> The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) of UNCDF:
Climate Change Impacts on Natural and Human Systems “For women, the road was crucial. It was hard to deliver babies because of access: we had to go to the hospital by boat – it was risky. And also for the children, floods made it impossible for them to study like the others. Now we do not lose sleep over this anymore and we have much better access to services when we need them”. Mrs Seng Sareth, the first deputy in a commune council of Cambodia explains in those words how capital finance for local climate change adaptation can change people’s lives.
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ccording to the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report (IPCC, 2014), in recent decades changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents (see Figure 1). Africa as whole is one of the most vulnerable regions due to its high exposure and low adaptive capacity. Climate change will amplify existing stress on water availability and exacerbate vulnerability of agricultural systems particularly in semi-arid areas. Climate change is also expected to act as a multiplier of existing health vulnerabilities.
“Adaptation is placeand context-specific and local governments are increasingly recognized as critical to progress in adaptation.”
In Asia, coastal and marine systems are under increasing pressure from both climatic and nonclimatic drivers while multiple stresses caused by rapid urbanisation, industrialisation and economic development will be compounded by climate change. Extreme climate events are also expected to have an increasing impact on human health, security, livelihoods, and poverty (IPCC, 2014).
Local governments are in a unique position to identify the climate change adaptation responses that best meet local needs, and typically have the mandate to undertake the small- to mediumsized adaptation investments required for building climate resilience. Yet they frequently lack the resources to do so – and even more to do so in a way that is aligned with established decision-making processes and public planning and budgeting cycles.
Adaptation can contribute to the well-being of populations, the security of assets and the maintenance of ecosystem goods, functions and services. Adaptation is place- and contextspecific and local governments are increasingly recognised as critical to progress in adaptation.
The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) of the UN Capital Development Fund was designed and initiated in 2012 to address this challenge by delivering adaptation finance through local government systems in an effective and transparent manner.
DELIVERING ADAPTATION FINANCE AT LOCAL LEVEL The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) provides a mechanism to integrate climate change adaption into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems, increase awareness and response to climate change at local level, and increase the amount of finance available to local governments for climate change adaption. LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants, which ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level, with technical and capacity building support. LoCAl grants provide a financial top-up to cover the additional costs of making investments climate resilient, and are channelled through existing government fiscal transfer systems (rather than parallel or ad hoc structures). LoCAL grants are disbursed as part of a local government’s regular budget envelope and can thus finance the adaptation element of larger projects, allowing for holistic responses to climate change. LoCAL uses the demonstration effect to trigger further flows for local adaptation, including national fiscal transfers and global climate finance for local authorities, through their central governments. LoCAL offers a proven mechanism for the
“We encourage all LDCs (...) to take advantage of the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility to enhance their local governments’ capability to discharge their responsibility in the implementation of the National Adaptation Plans”, Ministers and representatives of Asia and Pacific LDCs, Kathmandu, Nepal, December 2014 198
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