Sub-regional annual conference: Adaptation trends in Southeast Asia

Over the past years, Southeast Asia has experienced extreme weather events that led to loss of lives, properties and livelihoods. Floods, drought and other climate extremes are becoming more frequent and intense, causing severe devastation in countries in Southeast Asia.

There are varying policies, approaches and measures undertaken by different countries to address climate change adaptation in the region in the areas of governance, water, coastal agriculture and infrastructure over the past years. There is a small growing example of cases where climate change is being used in anticipatory planning or in one-off projects. There are also concerted effort to develop a more comprehensive national and regional adaptation strategies and frameworks. A significant amount of regional and country-specific adaptation action is presently underway in East and Southeast Asia, at both the policy and program/project levels.

At the regional level, the MRC has established a “Climate Change and Adaptation Initiative” in collaboration with a number of partners that aims to support adaptation to the new challenges climate change poses for development in the Lower Mekong Basin and it addresses concerns related to impacts such as changing rainfall patterns, increased extreme weather events and temperature extremes, sea-level rise, displacement of persons, and changes in the flow of the river and its tributaries.

SEAN, on the other hand, is facilitating a regional collaboration on climate change. The “Roadmap for an ASEAN Community 2009– 2015” include planned actions such as the development of an ASEAN Climate Change Initiative, promotion of shared knowledge on adaptation best practices, development of regional strategies to increase adaptation capacity, enhancing collaboration on the development of climate change scenarios and addressing climate related hazards (including a regional systematic observation system), promoting public awareness related to the links between human health and climate change, and, where possible, forming common positions on climate change.

At the national level, countries have been looking at mainstreaming adaptation in their development planning, integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, adaptation knowledge management, and funding adaptation. Capacity building, research, knowledge sharing and policy development have been the primary focus of activities across the region and are yet to result to tangible measures in most countries.

Objectives:

•  To bring together climate change focal points, policy makers and experts to share and discuss knowledge on climate change  adaptation in  Southeast Asia;
•  to capture the latest learning and good practices in Southeast Asia;
•  to integrate lessons learned into national and international development programmes in order to ultimately enhance the capacity in the region on climate change adaptation; and
•  to disseminate activities conducted by APAN.