Speaker 1: Welcome to zero.
Speaker 2: I am Akshatrati today funding flooding and floating. Three years
Speaker 2: after the Paris Agreement was signed, then United Nations chief
Speaker 2: Banky Moon saw there was progress on commitments to cut emissions,
Speaker 2: but almost none on adapting to climate impacts. Today, close
Speaker 2: to four billion people live in environments that are highly
Speaker 2: vulnerable to climate change, and so Banky Moon, alongside other
Speaker 2: world leaders, created the Global Commission on Adaptation to promote
Speaker 2: solutions and figure out how much it might cost. The
Speaker 2: answer is around two trillion dollars by twenty thirty. It's
Speaker 2: hard to move that kind of money without a big plan.
Speaker 2: So after they had figure Banky Moon and his colleagues
Speaker 2: created another initiative, the Global Center for Adaptation, to act
Speaker 2: as a solutions broker and to figure out how to
Speaker 2: finance adaptation projects. Now I've said the word adaptation a lot,
Speaker 2: but what does it mean?
Speaker 1: If you talk about climate adaptation, people really get very tired,
Speaker 1: very quickly because it's very abstract. But it's also it's
Speaker 1: about people. It's about a small hall of farmer using
Speaker 1: drought tolowant crops. It is about a mother in let's
Speaker 1: say Bangnades taking a family to a cyclone shelter. It's
Speaker 1: very concrete, tough.
Speaker 2: This is Patrick Ferqueen, the head of the Global Center
Speaker 2: for Adaptation and my guest today. While climate adaptation might
Speaker 2: seem vague, it is easy to visualize flood defenses, cooling shelters,
Speaker 2: heat resilient crops. The problem is the financial system we
Speaker 2: have today is not funding it all. That might start
Speaker 2: to change, especially if negotiators at COP twenty eight agree
Speaker 2: on a global goal for adaptation. The hope is it
Speaker 2: would specify the kinds of investments needed to be prioritized,
Speaker 2: giving a strong signal to the financial industry to finally
Speaker 2: start to fund them. I spoke with Patrick at COUP
Speaker 2: twenty eight about how he is trying to close that
Speaker 2: funding gap, how that money is being used, and the
Speaker 2: future of climate migration. Patrick, welcome to the show, Thank
Speaker 2: you so much. When it comes to climate change, there
Speaker 2: are many many issues to try and tackle. The biggest
Speaker 2: and the one that most people talk about is reducing
Speaker 2: emissions because that will allow warming to stop eventually and
Speaker 2: maybe if he pulls he or two back from the air,
Speaker 2: even reverse it. But in the intervening period we're already
Speaker 2: at one point three degrees celsius of warming, and there's
Speaker 2: a bunch of warming that we've kind of baked in,
Speaker 2: which means climate impacts are already worse and they will
Speaker 2: continue to get worse. So a second pillar of trying
Speaker 2: to tackle climate change is to actually adapt to the
Speaker 2: warming that we've already put into the atmosphere. But we
Speaker 2: don't talk about adaptation as much on a global stage
Speaker 2: as we need to.
Speaker 1: Why is that that's exactly right because adaptation was positioned
Speaker 1: in the Pairs Agreement in twenty fifteen as the second
Speaker 1: pillar as part of the climate agreement. We have to
Speaker 1: adapt already today, and we are adapting already today, but
Speaker 1: unfortunately that adaptation in action is not at a scale
Speaker 1: which is required, is also at the speak which is required.
Speaker 1: That is why five years ago Bunky Moon, Bill Gates,
Speaker 1: and Crystallina Yogeva, the head of the IMF, they came together.
Speaker 1: They said, well, we have to elevate the political heat
Speaker 1: on their climate adaptation and they launched a so called
Speaker 1: Global Commission on Adaptation. They said, well, if the world
Speaker 1: were to invest in five key areas early warning systems, climate,
Speaker 1: small agriculture, resilient infrastructure, mangrove restoration, sustainable water management. If
Speaker 1: the world were to invest in these five critical areas
Speaker 1: and would mobilize one point seven trillion dollars between twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen and twenty thirty, the net economic benefits would be
Speaker 1: in the order of seven trillion dollars. So what these
Speaker 1: leaders try to do is basically change the narrative. Because
Speaker 1: you asked why is adaptation not front and center? Because
Speaker 1: it's seen as a sonk cost and not as an investment,
Speaker 1: and that's wrong. By not investing in adaptation, we are
Speaker 1: missing economic opportunities at scale.
