Home to more than four billion people, over half the world’s population, the Asia Pacific region is diverse, dynamic, and rapidly changing.
The region encompasses seven out of the world’s ten largest cities, and the two most populated countries, China and India. It also hosts some of the world’s smallest nations including the Pacific small island states of Tuvalu, Nauru, and Palau.
Over past decades, a variety of forces – from rapid urbanization, a rising middle class, aging populations, technological changes, and critically, the impacts of climate change – have been transforming the landscape.
The emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 has caused further seismic shifts.
In this context, and with only nine years to realize the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, UNDP is supporting countries to accelerate progress through whole-of-society, integrated solutions. Ones that address the multi-dimensional nature of the challenges at hand.
The mission – to set the world on track to a more just, low-carbon, climate-resilient future – has never been more urgent.
By the SDGs: How UNDP’s climate adaptation work supports sustainable development across Asia and the Pacific
Despite a huge drop in people living in extreme poverty over the past three decades, approximately 700 million people still live on less than US$1.90 per day. Many are children. In the wake of COVID-19, the number is expected to rise for the first time in over 20 years.
Strengthened livelihoods are more important than ever in lifting and keeping people out of poverty.
To address the challenges, UNDP is introducing communities to climate-smart agricultural tools, training, and techniques while also offering climate-resilient livelihood alternatives.
In one example in Afghanistan, under a project backed by the Global Environment Facility-Least Developed Countries Fund, UNDP and the Ministry of Agriculture have been training farmers and pastoralists on climate risk and response measures and providing vulnerable rural communities with options such as beekeeping, greenhouse cultivation and food processing. Over the course of the project, more than 950 people, including 292 women, have benefited.
“We learned many things about beekeeping, like feeding times, honey extraction and reproduction – my bees are our breadwinners now! We have a reliable income and can buy what we need, including medicines or treatment.” Karima, Qala Safid village, Karokh district, Herat, Afghanistan
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), extreme climate-related disasters, including extreme heat, droughts, floods, and storms, have doubled in number since the early 1990s, impacting agricultural productivity and contributing to shortfalls in food availability. COVID-19 is magnifying the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems.
Building climate-resilient, sustainable food systems is crucial to ensuring all people have sufficient and nutritious food all year round.
UNDP remains focused on fostering resilience for food security. Under the NAP-Ag Programme with FAO, UNDP is working with Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam to strengthen the long-term resilience of agriculture and food systems by integrating climate change concerns into related policies, strategies, and planning, including, crucially, National Adaptation Plans.
To address food security at a more local level, UNDP is also supporting projects which help small-scale producers to both grow and sell more food, through the uptake of more resilient agricultural practices and enhanced access to markets. In the Cook Islands for example, with the backing of the Adaptation Fund, 1,329 households were trained in climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries techniques, helping protect them from climate-induced disturbances in food supply. An initiative under the project worked with farmers to organically farm fruit and vegetables for the local island markets and to export the excess produce to the country’s main island, Rarotonga.
“As a result of the SRIC-CC project's training and equipment, I have now doubled the area of my farm and can grow a larger variety of crops and sell more of my produce. This has given me more money to take care of my family and contribute to my community.” - Akaiti “Mamaiti” Peraua, Mangaia, Cook Islands
As temperatures rise and rainfall patterns shift, the incidence of water-borne and vector-borne infectious diseases is increasing in developed and developing countries. Diseases like malaria and dengue are expanding to areas where such diseases never existed before and transmission seasons are becoming longer.
UNDP recognizes that preparing for the health impacts of climate change is crucial.
In a bid to support six of Asia’s most vulnerable Least Developed Countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal and Timor-Leste – UNDP is working with the World Health Organization (WHO), to build the climate-resilience of their health systems. The project seeks to strengthen institutional capacities and planning; improve surveillance, early warning systems, and advisories; strengthen health facilities to climate impacts; and to support communities with water and vector-borne disease prevention measures. A key initiative is also to create evidence-based cases for investing in climate-resilient health systems.
A similar project has just been launched in the Pacific, covering Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
With education one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development, SDG 4 aims to keep children in school and ensure they complete their education.
Over recent years, countries in Asia and the Pacific have made great strides in improving education and the 2030 goal is considered within reach. However, the impacts of climate change – including more frequent extreme weather events, climate-induced migration, poor nutrition, and school absences due to responsibilities related to collecting water and supporting family income – threaten to disrupt learning outcomes and undermine gains made. COVID-19 is deepening the crisis and widening existing inequalities.
UNDP’s climate adaptation work in the region is contributing to ensuring all girls and boys can access education.
In countries such as Bhutan, UNDP’s support to villages to access clean water has meant girls are spending less time fetching water and more time in school. Water tanks installed in schools in the Solomon Islands have meant they are less likely to run out of water and be forced to close for days, or even weeks, on end. Meanwhile, in Timor-Leste, more climate-resilient, reliable roads have meant that children can attend school more consistently.
