February 2018: Recent publications have brought to the fore the interrelationship between SDG 13 (climate action), and SDGs 1 (no poverty), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 10 (reduced inequalities) and 11 (sustainable cities and communities).

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Overseas Development Institute (ODI) issued a report titled, ‘Climate change, migration and displacement: The need for a risk-informed and coherent approach,’ addressing the challenges of linking human mobility to climate change. The publication discusses migration as an adaptation strategy, and risk-informed planning for human mobility, and provides an overview of regimes addressing climate change and human mobility at the global level.

Although both migration and climate change are addressed in the SDGs, within the SDGs, there are very few connections between migration and a range of development areas.

The report explains that although both migration and climate change are addressed in the SDGs, within the SDGs, there are very few connections between migration and a range of development areas, including climate change. While SDG 13 focuses exclusively on climate change, SDGs 8, 10 and 17 (partnership for the Goals) point to the need for facilitated, planned and well-managed migration policies, but do not make the connection with climate change. [Climate Change, Migration and Displacement: The Need for a Risk-informed and Coherent Approach] [Publication Landing Page] [WeADAPT Press Release]

The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation (ETC/CCA) published a technical paper titled, ‘Social vulnerability to climate change in European cities – state of play in policy and practice.’ The report highlights the interlinkages among SDGs 13 and 1 (no poverty), 10 and 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of policy and practice for assessing social vulnerability and developing socially just adaptation responses to climate change in urban areas. [Social Vulnerability to Climate Change in European Cities – State of Play in Policy and Practice] [Publication Landing Page]

Other noteworthy publications on the various aspects of climate change adaptation that have been released over the past few weeks include:

• ‘Climate Change in MENA: Challenges and Opportunities for the World’s Most Water Stressed Region’ by the World Bank;
• ‘Hawaiian Islands Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Synthesis’ by EcoAdapt;
• ‘Gendered Experiences of Adaptation to Drought: Patterns of Change in El Sauce, Nicaragua’ by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI);
• ‘What Roles Could Private Actors Play in Agricultural Adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa? Insights from Publicly Funded Projects’ by SEI; and
• ‘Impact of Climate Change on Select Value Chains in Mozambique’ by USAID.

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The SDG Knowledge Hub publishes regular adaptation and loss and damage updates that can be found under the tag Adaptation and Loss and Damage Update.