Speaker 2: How are we doing with the one point seven trillion
Speaker 2: dollar climate adaptation goal by twenty thirty.
Speaker 1: We are moving forward, but not fast enough another at
Speaker 1: the scale required. Basically, what we see compared to twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen is that the adaptation finance gap is growing. So
Speaker 1: if I would give it a scorecard, I would say
Speaker 1: is a failing scorecut. That is the backdrop of this
Speaker 1: Dubai Climate Summit, and it has to be addressed, and
Speaker 1: it has to be addressed.
Speaker 2: Now, can you talk through specific examples of where projects
Speaker 2: in places that require adaptation are being deployed and what
Speaker 2: they look like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, take early warning systems. We know the facts
Speaker 1: is that half of the developing world does not have
Speaker 1: proper functioning early warning systems. We also know if you're
Speaker 1: living in the global South, the risk of your dying
Speaker 1: of a climate disaster is fifteen times higher than in
Speaker 1: the global North. So one of the solutions to that
Speaker 1: sort of imbalance is to have early warning systems. Which
Speaker 1: country has been pioneering this, well, actually that's Banglades Take
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy. In nineteen seventy, most of your listeners may
Speaker 1: notice a massive cyclone hits Banglades in India. Five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people alone diet in Bangladesh because of this incoming cyclone.
Speaker 1: What did they do since then, they had mangrove restoration,
Speaker 1: they had earlier warning systems, they built cyclone shelters. So
Speaker 1: fast forward twenty nineteen, a similar type of cyclone came
Speaker 1: into Bangladesh. How many people died in the order of
Speaker 1: twenty So if a country like Bangladesh can move forward
Speaker 1: on adaptation, certainly the rest of the world can. I
Speaker 1: was recently myself in Bangladesh where I met with Prime
Speaker 1: Minister Shai Casina as he said, well, we're investing out
Speaker 1: of our own taxpayers money two billion dollars of financing
Speaker 1: into climate adaptation, but our investment needs on adaptation is
Speaker 1: not two billion dollars which we pay ourselves, it's eight
Speaker 1: billion dollars per year. So there is this massive gap
Speaker 1: of financing to flow into adaptation. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why the international community is basically coming here to
Speaker 1: Dubai is to find a way around who will pay
Speaker 1: for what.
Speaker 2: One thing that helps keep the pressure on reducing emissions
Speaker 2: very clear and persistent is because we have clear targets.
Speaker 2: Right the one point five goal has been translated into
Speaker 2: reaching net zero CO two emissions by twenty to fifty globally.
Speaker 2: That means every entity can contribute towards reducing those emissions.
Speaker 2: There is a way to align all the people's work
Speaker 2: towards one target now adaptation. As we've just talked through,
Speaker 2: there are many many different things that need to be
Speaker 2: done because there's going to be more rain or less rain,
Speaker 2: there's going to be rising sea levels, or there's going
Speaker 2: to be too much heat, or there's going to be
Speaker 2: melting of permafrosts like that, all kinds of climate impacts
Speaker 2: that happen, all of which we need to try and
Speaker 2: figure out how to adapt to So is there a
Speaker 2: way in which you could come up with a goal
Speaker 2: for adaptation that would be clarifying, that would allow all
Speaker 2: these minds to align, just like net zero has done
Speaker 2: for mitigation.
Speaker 1: And that's precisely the homework global leaders are wrestling with
Speaker 1: here in Dubai during the Climate summit, because what is
Speaker 1: expected from them is that they agree on a global
Speaker 1: goal on adaptation. So and what will these global goal
Speaker 1: on adaptations say? Will it be something simple as it
Speaker 1: is on mitigation, i e. A ton of CO two reduced. No,
Speaker 1: it's not because adaptation is inherently local and it's multifaceted.
Speaker 1: So different proposals are on the table. One sort of
Speaker 1: overarging approach is it's not one goal, it's a framework, right,
Speaker 1: and negotiators from the Global SEUTH came forward with a
Speaker 1: very concrete proposal. I said, Wow, should we not agree
Speaker 1: that X billion people in the world would become climate resilient?
