Weekly Assignment #12: Article 2

International Coalition Pushes for Adaptation to Climate Change

Web Link: http://www.iied.org/climate-change/media/international-coalition-pushes-for-adaptation-climate-change

In February, Bangladesh hosted the Third International Conference on Community Based Adaptation in Dhaka. At the conference a new initiative was established: the Global Initiative on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change. This initiative is focused on helping the world’s poorest communities adapt to climate change. This initiative is an example of international planning as discussed by Wheeler in chapter 7. In addition, this is also an example of sustainability planning through organizing and coalition building, as discussed in chapter 6.

Fifty countries had a presence at the conference through research institutions, non-profits, donors, etc. The coalition of institutions is tasked with developing best approaches to adapting to climate change. Some communication methods that were going to be utilized for the initiative were an online platform to be used to share information between groups. Additionally, further international conferences would be organized to share information, best practices, adaptation strategies, etc. The next conference is scheduled in Tanzania in September.

Another aspect mentioned in the article is the importance of providing adaptation methods that can be implemented at the community level. As discussed by Wheeler, industrialized and less developed countries experience different problems. The world’s poorest communities have inadequate funding towards climate change and hardly any investment in technology towards environmental issues. The technologies and methods developed by this coalition will have to be implemented at the community level. Therefore, strategies developed by the initiative must be affordable and realistic for these communities to put into operation. In essence, the industrialized world will be providing the toolkit for these communities.

This article addressed a few of Wheeler’s topics: international planning, coalition building, and industrialized vs. developing nations. International planning has its difficulties. There are language barriers and distance barriers. Through this global initiative, they have addressed these obstacles by developing an online platform and scheduling additional in-person conferences. Through the coalition building, theses groups will be able to share best practices and hopefully develop climate change methods for these communities.