Health in National Climate Change Adaptation Planning

Abstract

Adaptation has been a critical component of the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from the beginning. When signing the convention, all countries agreed to produce regular national communications covering their emissions inventory, current impacts and projected risks of climate change, adaptation options to prepare for and reduce those risks, and mitigation options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a green economy. The least developed countries (LDCs) also developed National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) to identify their urgent and immediate adaptation needs. Building on the experience gained through the NAPA process, including implementation of adaptation options to address urgent national needs, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) are under development by LDCs and other developing countries to identify and address medium and long-term adaptation needs. The NAP process was initiated at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in 2010, at which countries acknowledged that national adaptation planning is an important process by which developing countries can assess their vulnerabilities, risks, and adaptation options. Further, the COP acknowledged that because the development challenges for LDCs are magnified by climate change, adaptation planning should move from primarily focusing on current climate variability and recent climate change to focusing more broadly on increasing resilience within the context of sustainable development planning. The COP established the NAP process to facilitate effective and efficient adaptation planning in