Speaker 1: But that's at the global level. Others would say, well,
Speaker 1: actually that's too abstract. Should we not break it down
Speaker 1: sector as sector? We just spoke about the early warning example.
Speaker 1: Should we not have a goal that say, by twenty
Speaker 1: twenty seven, all countries in the world should have a
Speaker 1: functioning early warning system. It's concrete, it's measurable, and it
Speaker 1: is very sort of impact oriented. Others would say, well, actually,
Speaker 1: should we also not have a goal of specific target
Speaker 1: on finance? Two years ago in Glasgow, the world agree
Speaker 1: to double adaptation finance from the base level twenty billion
Speaker 1: dollars to forty billion dollars by twenty twenty five. But
Speaker 1: we know, of course that that number forty billion is
Speaker 1: quite frankly a tokenistic number because the needs, the investment
Speaker 1: needs on adaptation in the global South alone is close
Speaker 1: to four hundred billion dollars a year. So there is
Speaker 1: all things to play for during this summit. This global
Speaker 1: goal on adaptation will help us to make the world accountable.
Speaker 2: Just in your own understanding of where things stand right now,
Speaker 2: where do you think we will end up with the
Speaker 2: global goal on adaptation? So global goals on adaptations.
Speaker 3: So I would say there will be a global framework
Speaker 3: on adaptation, So I'm optimistic about that there will be
Speaker 3: a common understanding of where the world needs to head towards,
Speaker 3: so that let's say, the annual reporting can and also
Speaker 3: be sort of accountable against a particular agreed framework.
Speaker 1: But I would think even more important than a framework,
Speaker 1: or in addition to the framework, the world and particularly
Speaker 1: countries need concrete plans. They need to see these are
Speaker 1: my priority investments. This is what the fundancing which I
Speaker 1: will put on the table. This is what I need
Speaker 1: from the private sector, this is what I need from
Speaker 1: the International finance Institution. It is very important that we
Speaker 1: move forward with concrete initiatives where financing is flowing. Why
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, that's the only
Speaker 1: growth story of the twenty first century, particularly for Africa.
Speaker 2: One reason why adaptation does not get talked about as
Speaker 2: much as well is because the warmer the planet gets,
Speaker 2: the need for adaptation changes. So what you're doing right
Speaker 2: now for certain things at one point two one point
Speaker 2: four degree celsius may be not good enough when you're
Speaker 2: at one point five or one point seven degrees celsius.
Speaker 2: So what do you do to deal with that problem
Speaker 2: where you've invested a bunch of money in an adaptation
Speaker 2: solution that seems to be working for now and for
Speaker 2: the near future, but then we go past a warming threshold.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think that's a very very important example, indeed,
Speaker 1: because lots of infrastructure in the world still is yet
Speaker 1: to be built, so I think it's important to take
Speaker 1: into consideration which climate reality are we actually building against.
Speaker 1: So that's why we as an organization, we're working with
Speaker 1: the African Development Bank, with the Weld Bank, Asian Development Bank,
Speaker 1: with the IMF when they sort of operationalize infrastructure investments
Speaker 1: to make sure that climate risks are mainstreamed into their design.
Speaker 1: Different models are taken into a place. How high should
Speaker 1: this highway be in a one point two degree world,
Speaker 1: What will be the sort of the extra high you
Speaker 1: need to build in a one point five degree world?
Speaker 1: What are the sort of the nature based solutions which
Speaker 1: you can put into place to address these additional climate risks.
Speaker 1: That's quite complex modeling obviously, which needs to take into
Speaker 1: a place. But the fact is many developments today are
Speaker 1: not taking into account these sort of these variations of
Speaker 1: climate risk. And that's exactly why climate adaptation is essentially
Speaker 1: about doing development differently by mainstreaming climate risk. And that's
Speaker 1: a very mundane and easy way to say, but in reality,
Speaker 1: lots of development finance is not taking this into account.
Speaker 1: That's a missed opportunity.
Speaker 2: So in a way, there's just a lot of low
Speaker 2: hanging fruit giving people don't even think about adaptation that
Speaker 2: could be used and enable more climate resilient infrastructure being
Speaker 2: built right now.