Women and girls make up a disproportionate share of people in poverty and are more likely to face hunger, violence, and the impacts of disaster and climate change.
Progress on gender equality has been slowing and based on current trends, it will take more than 200 years to close the gap in economic opportunity alone. COVID-19 is exacerbating inequalities.
Yet women and girls are more than simply victims. And when it comes to climate change, they are taking a leadership role in helping their communities adapt.
In one UNDP-supported project in Cambodia, women have been raising their voices and developing their skills in community-based disaster risk reduction. With finance from the Green Climate Fund, and technical support from UNDP, India and Bangladesh have launched projects focused on empowering and building the climate-resilience of women and girls.
“Our commitment to gender equality is more important than ever in the context of COVID-19.” Achim Steiner, 2020
According to the UN, 785 million people worldwide still lack access to basic sources of clean water, and around 3 billion people lack a basic handwashing facility with soap and water in their household.
In the Asia Pacific region, while development efforts have resulted in significant gains towards clean water and sanitation, half the rural population of the region’s least developed countries lacks access to safely managed drinking water. Small island developing states remain highly vulnerable to water scarcity.
Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio. Access to clean water has become ever more important with the emergence of COVID-19.
As the effects of climate change intensify, and as populations’ demand for water grows, water stress is likely to escalate.
With funding from donors such as the Green Climate Fund, UNDP is supporting governments and communities to better manage water. In the Maldives, a US$28.2 million project is working to ensure uninterrupted freshwater supply to 49 islands that currently rely on emergency water deliveries for three months of each year. More than 10,000 kilometers away in the Marshall Islands, a GCF-backed project is also focused on ensuring water security for vulnerable communities on the nation’s outer atolls and islands.
While across Asia and the Pacific, access to electricity has increased for some, for many it remains a luxury. Most rural households across the region remain without access to modern forms of energy to cook, light their homes and provide heating.
Lack of access to reliable energy holds communities back. Conversely, it is an accelerator for development, particularly for women and girls.
UNDP is helping countries across the region to adopt and extend clean, renewable, and affordable sources of energy. In Afghanistan for example, where rural energy poverty is considered to be urgent, UNDP-supported projects – including the construction of micro hydroelectric power plants – have helped more than 500,000 people gain access to clean energy, with benefits for health, livelihoods and education.
With the Green Climate Fund, UNDP is now supporting the Government of Afghanistan to kick-start a rural renewable energy market transformation. Under the project, solar mini-grids will provide electricity to 49,000 Afghans while the creation of an “upscaling platform” will facilitate additional investments.
The human and economic costs of climate change are high and expected to increase. In fact, a 2016 report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific found that without climate action, GDP in the Asia Pacific region could decrease by as much as 10 percent by 2100.
COVID-19 has further added to the challenges, endangering economic growth and threatening to tip hundreds of millions more people into extreme poverty by 2030.
To prepare for the wide-ranging impacts of climate change, and protect economic gains, countries need to take it into consideration in planning and budgets.
With the UN Environment Programme, Global Environment Facility, and other partners, UNDP has been supporting governments across Asia to do just this, working with countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Bhutan and Bangladesh to identify priorities, develop action roadmaps, and scale-up investments.
Around the world extreme weather events driven by climate change are damaging critical infrastructure, from roads and bridges to housing, power networks and water and sanitation. The impacts are extremely costly and disruptive to people’s daily lives, in some cases, taking lives.
Yet infrastructure is key to boosting economic growth and improving the quality of life for the poor. Access to transport drives economic development and supports trade and employment. Hospitals require electricity and water. Children need safe roads to walk to school and everyone needs clean water to drink.
Across Asia and the Pacific, UNDP is supporting regional Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States to build more climate-resilient infrastructure for the benefit of economic development and human well-being.
In Timor-Leste, where more than 70 percent of people live in poor and remote rural areas – and where frequent landslides and flood risks have made building climate-resilient infrastructure a national priority – a UNDP-supported project backed by the Global Environment Facility-Least Developed Countries Fund saw more than 100,000 people benefit from new water storage and distribution, road paving and drainage.
Beneficiaries described the effects of the projects on reduced time and drudgery to collect domestic water from afar, fewer conflicts over water, reduced flooding of houses and schools, improved road access during the rainy season, extended irrigated farming and income, and local employment.
Work is now being extended with the backing of the Green Climate Fund.
“Now the weight becomes light because we have transportation to access the wider municipality and the market!” – Zita, project beneficiary
The impacts of climate change have been disproportionately impacting the world’s poor for decades.
Since its emergence, COVID-19 has been further magnifying the disadvantages already faced by low-income groups. Across the region, rapid economic growth has not always been equitably shared.
