IMPACT is a cross-cutting, multi-faceted project that aims to strengthen the connections between the scientific assessments of climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to help enable access to finance and help implement concrete projects in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).The project is implemented in three focus regions –the Pacific, West Africa and the Caribbean.
Due to the diverse and unique conditions of SIDS and LDCs, climate change poses an existential threat to many SIDS and LDCs and undermines sustainable development prospects for most. These climate-vulnerable countries often lack capacity to develop and implement science-based strategies for climate adaptation and mitigation, to access climate finance and to fully represent their interests at the international level. But they have a vital interest in being able to ensure an ambitious and 1.5°C limit-compatible implementation of the Paris Agreement in the period to 2020. The tools and methods of this project are co-developed with the partner organisations to follow regional requirements, ensure ownership and the establishment of long-term application capacities. Integration into the larger framework is ensuring comparability as well as transferability of results between regions.
The project aims to build sustainable capacity in partner regions in these dimensions:
Climate Finance and Implementation
This aspect of the project will support regional implementation, enhance long-term sustainable access to international climate finance and strengthen capacities of national and regional entities through co-development of institutional processes and plans, strategic stakeholder engagement, and regular regional training workshops throughout the project duration.
Climate Policy
IMPACT will assist with revising the 2020 NDCs & analyse transformational pathways, including emissions ambition requirements in line with the 1.5°C goal in the Paris Agreement, to inform implementation, climate finance investments, and adaptation needs.
Climate Science
Through IMPACT, scientific outputs and knowledge products will be co-developed with relevant actors to make use of them in the development and implementation of transformational climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Climate Diplomacy
IMPACT diplomacy will be aimed at enhancing SIDS and LDCs negotiators’ participation in the international climate negotiations (UNFCCC) by building on the expertise, networks and trust established through the highly successful SURVIVE and High Level Support Mechanism (HLSM) projects.
IMPACT is funded by the German Ministry of Environment as part of its International Climate Initiative, and is implemented by a wide range of partner institutions in the focus regions.
Project Features
2020 NDCs Revision
IMPACT assists with the enhancement of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to increase ambition and fast-track implementation within the NDC partnership. Climate Analytics is part of the NDC Support Cluster, established by the German Ministry of Environment as part of its International Climate Initiative (ICI), which aims to promote coordinated consultations and maximise synergies in the partner countries.
In an analysis prepared for the NDC Partnership our experts looked into the recent developments in terms of NDCs submission and renewables deployment. They also outlined a number of instruments that can be utilised to decrease the gap between current emissions trends and the Paris Agreement compatible emissions pathways.
Country Request Mechanism
One of the unique features that allows IMPACT to deliver tailored policy, technical and scientific support in the focus regions is the ‘country support request mechanism,’ developed with partner countries during the inception phase of the project.
This is how the mechanism works: the requesting body – which can be a regional organisation or a national government department, for example – contacts one of our regional partners (SPREP in the Pacific, CCCCC in the Caribbean and Climate Analytics Lomé in West Africa), specifying its climate-related needs. Our regional scientists then work with the requesting body and regional partners to develop the best approach to deliver this support. Since the implementation of the mechanism in 2017, IMPACT has responded to more than 20 requests. Details
Climate Tools
Open access, user-friendly, and interactive tools making climate projections easily available to policy makers and researchers for agriculture, energy, and human health.
Other tools developed under IMPACT and other Climate Analytics projects: RegioCrop, Local Sea Level Rise (Local SLR), RegioClim (developed under the PAS-PNA project)
Guidance for SIDS and LDCs on accessing climate finance
Under the IMPACT project, Climate Analytics aims to support SIDS (Small Island Developing States) and LDCs (Least Developed Countries) in accessing international climate finance. Feedback from the regions we support identified a lack of guidance and knowledge products on accessing international climate finance specifically tailored for SIDS and LDCs. These three briefings aim to provide targeted guidance to SIDS and LDCs on how to go about developing a GCF proposal, enhancing the Climate Rationale in GCF proposals and key elements to include when developing a proposal.
Climate Analytics has produced new climate tools as part of IMPACT. These include a map providing an overview of adaptation actions that have been taken by 11 countries in West Africa and the Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) since 2010; and another showing the additional economic damages – the costs of inaction – that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) face in a 3°C world compared with 1.5°C, the limit set out in the Paris Agreement.
Other tools developed under IMPACT and other Climate Analytics project: RegioCrop, Local Sea Level Rise (Local SLR), RegioClim (developed under the PAS-PNA project)
In September 2019, Climate Analytics hosted two webinars giving participants hands-on experience with the tools. The webinars took place in English and French and covered: RegioCrop, Local Sea Level Rise (Local SLR), RegioClim (developed under PAS-PNA project), Costs of Inaction; Adaptation Map
The IMPACT project co-organised a series of workshops on IPCC reports, one in Burkina Faso on the special report on Land (SR Land), and two on the special report on oceans and the cryosphere (SROCC), in Samoa and Belize. At the Burkina Faso workshop, co-organised with WASCAL, delegates from the organisations CILSS/AGHRYMET, UEMOA and ECOWAS as well as IPCC and UNFCCC focal points and key scientists from ten West African countries discussed important issues for the region arising from SR Land and ways of strengthening regional scientific cooperation. At the Samoa workshop, co-organised with the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, much of the focus was on how to strengthen SCROCC from a small island developing states (SIDS) perspective. In Belize, participants at the workshop co-organised with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and Charles Associates discussed pertinent SCROCC issues for the region and stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation amongst Caribbean countries on IPCC matters.
COVID-19 another shock for vulnerable countries facing multiple crises The coronavirus pandemic adds yet another shock to the multiple challenges that more than a billion people living in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) already face in day-to-day life. It is much more than a health crisis. It has the potential to create devastating health, social, economic and environmental crises that will leave a deep, long-lasting mark. However, it is an opportunity to adopt and implement sustainable solutions during the recovery process, also for LDCs, without losing sight of the climate crisis.
Facing Covid and climate, Pacific island capacity stretched As the economic impacts of COVID-19 on Pacific Small Island Developing States stretch into 2020, there is a real risk that longer-term strategic action on climate change will take a back seat, and countries struggling to keep up with rising tides risk losing further ground.
Berrang-Ford, L., Biesbroek, R., Ford, J.D., Lesnikowski, A., Tanabe, A., Wang, F.M., Chen, C., Hsu, A., Hellmann, J.J., P. Pringle., Grecequet, P.M., Amado J.C., S. Hu2, S., Lwasa, S., and Heymann .S.J. (2019) Tracking global climate change adaptation among governments. Nature Climate Change.
In collaboration with partner organisations, IMPACT organises regular workshops and provides support for regional preparatory meetings ahead of UNFCCC sessions for stakeholders and governments in the three project regions – Pacific, Caribbean and West Africa. You can find more information, photos and reports from these workshops here.
We organise and support public events to share the latest scientific information about how climate change affects vulnerable countries to amplify their call for urgent and ambitious climate action. You can find more information, photos and presentations from events organised through the IMPACT project here.
We are producing a series of webinars in 2020 to provide a comprehensive look at our IMPACT online work. Watch our first video to learn how to navigate our IMPACT climate tools.
Funder
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as part of its International Climate Initiative
Partner Organisations
Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC)
Le Comité Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS)
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL)