Speaker 1: And if I may want to add this, the World
Speaker 1: Bank recently came out of with report it so actually,
Speaker 1: if we build an infrastructure traditional infrastructure, it cost x,
Speaker 1: but if we were to build in resilient infrastructure right
Speaker 1: to use in terms of defending against these climate risk
Speaker 1: additional costs indeed three percent with three percent more expensive.
Speaker 1: But what is the economic return on that extra dollar
Speaker 1: pound or euro invested? Is a racial one to four.
Speaker 1: It's smart economics. So what I find quite intriguing is
Speaker 1: that it's also about narrative. Right, if you talk about
Speaker 1: climate adaptation, people really get very tired very quickly because
Speaker 1: it's very abstract. But it's about people. It's about a
Speaker 1: small hall of farmer using drought tolerant crops. It is
Speaker 1: about a mother in let's say Banglades taking a family
Speaker 1: to a cyclone shelter. It's very concrete touff and I
Speaker 1: think that people's centered focus gets lost also, a point
Speaker 1: which I think is important. What you see now particularly
Speaker 1: in Europe. Is this sort of the swing to the
Speaker 1: right right. I mean, you see the election results in
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, resort before in Sweden, and you see it
Speaker 1: in Italy. What will it do to the climate debate
Speaker 1: written large in particularly what would it do to the
Speaker 1: poor cousin of the climate debate climate adaptation? Would it
Speaker 1: be expected that a country like the Netherlands, which is
Speaker 1: built on climate adaptation, suddenly drop its investments, say in Africa,
Speaker 1: say in South Asia, say in the Caribbean. That will
Speaker 1: be very unwise because the issues and the challenges in
Speaker 1: Africa on climate change will not stay. If you want
Speaker 1: to address migration in Europe, you can invest a lot
Speaker 1: of walls around Europe, but it's also a very important
Speaker 1: investment to address in the drivers of this migration. Obviously
Speaker 1: not everything is climate induced, but it is one of
Speaker 1: the factors. So that's my calls to the right wing
Speaker 1: movements which are basically mushrooming in large parts of the world, and.
Speaker 2: So a lot of those solutions that need to be
Speaker 2: deployed in the global cuth to be able to deal
Speaker 2: with those problems require money, and let's talk about money.
Speaker 2: According to your latest climate Finance report, only five percent
Speaker 2: of global climate finance was invested in adaptation in twenty
Speaker 2: one to twenty two. That's about sixty three billion dollars.
Speaker 2: Your latest report says the funding gap is between one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty and four hundred billion dollars by twenty
Speaker 2: thirty per year per year.
Speaker 1: What do you see.
Speaker 2: As the best way to try and increase the money
Speaker 2: that goes towards adaptation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, taking into account the reality in Ukraine, development
Speaker 1: finance going down, the cost of living crisis in the
Speaker 1: West going up. In the rest of the world as well,
Speaker 1: given the exchange rate depreciation, particularly in the global South,
Speaker 1: given a depth crisis, sixty percent of developing nations are
Speaker 1: in depth distress. Against that backround, it's not realistic to
Speaker 1: assume that international public finance will be the solf of bullets.
Speaker 1: So where is that money needs to come from? While
Speaker 1: there was a host of sort of sources, first and foremost,
Speaker 1: I would think it's also the public expenditure in the
Speaker 1: home country itself. I just gave the example of bundandess
Speaker 1: it's investing two billion dollars of their own tech spased money.
Speaker 1: We need to make sure that that two billion dollars
Speaker 1: is spent wisely on the top priorities in that particular country. Secondly,
Speaker 1: what is also vital is where is the private sector
Speaker 1: in all of this? But they're largely absent in the
Speaker 1: adaptation space because the return on investment is not always straightforwards.
Speaker 1: If you build a dyke, it has clear sort of
Speaker 1: livelihood benefits, but the financial returns is not always there.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, there are opportunities in the adaptation space.
Speaker 1: Writt and Launch say I'm a seat company, and if
Speaker 1: I were to bring to the market drought tolerant seats,
Speaker 1: there is a market to be gained there. Let's go
Speaker 1: back to Africa, because it is the most vulnerable continent.
