Managing the effects of weather and climate is not a new activity in the Pacific. Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs), their people and communities, have always responded in many different ways to climaterelated challenges such as droughts, floods, cyclones and storm surges. More recently, the focus has shifted to reducing the risks related to weather and climatic variability and climate extremes, including those resulting from climate change due to global warming. At the regional level, responses to these risks have been guided by the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change (PIFACC) and the Pacific Regional Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management (referred to in this guide as the Regional Framework for Action or RFA); and their respective international instruments, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA).
PICTs have implemented a wide spectrum of initiatives and activities across national and subnational levels, targeting specific communities and sectors. These have focused on producing policies, plans and strategies as well as the on-the-ground initiatives aimed at reducing and managing disaster risks, including climate-compatible developments and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) measures. The Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) programme is an example of such an initiative. The PACC programme is funded under the Global Environment Facilityâs Special Climate Change Fund (GEF-SCCF) and implemented by UNDP in partnership with SPREP across 14 countries. Mainstreaming climate change into national and sector levels of policies and plans is one of the key objectives of the PACC programme, together with on-the-ground demonstration activities in each of the participating countries.
Recent reviews of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation projects in the Pacific, and discussions with disaster risk and climate change officers in various PICTs, have highlighted some challenges and gaps in knowledge relating to climate change and its mainstreaming into development planning and activities. People often ask questions such as:
- What does mainstreaming mean?
- Where in the development process should mainstreaming be applied?
- How can climate risk considerations be integrated in the development process?
- How can relevant climate change adaptation measures be identified?
- What information and knowledge is required to support a mainstreaming exercise?
- What institutional and human capacity may be required?
- Who needs to be involved in a mainstreaming exercise and what role should they play?
- What tools are available to support mainstreaming?
This guide aims to help answer these questions. It provides a practical step-by-step approach to mainstreaming climate risk considerations into the development processes used in PICTs. The guide covers mainstreaming at two broad levels: the strategic or policy level, and on-the ground initiatives or project level. The approach follows standard policy and project cycles, and combines elements from climate risk management. Many examples and case studies from the region are included, to illustrate mainstreaming as it is happening in practice.
This guide is targeted at in-country practitioners, staff in regional governments and organisations, and development partners, to assist and support their efforts to integrate climate risk into development planning and decision-making processes. Efforts to mainstream climate change into national development are at a relatively early stage in most PICTs, but in time there will be more experience, new information and new lessons learned. It is hoped that these can be shared and used to revise and update this guide in the next few years.