The Climate Adaptation Platform A new initiative to respond to the demands of climate adaptation in Asia Pacific. This document provides an overview of its mission and approach to brief prospective industry partners on the scale of the opportunity. The need Climate change is now accepted, and the world’s attention is now turning towards adapting to, and mitigating, its worst effects. Global average temperatures are expected to be 2C warmer by 2050, bringing more extreme weather events, such as more intense rainfall, more frequent and intense droughts, as well as floods and heat waves. The World Bank, for instance, warns that global warming will have ‘dramatic implications for how countries manage their economies, care for their people, and design their development paths’. It estimates that the cost of adaptation for developing countries to a warmer world by 2050 is in the range $70 billion to $100 billion per year. Adaptation includes breeding crops that are drought- and flood-tolerant, and climateproofing infrastructure to make them resilient to climate risks. The highest overall cost will be borne by East Asia and the Pacific, with adaptation required to infrastructure, coastal zones, and water supply, as well as agriculture and human health. The International Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report says whilst there is still some uncertainty about the extent of sea-level rise (average projections range from 0.4 m to 0.7 m by 2100, with a projected maximum of 0.98 m), there is no uncertainty about whether the sea level will rise. The consequences, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), will impact hundreds of millions of people living in Asia and the Pacific. There are more
than 60 cities of >100,000 people in lowelevation coastal zones. Of the 25 cities in the world most exposed to a 1-metre rise in sea-level, 12 are in Asia, and seven are in the Philippines alone. The Asian Development Bank’s response has been to increase its adaptation financing by 77%, to $998 million in 2013. Investments in transport account for 43% of its total lending pipeline in 2015-17,
private sector interests in leading projects in climate adaptation.
some $13.8 billion. The ADB’s overall lending pipeline for 2015-17 is $32.1 billion.
transportation and infrastructure, structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, hydrology and coastal engineering, building management, to disaster responses and resilience. It combines the insights from the latest research with the practical experience of New Zealand’s largest engineering and construction consultancies. Its thinking on resilience and recovery draws on research findings from the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes and other recent disasters, such as the 2009 Australian bushfires.
In 2016, the World Bank announced that it will increase share of its portfolio for climate adaptation from 21% to 28%, with total financing (including leveraged co-financing) of an estimated $29 billion by 2020. It estimates that $90 trillion investment will be needed in low-carbon, climate resilient infrastructure by 2030. It plans to expand its partnerships with research groups and
The response The Climate Adaptation Platform has been formed in response to the challenge of climate adaptation in Asia Pacific. It brings together New Zealand’s leading engineers and researchers in relevant fields, from