Speaker 1: How much finance is flowing from the global north to
Speaker 1: Africa to date, it's eleven billion dollars a year. How
Speaker 1: much is needed on an annual basis if you just
Speaker 1: look at the national determined contribution, the national adaptationment, if
Speaker 1: you just add everything up, how much is that fifty
Speaker 1: one billion dollars? So already for Africa alone, it's a
Speaker 1: forty billion dollar gap per year. And we will think, well,
Speaker 1: actually that is a lot, and it is a lot,
Speaker 1: But think about the economic benefits which we don't capture
Speaker 1: by investing in this. Think about the migration impacts which
Speaker 1: will result from this if we don't invest in this,
Speaker 1: So that cost of action visa vis the cost of inaction.
Speaker 1: I think that is why it's so important that we
Speaker 1: don't leave the climate adaptation debate and agenda to environment
Speaker 1: ministers alone. They're good people, nothing wrong with them, but
Speaker 1: the finance community needs to come around this agenda.
Speaker 2: After the break we hear more about local solutions and
Speaker 2: the people's adaptation plan. So one way in which we've
Speaker 2: been trying to understand climate finance is if you just
Speaker 2: split it into three types of money. One where if
Speaker 2: you invest, you can make profits, and so it is
Speaker 2: where the private sector should be taking the lead, should
Speaker 2: be jumping up and down to try and make that money.
Speaker 2: But then there's the middle bucket, which is where it's
Speaker 2: not yet clear whether you can make a profit from it.
Speaker 2: But from a government perspective, it's absolutely clear that there
Speaker 2: is an economic benefit like building a dike, like building
Speaker 2: a flood barrier. For that, governments should be able to
Speaker 2: borrow money in the form of barns or debt or
Speaker 2: some instrument and invest now so that they don't have
Speaker 2: to then end up paying a lot more money to
Speaker 2: deal with the impacts in the future. That requires governments
Speaker 2: to have the ability to borrow money, which, as you
Speaker 2: talked about, is a problem right now because the world's
Speaker 2: going through a dead crisis, especially in emerging economies developing countries.
Speaker 2: Are there specific ways in which that gap can be
Speaker 2: addressed where developing countries can be allowed to borrow for
Speaker 2: adaptation finance.
Speaker 1: So there are these very interesting sort of innovative mechanisms
Speaker 1: which are basically coming up right now. Take Senegal, West Africa.
Speaker 1: President Makisal put forward a deal with IMF right around
Speaker 1: the so called RSF another acronym resilient sustainability facility. So
Speaker 1: the IMF said, well, we know that your economy, Senegal,
Speaker 1: is vulnerable to climate shocks, and that vulnerability of your
Speaker 1: economy will eventually translate into financial risk. So what if
Speaker 1: we IMF support you, Senegal in mainstreaming climate risk into
Speaker 1: your economic planning. With other words, if you invest your
Speaker 1: public expenditures on particular sectors, what is transport with the agriculture,
Speaker 1: take climate risk into account. At the same time, In return,
Speaker 1: Senegal said, well, that's good. So they received three hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars in terms of credit from the IMF to
Speaker 1: mainstream climate risk into their public expenditure process, which is great.
Speaker 1: But separately President Marquiselos said, well, we want to do more.
Speaker 1: We have lots of debt and our debt is increasing.
Speaker 1: What if we were to find an agreement with say
Speaker 1: bilateral creditors Germany, France, China, we say, you know what,
Speaker 1: you cancel our debt and in return of their debt cancelation,
Speaker 1: we invest that in climate adaptation efforts. This sort of
Speaker 1: debt for climate swaps. So that's an arena, let's say,
Speaker 1: a frontier area where the world should enter into. It's
Speaker 1: not just about oh, tax payers in the global north
Speaker 1: need to pay for climate adaptation in the global south.
Speaker 1: That's a way too simplistic. Way. There are different ways of,
Speaker 1: let's say, structuring these financial flows. And at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's not just about money, it's also about sound policies.
Speaker 1: You do need to have building codes which take into
Speaker 1: account the climate shocks not just off today but also
Speaker 1: off tomorrow, so that you don't build in a sort
Speaker 1: of a flop prone area and without being protected.
