Hybrid: 25 June – 3 July 22
London Climate Action Week is the largest independent climate event in Europe. Every year it brings together climate change experts and communities from across this global city and beyond. In 2022 the focus was on delivering on the promises made at COP26 in Glasgow last year. Practical Action seized this opportunity to put the people we work with on the frontlines of the climate crisis at the centre of climate action. If you want to know what other events we are participating in during 2022 as we gear up for COP27 visit our event page.
Why were Practical Action at LCAW?
Climate change is already happening and forcing people around the world to change their ways of life. Those hardest hit by the impacts tend to be the people least responsible for causing the climate crisis and who have the least resources to cope.
At Practical Action we think this is unfair. More investment is needed in solutions that help people adapt to their changing situations. And, where it is too late to adapt, losses should be compensated fairly by those with the means to pay and the largest carbon footprints.
At the UN climate negotiations in Glasgow in November 2021 some progress was made towards this. But we need to do much better at COP27 in Egypt autumn 2022. The London Climate Action Week theme 2: The Road to COP27 on Adaptation and Ambition was an opportunity to collaborate with others who share our vision of fair climate action that centres those most affected by the crisis.
Through a number of events, we amplified the voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis and shared our experiences of working with them to adapt to the changing climate. We also learned from others’ experiences which will help us develop new and existing partnerships to build a world that works better for everyone.
Catch up with Practical Action’s events at London Climate Action Week
Local adaptation in Africa: How global policy can enhance local action
Webinar: talk & interactive session
2022 is bringing us an African COP, where local climate action will play a central role. Communities across the world are in urgent need of locally appropriate adaptation actions to increase their resilience to climate impacts and protect their lives and livelihoods.
That why in this London Climate Action Week session, Practical Action puts a spotlight on the impacts of climate change in Kenya and Sudan. We bring together climate change experts from Kenya and will share examples of work we’re doing with communities to help them adapt to the changing climate.
We look into three questions:
- What are the most urgent adaptation challenges communities in Africa are facing?
- How can local climate actions be linked to national adaptation plans?
- How can we raise a demand for better support for locally led adaptation actions at COP27?
To tackle these we brought together Peter Odhengo (National Treasury, Kenya), John Kioli (Kenya Climate Change Working Group), Clement Nadio (Turkana County, Kenya) who shared their expertise on the impact of climate change on Kenyan communities who struggle to make end meets with diminishing access to natural resources, the need for increased and better targeted, climate finance to meet the needs of these communities and examples of adaptation actions taking place already.
Our colleagues Caroline Gathu (Kenya) and Awadalla Hamid Mohamed (Sudan) shared examples of our work with communities which allows them to adapt to the changing climate. You can learn more about our Integrated Water Resources Management work in Sudan, and our work in Kenya.
CBA16 and locally led adaptation: an interactive dialogue
Webinar: talk & interactive session
The principles for locally led adaptation aim to ensure that local communities in the most vulnerable countries lead sustainable and effective adaptation to climate change in their own contexts.
These principles are endorsed by nearly 80 governments, global institutions, local and international NGOs (including Practical Action). But how do we make the transitions needed to see them delivered in practice? What does success look like from the ground up, and what should we expect from COP27?
These are the questions this interactive session from our International Conference on Community-based Adaptation partners IIED, ICCCAD, Global Resilience Partnership, Climate Justice Resilience Fund, Friendship, CARE, Green Africa Youth Organization, and Irish Aid, focused on.
Watch the recording to learn more about the locally led adaptation principles, find out how they connect to examples of action happening in climate change impacted communities and gain insight on why we need decentralised climate action at COP27.
New Social Contract: transforming finance for loss and damage
Webinar: talk & interactive session
It is unfair that the poorest people are paying the highest cost for the impacts of climate change. They have they have done little to cause it and can least afford the costs. Instead, we need a global system that can deliver compensation for communities experiencing irreversible damages from climate change.
At the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year some progress was made towards such a system, but there is still a long way to go. This well attended event, co-hosted by CAN International, Christian Aid, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Practical Action and Stamp Out Poverty, explored what a more equal system might look like, and delved into some innovative ideas on how we achieve this.
