World economic and social survey 2016: Climate change resilience - an opportunity for reducing inequalities

The World Economic and Social Survey 2016: Climate Change Resilience - An Opportunity for Reducing Inequalities contributes to the debate on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addressing the specific challenge of building resilience to climate change, the Survey focuses on population groups and communities that are disproportionately affected by climate hazards, whose frequency and intensity are increasing with climate change.

The key messages of this report include the following:

1. climate change resilience for sustainable development (p. 22):
   • To be successful, disaster risk reduction and disaster management, social protection and adaptation strategies must all be part of a broader development framework which incrementally leads the way to the empowerment of today’s disadvantaged groups.
2. climate change and inequality nexus (p. 42):
   • Addressing the root causes of inequalities to enable adaptation and the building of resilience to climate hazards will require a continuum of development policies, planning and practices which result in transformative change and sustainable development.
3. bringing inequalities to the forefront of climate assessments (p. 68):
   • Countries have much to gain from enhancing capacities to develop and use integrated climate impact assessments through which they gather a robust range of estimates of impacts and policy options for informed policy decision-making.
4. coherent, participatory and adaptive policymaking for climate resilience (p. 98):
   • Policymakers must fully embed uncertainty into their long-term plans, which requires a policy process capable of incorporating the new information and emerging knowledge needed to scope, assess, implement and monitor policy interventions.
5. enhanced cooperation for climate-resilient development (p. 122):
   • Identifying vulnerable people, understanding the risks they incur and designing policies aimed at building climate resilience require intensive collaboration on uncovering the interlinkages between vulnerability and climate hazards.