Speaker 2: Now, one of the leaders who was crucial in enabling
Speaker 2: the Global Center on Adaptation to be formed was Crystallina
Speaker 2: Georgieva at the IMF. Now, IMF has something called the
Speaker 2: Special Drawing Rights. These are just basically money in a
Speaker 2: way that global economies have access to. The larger the economy,
Speaker 2: the more money access they have through the IMF, and
Speaker 2: there's an idea where they can lend that on, lend
Speaker 2: that right to a developing country, and so that developing
Speaker 2: country then is able to borrow and lend money. Is
Speaker 2: that being used for adaptation at all? Is the IMF
Speaker 2: interested in having SDRs drawn into the adaptation debate?
Speaker 1: Yes, so the SDR, the Special Drawing Rise is sort
Speaker 1: of this mechanism indeed to mobilize additional financing the effactor
Speaker 1: on the international capital markets. And indeed Africa needs much
Speaker 1: more SDRs and have now. So we have been very
Speaker 1: focal to get more of the SDRs recycled on lended
Speaker 1: by the global north. In a nutshell, so the IMF
Speaker 1: particularly also, I would dare to say, because of Crystallinagorgava,
Speaker 1: because of our development background from the World Bank before,
Speaker 1: from the European Commission, humanitarian work before brought into the
Speaker 1: IMF work adaptation at the center. And that's why this
Speaker 1: SDR recycling is so important. It is being used as
Speaker 1: being now even transferred through institutions such as the African
Speaker 1: Development Bank. I mean the African Development Bank is I
Speaker 1: would say, setting the goal standard because they said, well,
Speaker 1: out of our overall climate finance portfolio, sixty five percent
Speaker 1: is going to climate adaptation. So there are sort of
Speaker 1: ways in where current funding Africa to Asia to the
Speaker 1: current being can be channels in a different way. It's
Speaker 1: not just new money, it's also using existing financial flows.
Speaker 2: Wisely, one other idea has been to try and put
Speaker 2: a levee on fossil fuel profits or on financial transactions,
Speaker 2: a very small levy that would end up with billions
Speaker 2: of dollars that would be available for climate finance. Is
Speaker 2: that something being talked about for adaptation specifically.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting you say, is let's say carbon pricing,
Speaker 1: putting a price on pollution is out there for I
Speaker 1: would say since the early nineties. Obviously it's currently being
Speaker 1: discussed here in Dubai around well, we need to put
Speaker 1: indeed a levee on the oil and gas industry because
Speaker 1: that can then fund loss and damage, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: but surprisingly enough again here this sort of rechanneling of
Speaker 1: finance extracted from basically a levy or tax on carbon
Speaker 1: pollution to fund adaptation specifically is a missed opportunity. But
Speaker 1: there is space also in this. I mean, it's just basically,
Speaker 1: how do you utilize their revenues collected from different sources.
Speaker 2: We should talk about the Global Center and Adaptation, and
Speaker 2: I think the best way to try and understand what
Speaker 2: you're doing is to recognize that your office in the
Speaker 2: Netherlands is the world's largest floating office. Very fitting for
Speaker 2: an organization that's trying to deal with adaptation was that
Speaker 2: by design.
Speaker 1: It was by design. I mean, what's the best way
Speaker 1: to showcase that adaptation is possible is to have being
Speaker 1: hosted in an office which indeed goes up twice a day,
Speaker 1: two meters up and two meters downs. It's the largest
Speaker 1: floating office. And that's also why we were so delighted
Speaker 1: that President Ruta of Kenya so actually there was a
Speaker 1: great office in the Netherlands of the Global Center and Adaptation.
Speaker 1: We Kenya will host the Africa Office in Kenya, which
Speaker 1: will be a fully nature based solution It also speaks
Speaker 1: to the point that adaptation in different context means different things.
Speaker 1: So obviously in Kenya is different than in the Netherlands.
Speaker 2: Your organization was founded only in twenty eighteen, so that
Speaker 2: sort of speaks to the point where even though adaptation
Speaker 2: has been something that we should have talked about from
Speaker 2: day one, we're only starting to really focus on it
Speaker 2: in the recent years. What is it that Global Center
Speaker 2: and Adaptation is now enabling as an organization that's been
Speaker 2: created in twenty eighteen and is trying to bring together
Speaker 2: these various strands that need to be dealt with as
Speaker 2: we try and deploy adaptive sos.
