National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs)

The Marrakech Accords (COP 7) established a separate work programme for LDCs. This work programme includes the preparation of NAPAs, which opens up a simplified channel for LDCs to inform the international community of their prioritised urgent and immediate adaptation needs. The newly created LDC Fund will fund the preparation of NAPAs. In order to support LDCs in their preparation and implementation of NAPAs, the Marrakech Accords launched a LDC Expert Group (LEG) with a mandate to provide technical guidance and advice to LDCs and to facilitate information exchange and promote synergies with other multilateral environmental treaties as well as regional synergies.

National Adaptation Programme of Actions (NAPAs) are documents specifying a list of priority activities that will communicate immediate and urgent needs of LDCs, considering their high vulnerability and low adaptive capacity to climate change. The development of a NAPA document is not only intended to identify and prioritise urgent adaptation needs of LDCs but also help build capacity for the development of NatComs and to meet their obligations to the UNFCCC. An overview of climate variability, and observed and projected climate change and associated actual and potential adverse effects of climate change should be documented. This overview should be based on existing and ongoing studies and research, and/or empirical and historical information as well as traditional knowledge.

The main characteristics of a NAPA is that, it should be easy to understand, action oriented, country driven, and set clear priorities for urgent and immediate adaptation activities identified by each individual country. These adaptation activities and measures will also take into account the national planning processes, development goals and other multilateral environmental agreements and also identify potential barriers to implementation. The objective of a NAPA is to “serve as a simplified and direct channel of communication for information relating to urgent and immediate adaptation needs of LDCs”. The key outcome of the NAPA process is the identification of activities that should be pursued immediately, because further delay in implementing the activities could lead to increased vulnerability, or higher costs for delayed implementation. It has been highlighted by the UNFCCC that NAPAs should have a bottom-up action plan, not be just another lengthy document that joins the ranks of other action plans. The ending product should be a concise and well justified list of actions and projects to address priority vulnerabilities for the country or to build capacity to address those vulnerabilities.

What are LDCs

Three criteria, developed by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, are used to determine which countries belong to the LDC group. The first one is the low-income criterion, which is based on a three-year average estimate of the GDP per capita. The GDP per capita must be under US$900 to be included in the LDC group and above US$1,035 to graduate from that group. The second criterion is the human resource weakness criterion, which involves the Augmented Physical Quality of Life Index (APQLI) based on nutrition, health, education and adult literacy indicators. The final criterion is the economic vulnerability criterion, which involves the Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) based on indicators of: the instability of agricultural production, the instability of exports of goods and services, the economic importance of nontraditional activities (share of manufacturing and modern services in GDP), merchandise export concentration, and the handicap of economic smallness.

The LDCs have contributed least to the emission of greenhouse gases (see Figure 2), but are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, because of both their locations in some of the most vulnerable regions of the world (areas prone to floods, droughts, etc.), and their low capacity to adapt to such events.

Africa is the most vulnerable region to climate change, due to the extreme poverty of many Africans, frequent natural disasters such as droughts and floods, and agricultural systems heavily dependent on rainfall. The main climate change impacts will be on water resources, food security and agriculture, natural resource management, biodiversity and human health. Although most LDCs are located in Africa (see Figure 1), those in Asia are also vulnerable. Issues of concern in Asia include water availability, food security and agriculture, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human health. Several LDCs are also small island states. These will face similar challenges, and countries such as the Maldives and Kiribati may even disappear if significant sea-level rise occurs.