12 April 2019: The sixth NAP Expo sought to promote the exchange of experiences and foster partnerships to advance National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). The Expo convened under the theme, ‘Raising Adaptation Ambition by Advancing NAPs,’ during Korea Global Adaptation Week, which sought to identify innovative ways to raise ambition to build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Korea Global Adaptation Week took place in Songdo, Republic of Korea, from 8-12 April 2019, and included four main events:

• NAP Expo 2019, organized by the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Expert Group (LEG) under the UNFCCC in collaboration with partners, which included a multitude of plenary sessions and parallel events;
• The first-ever ‘Resilience Frontiers’ event, which convened from 8-12 April to address maximizing long-term resilience beyond 2030 by harnessing the potential of emerging technologies and new sustainability trends, while mitigating associated risks;
• The 2019 Adaptation Forum, organized by the UNFCCC’s Adaptation Committee on 10 April to discuss ways to increase private sector engagement in adaptation planning; and
• The Regional Technical Expert Meeting on Adaptation (TEM-A), convened on 11 April under the theme, ‘Adaptation Finance, Including the Private Sector,’ which focused on enhancing private sector participation in financing adaptation to climate change. The event was organized by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as part of the technical examination process on adaptation (TEP-A) under the UNFCCC.

During the NAP Expo, participants urged countries to increase their climate ambition and to scale up resilience-building efforts. Four NAPs were presented by Ethiopia, Togo, Honduras and Burkina Faso. To date, 13 NAPs have been submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat.

The NAP Expo also featured a range of tools and applications to help countries improve their national strategies to address climate impacts. The Expo also launched the Global Youth Adaptation Dialogue to increase youth engagement in adaptation.

Four organization launched supplementary materials to the UNFCCC’s Technical Guidelines for NAPs. UN-Habitat presented a guide on ‘Addressing Urban and Human Settlement Issues in NAPs’ to help countries integrate human settlements into their NAPs.

The Global Water Partnership (GWP) launched a publication titled, ‘Addressing Water in National Adaptation Plans: Water Supplement to the UNFCCC NAP Technical Guidelines,’ which aims to support countries in translating their water-related resilience priorities to action when they formulate and implement NAPs and help realize the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the SDGs and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) launched the supplement titled, ‘Financing Local Adaptation to Climate Change: Experiences with Performance-based Climate Resilience Grants,’ which provides countries with a mechanism to integrate adaptation into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems, and increase the amount of adaptation finance available to local governments.

The NAP Global Network introduced guidance on ‘Engaging the Private Sector in National Adaptation Planning Processes.’

A series of Open NAP sessions also took place during the week. This LEG initiative sought to demonstrate technical adaptation planning concepts, testing and developing innovative approaches and developing good practices, based on country experiences. A crowdsourcing approach was discussed to attract specialists in different adaptation planning areas and to promote wider use of regional or global products. Open NAPs also discussed the Integrative Framework for NAPs and the SDGs (NAP-SDG iFrame), which takes an integrated approach towards country-driven and country-specific systems to achieve adaptation and contribute to the SDGs.

During the Expo, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) organized an event on achieving co-benefits of climate change adaptation and land degradation neutrality (LDN), and the potential of and challenges faced in pursuing both adaptation and LDN by advancing NAPs. Participants stressed the need for the three Rio Conventions and their funding mechanisms to promote integrated projects and for encouraging and rewarding integrated co-benefit approaches. [UNCCD Press Release]

The Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) showcased the ways in which climate technologies are being used to support NAP implementation in coastal zones. For example, in Antigua and Barbuda, the CTCN responded to destruction caused by a category-five hurricane by helping to develop a strategy to adapt facilities of existing public utilities to maintain structural, electrical and water supply integrity when disasters hit. The project will help contribute to SDGs 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 13 (climate action). In Mauritius, where 50% of beaches are expected to be lost by 2050 as a result of sea level rise, the CTCN has been supporting resilience building for the country’s port. The Mauritius project will help advance SDGs 8 (decent work and economic growth), 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) and 13. [CTCN News Story] [NAP Expo Website, Including Daily Blog Posts] [Korea Global Adaptation Week Website] [UNFCCC News Story on Korea Global Adaptation Week] [UNFCCC News Story on Increased Ambition in Resilience Building] [UNFCCC News Story on Accelerating Progress Towards a Climate-resilient Future]