The Eighth LAS-Japan-UNDP Policy Roundtable: Building Resilience to Climate Disasters and the Road to COP27

Objectives

The Policy Roundtable will bring together policymakers, development experts, and other stakeholders from the LAS, its member states, Arab agencies, Japan, the UN, and other international partners to explore the emerging disaster risks from climate change to the region and identify means and best practices for building resilience to climate disasters, including integration of CCA and DRR actions into crisis response and recovery processes. The roundtable will help identify ways to take the integrated approaches of CCA and DRR to manage the growing risks from climate disasters with clear co-benefits to SDG implementation including poverty reduction, food security, water access, displacement, migration, inequality, and human security. The 8th Policy Roundtable will contribute to the implementation of the Arab Strategy for DRR 2030, and be convened with support from the UNDP-UNDRR joint regional workplan 2022-2023 under the Statement of Intent.

Background

Following the success of the first Arab-Japan Political Dialogue in September 2017, the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Government of Japan, in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), launched a series of Policy Roundtables in September 2019 aiming at establishing a policy dialogue platform to discuss common development priorities and concerns, and explore policies and solutions to support the Arab region. To date, the tripartite partnership has hosted seven Policy Roundtables whose topics included: education and human development; the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis; digital transformation; sustainable reconstruction and infrastructure towards SDGs; water scarcity; and peacebuilding. The series has provided an effective platform to enhance constructive cooperation between Japan and the Arab League member states, by engaging UNDP as a co-host, to address multi-layered challenges in the region, particularly at the time of compounded challenges in evolving environment. 

The 8th LAS-Japan-UNDP Policy Roundtable will focus on disaster risk reduction (DRR) with a special focus on climate-induced disasters and COP27. Climate change is the world’s largest challenge which threatens to exacerbate disaster risks with implications for peace and security. At the global level, disaster-hit countries reported direct economic losses valued at US$2.9 Trillion during the period 1998-2017 with climate-related disasters causing US$2.2 Trillion or 77 percent of the total. Reported losses from extreme weather events rose by 151% over 20-year periods with floods affecting 2 billion people while droughts affecting 1.5 billion people. The report indicated that “climate-related and geophysical disasters killed 1.3 million people and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless, displaced or in need of emergency assistance.” Storms, including tropical cyclones and hurricanes, killed 233,000 people over the past 20-year period.

Climate change and disasters have been a great ‘threat multiplier’ over many years, exacerbating food insecurity, decimating water reserves, expanding drylands, and creating underlying levels of social vulnerability. In particular, the Arab region as one of the most water insecure and food import-dependent regions in the world is considered extremely vulnerable to climate change and associated disaster risks. More than 40 percent of the Arab region’s population is exposed to drought and other climate-induced disasters, with climate change exacerbating resource insecurity, social vulnerability, poverty, displacement, and conflict. In Somalia, for example, a record drought killed up to two hundred thousand people and displaced millions, while this year again a severe drought brings the threat of famine. Other extreme weather events, including forest fires, storms, and flash floods, have caused losses of human lives and economic impact, and the region is also considered vulnerable to rising sea levels. On the region’s coastlines, more frequent and severe storms and flood events have been recorded, while sea level rise now threatens to displace millions of people in coming decades. In Egypt, the Nile delta where 25% of its population lives in the low-elevated coastal areas hosts 30-40% of Egypt’s agricultural production, half of Egypt’s industrial production, and large urban population centers. With sea levels expected to rise in the coming decades, climate change threatens to impact the country’s food security and poses 6 million people at risk of climate displacement. Likewise, sea level rise poses serious inundation threats to Tunisian coastal area that contains approximately 70% of the country’s total population and represents nearly 80% of economic activities and 90% of the total housing capacity for tourism. Bahrain and Kuwait also host major population concentrations, infrastructure, and investments within 100 km of the coast and are at high risk of inundation and coastal erosion.

The Paris Agreement on climate change, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) made strong references to risks, noting that development will not be sustainable unless climatic risks and natural disasters are addressed to ensure risk-informed and climate-resilient development. Sustainable development is only possible when disaster hazards, and current and future climate risks are accounted for in planning and budgeting to achieve the SDGs. Climate change adaptation (CCA) and addressing loss and damage increasingly triggered by climate disasters are a major focus of COP27 which will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Managing disaster risks and building resilience to climate change is a priority for the Arab region and critical agenda for COP27 to address the social vulnerability, growing levels of fragility, and the need to put in place resilient forms of development and recovery from the crisis. Building capacities for integrated approaches for CCA and DRR helps make communities more resilient to risks from climate change and natural disasters. Integrated CCA-DRR actions also help improve the prospects for recovery from conflict when the war does eventually cease. In addition, the integration of CCA-DRR actions into the recovery of key economic sectors also provides means of building back better and ensuring that results are able to withstand future climate disasters.

Partners and Participants

The Policy Roundtable will be virtually co-hosted by the LAS, the Government of Japan, and UNDP with approximately 60~80 participants, including representatives from the LAS member states, the Government of Japan, UNDP, and other UN and Arab agencies, providing a platform for policy discussion among these institutions, IFIs, private sector, academia, and think tanks active in the region.