaling and replicating these activities within local contexts is at the heart of catalysing large-scale transformation.

The WEDO Gender Climate Tracker now includes updates of the women's participation statistics and gender mandates at COP27, with the addition of the latest gender analyses of National Adaptation Plans provided by their collaborator the NAP Global Network. Our support for WEDO led to the creation of a National Gender and Climate Change Plans webpage and the expansion of the resources featured.

Climate Justice Resilience Fund – Of the £2 million committed by the Scottish Government during COP26, £1 million was awarded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund to help some of the world's most vulnerable communities prepare for and adapt to climate change, tackle structural inequalities and recover from climate induced loss and damage. As a result, communities in Bangladesh, Malawi and the Pacific are able to re-build livelihoods, for example through skills development opportunities, as well as repair homes and infrastructure damaged by climate change.

Activities included supporting communities to make informed decisions on migration and use remittances to build resilience. For those forcibly displaced, the provision of safe shelter is helping protect and address their rights and needs. In order to address the non-economic societal changes induced by the climate crisis, such as impacts on cultural identity, projects are utilising methods such as storytelling and intergenerational dialogue to preserve traditional knowledge.

Scottish Catholic International Development Fund – During the 56^th Bonn Climate Change Conference, the First Minister announced that £500k would be directed to support communities in Malawi facing losses and damages resulting from recent tropical storms. The project has been delivered by local organisations on the ground in partnership with SCIAF; drawing on the lessons and experiences of delivering the previous Scottish Government funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi (CCPM).

The project adopted a four stage approach: first assessing with communities whether loss and damage has occurred and to whom; second co-designing and implementing interventions to address losses and damages experienced; third measuring the immediate impacts and delivery of implemented interventions and finally determining the longer term impacts of interventions. Interventions include fortifying graveyards, rehabilitation of flood defences, psycho-social first aid and victim support and safe housing construction.

Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) – The Scottish Government supported research by SEI to understand how to apply climate justice principles to loss and damage finance, what modalities could distribute finance for sudden onset losses and damages and how to undertake locally-led finance needs assessments.

International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) – Research by ICCCAD aims to generate and share innovative thinking on addressing loss and damage at different institutional levels through case studies in Malawi and Zambia. Evidence gathered through the case studies will assist in identifying opportunities to integrate addressing losses and damages into national policy (e.g. National Adaptation Plans), finance and planning frameworks, thus accurately situating need and specifying required responses in readiness for international funding.

Loss and Damage Convening – The First Minister co-hosted a roundtable on Loss and Damage in February 2022 which brought together a range of interested parties with the aim of identifying commitment and specific areas for progress, opportunities ahead and the alliances required in order to further move Loss and Damage to delivery and action.

In October 2022, the Scottish Government hosted a conference on Addressing Loss and Damage; bringing together international representatives and practitioners to articulate best practice. The subsequent report Practical Action for Addressing Loss and Damage, analyses and platforms case studies on existing action to fund and address loss and damage.

COP27: Adaptation Innovation Lab – Following a successful collaborative event at COP26, EIT Climate KIC, RegionsAdapt and Scottish Government organised a hybrid Adaptation Innovation Lab on Adaptation and Agriculture Day in the Multi-Level Action Pavilion at COP27 in Sharm-El-Sheik, Egypt. The Lab brought together representatives from regions across the world including Rt Hon. Mr. Cattaneo, Regional Minister, Environment and Climate Change, Lombardy, Rt Hon. Mrs. Barnadas, Secretary of Environment, Government of Catalonia, Mayor Errick Simmons of Greenville, Co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, Mr. Adolfo Uriarte, Director of Natural Territory and climate change of the Basque Country and others to explore how regions can drive forward innovation on climate adaptation policy and delivery.

RegionsAdapt and Under2Coalition – Scottish Government remains an active member of the RegionsAdapt network of state and regional governments committed to increasing global ambition for climate resilience. Scotland is also currently European co-chair of the Under2Coalition, an international coalition of 260 climate ambitious state and regional governments from the Global North and South committed to keeping global temperature rises in line with the Paris Agreement. As part of the Under2Coalition Future Fund Secondment, Scottish Government participated in two days of knowledge exchange with the Government of Antioquia in Colombia with Adaptation Scotland and Scottish Government delivering a workshop on our approach to climate change adaptation in Scotland.

Traction Learning Exchange Project – A new framework to help organisations and communities around the world find out what will help and what can act as barriers to adapting to climate change was launched in August 2022. The Traction framework, funding by Scottish Government and developed by Sniffer, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), is designed to be universally applicable and has been piloted in very different locations around the world; from Scotland's Outer Hebrides, which are vulnerable to increased frequency of storm events and changes to rainfall and temperature, to Malawi in Southern Africa where climate change threatens to increase both droughts and flooding.

The framework focuses on five key areas to allow communities and organisations to understand what is helping and hindering them from making progress on adapting to climate change in a way that is positive and just across society. They include looking at 1. policies and leadership, 2. governance, 3. having the right evidence and data, 4. collaborating with public, private and third sector groups and 5. taking ethical and justice considerations into account.

Research into link between gender and climate justice – The Scottish Government commissioned research through ClimateXChange (published September 2022) into looking at steps needed to integrate its approach to international climate justice and an outward-looking feminist foreign policy. The report describes levels of action needed to improve this approach and provides a framework to analyse policy in Scotland and internationally.

How the Adaptation Scotland Programme is supporting this outcome:

Adaptation Scotland supported planning for a Scottish Government, California State Government, Climate-KIC and Regions Adapts Adaptation Lab at COP27. This event built on the successful Adaptation Lab event held at COP26. Adaptation Scotland continues to maintain strong links with leading international adaptation research and practice. This includes involvement in the EU Pathways2Resilience project which is a key delivery mechanism for the EU adaptation mission.