Climate Resilience in Development Planning
Experiences in Colombia and Ethiopia
Climate-related disasters have inflicted increasingly high losses on developing countries, and with climate change, these losses are likely to worsen. Improving country resilience against climate risks is therefore vital for achieving poverty reduction and economic development goals.
This report discusses the current state of knowledge on how to build climate resilience in developing countries. It argues that climate-resilient development requires moving beyond the climate-proofing of existing development pathways, to consider economic development objectives and resilience priorities in parallel. Achieving this will require political vision and a clear understanding of the relation between climate and development, as well as an adapted institutional set-up, financing arrangements, and progress monitoring and evaluation. The report also discusses two priorities for climate-resilient development: disaster risk management and the involvement of the private sector.
The report builds on a growing volume of country experiences on building climate resilience into national development planning. Two country case studies, Ethiopia and Colombia, are discussed in detail.
Implementing climate-resilient development
Disaster risk management and private sector involvement are both important for climate resilience. Improved integration of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation is needed to address current risks while preparing for future challenges. The chapter suggests ways of integrating the two approaches into development planning, focusing on institutions, risk reduction, and financial instruments to reduce the long-term impacts of disasters. The private sector is another important piece in the climate resilience puzzle, given its fundamental role in securing economic growth, and its potential for investing in resilience measures. The second part of the chapter examines how public policy can support private sector climate resilience. Priorities for this include raising awareness, providing data, and ensuring that regulatory frameworks and spending policies are conducive to building resilience.