Climate Resilience Initiative: Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape

December 26, 2015 – Did you know that in the past two decades, 90% of major disasters were weather related? There were nearly 7,000 record heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts. An average of 335 disasters per year occurred between 2005 and 2014, an increase of 14% over the previous decade, and that was twice the level recorded during the period from 1985 to 1995. Storms caused 242,000 deaths, 40% of the total loss of life from extreme weather, with 89% of the deaths occurring in the poorest countries.

An initiative to mitigate risk and adapt so countries can build resilience to weather events brought on by climate change was announced recently with its focus on the most vulnerable countries: small island nations, sub-Saharan Africa, and states in South and Southeast Asia. Called A2R the initiative acronym stands for Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape.

Thirteen major donors have pledged $1 billion U.S. to A2R with more than half the money coming from The Rockefeller Foundation. It has created The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance to pilot development of cutting edge climate financing and to attract private investment for mitigation and adaptation projects in developing countries. The Foundation in its independent tracking noted that over the last 30 years, 1 out of every 3 dollars invested in global development has been lost because of weather-related disasters. The total losses amount to $3.8 trillion.

The Foundation sees its role as an initiator in achieving sustainability for the world’s poorest through private investment and philanthropy. The $1 billion pledged represents a small start. The real dollars needed are much greater with estimates of between $70 and $100 billion per year to build capacity to adapt in the poorest nations on the planet. Nevertheless, A2R is going ahead with the initail $1 billion to address the following initiatives:

• Development of early warning weather systems for more than 50 of the least developed countries and small island nations by 2020.
• Insuring 400 million against weather damaging events in vulnerable countries for the next five years.
• Funding for the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative, to stop desertification and increase food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Launching other climate change resilience programs in Africa, South and Southeast Asia.
• Emergency funding for negative El Nino associated weather events in Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America with a focus on nutrition, water, sanitation, health and shelter.

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