Climate change: Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029

Annex D – Definitions (Outcome 5 - International Action)

There is a need to reflect the nuance of the language in the international climate discourse and the following definitions aim to act as a guide to the objectives and policies in Outcome 5 International Action.

• Paris Agreement - The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement is a legally binding international treaty adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris. The goal of the agreement is to hold “the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” Under the agreement countries recognised the importance of ‘averting, minimising and addressing‘ loss and damage.
• UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience - At COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, Parties agreed to the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience which aims to guide the achievement of the Global Goal on Adaptation and review overall progress in adapting to climate change. It presents an approach to “enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change”.
• Subnational governments - administrations at the devolved, state and regional level that, through power-sharing or constitutional devolution of powers, are responsible for the development and implementation of law, policies and programmes such as environment, energy, transport and land use relating to the climate crisis. While not Parties to the UNFCCC, subnational governments are an integral part of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, with up to 80% of climate action taking place at devolved, state and regional government level.
• Mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage – loss and damage can be ‘averted’ by curbing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation). It can be ‘minimised’ by taking pre-emptive action to protect communities from the consequences of climate change (adaptation). ‘Addressing’ loss and damage is the third pillar of climate action: helping people after they have experienced climate-related impacts.
• Loss and Damage - this refers to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decisions and processes. The UNFCCC recognises the need for finance to respond to loss and damage associated with the catastrophic effects of climate change. At UNFCCC 27^th Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt, Parties agreed to establish a fund for Loss and Damage. The Scottish Government is not a party to the UNFCCC, however, it was the first Global North government to commit funding to address loss and damage at COP26.
• loss and damage - this refers to the wider phenomenon of loss (an impact that is unrecoverable (whether economic of non-economic) for example loss of life, habitat, culture, land) and damage (an impact that is recoverable) from climate change impacts, not necessarily related to the UNFCCC processes or membership.
• losses and damages - what has been experienced and is happening in terms of observed impacts and projected risks from climate change.
• non-economic loss and damage - damaging impacts of climate change where it is difficult or infeasible to attach a monetary value to. This may include harm to individuals (including to life itself, health and mobility); societies (e.g. loss of territory, cultural heritage, Indigenous and local knowledge, and certain untraded ecosystem services); and the natural environment (e.g. loss of and damage to biodiversity and habitats). At New York Climate Week 2023, the then First Minister Humza Yousaf announced a new £5m programme on non-economic loss and damage.

• Climate justice - climate justice is a people-centred, human rights-based approach that aims to share the benefits of equitable global development. It recognises that those who are being affected first and worst by climate change have often done little or nothing to cause the problem. Moreover, the voices of those communities – including in the Global South – are too infrequently heard. Following an independent evaluation of the Climate Justice Fund, the Scottish Government set a future approach for action on climate justice, targeting funding at those most affected, particularly women and youth, and delivering against the three pillars of climate justice:
• Distributive Justice relates to equal access to and sharing of resources and benefits and is used in climate justice definitions to include both access to resources and benefits, and equitable sharing of costs of responding to climate change;
• Procedural Justice relates to transparent, fair and equitable decision-making processes;
• Transformative Justice relates to structural inequities and focuses on mainstreaming understanding of climate justice issues, as well as building capacity.
• Principles for locally led adaptation - Eight principles for locally led adaptation have been developed by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) to help ensure that local communities are empowered to lead sustainable and effective adaptation to climate change at the local level:

1. Devolving decision making to the lowest appropriate level

a. Giving local institutions and communities more direct access to finance and decision-making power over how adaptation actions are defined, prioritised, designed and implemented; how progress is monitored; and how success is evaluated.

2. Addressing structural inequalities faced by women, youth, children, disabled and displaced people, Indigenous Peoples and marginalised ethnic groups

a. Integrating gender-based, economic and political inequalities that are root causes of vulnerability into the core of adaptation action and encouraging vulnerable and marginalised individuals to meaningfully participate in and lead adaptation decisions.

3. Providing patient and predictable funding that can be accessed more easily

a. Supporting long-term development of local governance processes, capacity, and institutions through simpler access modalities and longer term and more predictable funding horizons, to ensure that communities can effectively implement adaptation actions.

4. Investing in local capabilities to leave an institutional legacy

a. Improving the capabilities of local institutions to ensure they can understand climate risks and uncertainties, generate solutions and facilitate and manage adaptation initiatives over the long term without being dependent on project-based donor funding.

5. Building a robust understanding of climate risk and uncertainty

a. Informing adaptation decisions through a combination of local, Indigenous and scientific knowledge that can enable resilience under a range of future climate scenarios.

6. Flexible programming and learning

a. Enabling adaptive management to address the inherent uncertainty in adaptation, especially through robust monitoring and learning systems, flexible finance and flexible programming.

7. Ensuring transparency and accountability

a. Making processes of financing, designing and delivering programmes more transparent and accountable downward to local stakeholders.

8. Collaborative action and investment

a. Collaboration across sectors, initiatives and levels to ensure that different initiatives and different sources of funding (humanitarian assistance, development, disaster risk reduction, green recovery funds and so on) support one another, and their activities avoid duplication, to enhance efficiencies and good practice.