Speaker 1: So the Global Centerdate or GCA to use that acronym,
Speaker 1: what do we do on a Monday morning? The facto
Speaker 1: three things? One, well, very much focus on the political mobilization,
Speaker 1: sort of turn up the heat on political leaders, but
Speaker 1: quite frankly, political leaders speaking without the analytics, without the evidence,
Speaker 1: without the case studies, without the numbers, it's like sort
Speaker 1: of an emperor without clothes. So our second pillar is
Speaker 1: very much focused on analytics. Every year we issue our
Speaker 1: state and Trends on adaptation, which is basically a very
Speaker 1: concrete operational roape map, what other priority areas, where should
Speaker 1: you invest in, who should invest against? What sort of
Speaker 1: metrics is success being measured against a particular region or
Speaker 1: a sector. But the third pillar where we all will
Speaker 1: be just not just a global center in aupdate, but
Speaker 1: any organization. What are we doing on the ground at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. That's where the robber hits
Speaker 1: the road. Together with the African Development Bank, in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, we launched the largest adaptation program in the world,
Speaker 1: the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, the Triple AP twenty five
Speaker 1: billion dollars over five years, and in the last two
Speaker 1: years we have invested close to seven billion dollars in
Speaker 1: resiling infrastructure, drought tolerant crops, climate information systems, in youth
Speaker 1: and jobs, access to finance. So it's working, is moving,
Speaker 1: but again it's not at the scale and speed which
Speaker 1: is required.
Speaker 2: There's a lot to do on adaptation, but there is
Speaker 2: an area that is even less talked about, which is
Speaker 2: there will be places that become uninhabitable, unlivable, or just
Speaker 2: disappear because sea levels rise. How do you have those
Speaker 2: conversations with the countries that will have those regions coming
Speaker 2: up or are already there.
Speaker 1: Well, we don't have to tell people the climate impacts
Speaker 1: if you live in the global South, because they live
Speaker 1: being on the frontline of the climate emergency today. They're
Speaker 1: living at basically in their daily lives there they're moving from,
Speaker 1: say the Marshall Islands. Are ready to say California because
Speaker 1: there is a treaty between between the United States and
Speaker 1: and and the Marshal Islands for all sorts of other reasons.
Speaker 1: So this phenomena of sort of the impacts of climates
Speaker 1: basically tipping over sort of realities to adapt to it.
Speaker 1: That that is, that is very front and center for
Speaker 1: those who are living on the front lines today. Take
Speaker 1: for example, another topic which we haven't addressed yet is
Speaker 1: the psychological impact. I mean you see, say India, that
Speaker 1: there is a correlation between the level of suicide and
Speaker 1: sort of the ratio of droughts of small hall of farmers. Right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not the only factor, obviously we all
Speaker 1: understand that, but there is a strong correlation in that regard.
Speaker 1: So sort of the the implications at the societal level
Speaker 1: is not us financing. Financing is important. It's not just policies.
Speaker 1: Policies aren't important. It is also the human the psychological
Speaker 1: factors which need to be addressed, and so this is
Speaker 1: so this adaptation field, in my view, is so underdeveloped.
Speaker 1: Yet that's why it's so important that it's really being
Speaker 1: elevated at all levels.
Speaker 2: This has been an enlightening conversation and I look forward
Speaker 2: to keeping up with the topic and trying to find
Speaker 2: ways in which that gap can be filled. Thank you
Speaker 2: very much, Thank you for listening to Zero. Apart from
Speaker 2: this podcast, twice a day, we publish the Bloomberg Green newsletter.
Speaker 2: Sign up for free at Bloomberg dot com. There's a
Speaker 2: link in the show notes. You can now listen to
Speaker 2: Zero without ads. Just log into Apple Podcasts using your
Speaker 2: Bloomberg subscription. If you liked this episode, please take a
Speaker 2: moment to rate or review on Apple Podcasts and spot
Speaker 2: share this episode with a friend or with someone who
Speaker 2: might like to work in a floating office. You can
Speaker 2: get in touch at Zero pod at Bloomberg dot net.
Speaker 2: Zero's producer is Oscar Boyd and senior producer is Christine Driskell.
Speaker 2: Our theme music is composed by wonderly i am Akshatrati.
Speaker 2: Back soon with more from cop twenty eight