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On 4 April, a regional workshop dedicated to national adaptation strategies and plans was held within the EU funded “EU4Climate” project in Warsaw.
The Adaptation Component of the EU4Climate project supports adaptation planning, with a special focus on development and adoption of adaptation plans both at national and sectoral levels. With the primary focus to strengthen countries’ efforts toward national adaptation plans (NAP) and seize linkages to disaster risk reduction and natural hazard management, the workshop intended to build a discussion on the transition from development of NAP plans into adaptation actions.
With participation of about 50 representatives from the governments of EaP countries, practitioners and experts from EU member states and environmental institutions, the workshop aimed at supporting policy makers and technical officials in climate adaptation policy making through sharing experiences and approaches to adaptation in the EU members states and outside.
Welcoming the participants, Nikolas Cendrowitz from the Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) mentioned, “As the EaP countries face climate change effects more seriously as compared to other regions, the time for action is now. Since countries continue to inform on their implementation of adaptation priorities under Paris Agreement, the EU stays true to support these countries to face the unavoidable impacts of climate change through development and implementation of adaptation policies.”
Mrs. Laura Altinger, the Team lead on Climate, Nature and Energy, UNDP Regional Office, welcomed the substantial efforts by EaP countries’ towards enhancing their climate mitigation and adaptation actions under “EU4Cliamte” project.
“EU4Climate is proud to assist the EaP countries to develop the updated NDCs, LEDs and to support them for closer climate policy alignment to the EU policies. This workshop will serve a productive platform for sharing the experience and good practices of the EU institutions and member states, as adaptation is brought to the forefront against the rising extreme weather events and the growing needs to adapt to these conditions,” mentioned Mrs. Altinger.
Afterwards, the representatives from EaP countries presented their states of play in developing and implementing adaptation strategies, outlining their expectations from the workshop.
Mrs. Anna Mazlumyan, the Chief Specialist of Climate Policy Department, Ministry of Environment of Armenia, delivered a presentation on the climate policy framework and agenda of Armenia, emphasizing the adaptation actions on national, subnational, and sectoral levels, as well as the key climate activities rising from the NAP implementation.
As part of inter-regional exchange on the national adaptation plans and the case studies in countries, Ms. Naira Aslanyan, the Team Leader for NAP Implementation and Monitoring, UNDP Armenia, spoke on Armenia’s experience in undertaking climate risk and vulnerability assessment (CRVA) within UNDP-GCF NAP Project. In particular, she provided the context for adaptation, the progress on national and sectoral adaptation processes and the legal framework for the implementation of NAP. Ms. Aslanyan also presented the methodologies for CRVA conduction, the socio-economic dimensions of CRVA, as well as the key challenges and barriers encountered and the measures to address them throughout developing CRVAs.
The subsequent discussions focused on approaches of developing adaptation communications, the Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work program, the EU strategic approach to adaptation planning and cross-border and trans-border cooperation mechanisms, and status of the reported national adaptation actions in the EU, as presented by the representatives from UNFCCC, European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action, (DG CLIMA) and European Environment Agency.
Furthermore, transboundary climate and adaptation risks, knowledge and data gaps in transboundary setting, and the ways the countries and regions are tackling these cross-border risks to build stronger resilience were presented.
The workshop facilitated a dialogue between the participants revealing the main issues and challenges the countries are facing in designing their adaptation plans and promoted an exchange of knowledge on national and sub-national activities, as well as provided a significant guidance on adaptation implementation based on the key learnings and experiences shared by the countries.