Addressing inequality in all its dimensions is essential to eradicating poverty, advancing social progress, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It is therefore at the heart of all UNDP’s work.
Among the targets of SDG 10 is an increase in official development assistance and financial flows to countries where the need is greatest, in accordance with their national plans and programmes.
Helping vulnerable countries to access finance is key to UNDP’s support to countries to advance climate adaptation and since 2010, UNDP has helped 28 countries in Asia and the Pacific to secure $669 million in adaptation-related funding from the Green Climate, Global Environment Facility, Adaptation Fund, and bilateral donors.
With this funding, countries have been able to advance on-the-ground projects benefiting millions of people with more climate-resilient livelihoods, food and agriculture, improved access to water, and more advanced climate information and early warning systems. The funding has also governments to strengthen the policies, planning, and capacities needed to prepare for climate change now and into the future.
The pace of adaptation financing is rising but continues to be outpaced by rapidly increasing adaptation costs. According to UN Environment's Adaptation Gap Report 2020, annual adaptation costs in developing countries are estimated at USD 70 billion. This figure is expected to reach USD 140-300 billion in 2030 and USD 280-500 billion in 2050.
In the three-year period 2014 to 2017 alone, the Asia Pacific region registered 55 earthquakes, 217 storms and cyclones, and 236 cases of severe flooding, collectively affecting 650 million people and resulting in a death toll of nearly 33,000. Climate change is expected to see disaster risks increase in severity, scale, and frequency.
Sustainable Development Goal #11 pledges to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by 2030. A key target is to significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected by disasters and to substantially decrease the economic losses. Key to achieving this is increasing the capacity of countries to better anticipate, prepare, and adapt ahead of climate-related disasters.
One key area in which UNDP is supporting countries is in developing improved climate information and early warning systems (CIEWS).
This work has seen 860 automated weather stations installed and 245 early warning systems established worldwide, with 13.2 million people benefiting from increased access to climate information.
In one example in Cambodia, a CIEWS project digitalized the world of weather with the installation of 53 automatic weather and hydrology stations and modernized modelling systems. In addition to improving monitoring infrastructure, the project trained government forecasters and worked with communities to raise awareness of climate change impacts and techniques to adapt.
In Papua New Guinea, the installation of an early warning system along the flood-prone Bumbu River was hailed as a major milestone, offering lessons and a model for replication in other major rivers throughout the country.
According to a 2020 report by UNESCAP, the Asia Pacific region is behind in achieving the sustainable use of the planet’s shared resources, such as air, water, soil, and energy, by 2030. The pressures are great in a region that holds 60 percent of the world’s population and which continues to experience the fastest economic growth, even with the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNDP is supporting countries across the region to realize the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources, with a focus on the most vulnerable.
In Mongolia, with backing from the Green Climate Fund, a new project is working to promote climate-informed natural resources management and sustainable livestock practices, building on traditional cooperative approaches among herders while also introducing innovative technologies for tracing sustainably-sourced livestock products.
In Nepal, where climate change impacts are intersecting with land degradation to result in plummeting agricultural production, a new project backed by the GEF-Least Developed Countries Fund will invest in community-led land and resource management, including establishing local stewardship programmes and rolling out training to local forestry and water user groups.
“We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.” - Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 2015
In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned the world is headed toward a 3C future, and we have only about a decade to act before irreversible impacts take hold.
The climate crisis has not hit pause during COVID-19. Despite a temporary drop in greenhouse emissions in 2020, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere continue to climb. The past six years, including 2020, are likely to be the six warmest years on record. Extreme weather is impacting all countries, with the poorest and most vulnerable bearing the brunt.
Action to both reduce emissions and adapt remain urgent global priorities and UNDP is working with countries to turn their goals into action, supporting more than 140 countries to integrate risks into planning and to switch to low-carbon, sustainable development pathways.
A key focus is also on adaptation – helping countries to take practical action to make communities more resilient.
Since 2018, UNDP-supported climate change adaptation projects have helped more than 6.3 million smallholder farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture, incorporating new techniques in water harvesting, diversifying crops and incomes, developing markets for climate-resilient crops, improving ecosystem management, and promoting weather insurance programs.
Over the same period, more than 82 million people benefited from more resilient livelihoods, 5.1 million people experienced a 30 percent or more increase in their annual incomes, and 180 micro, small and medium enterprises increased their income capacity.
“We are in a race against time to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. Adaptation must not be the forgotten component of climate action… The race to resilience is as important as the race to net zero.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres, December 2020
Healthy ecosystems are at the heart of development, underpinning societal well-being and economic growth. Oceans are the great provider, gifting us with food, livelihoods, and oxygen and sustaining between 500,000 and 10 million marine species – they are, in fact, our planet’s life support.
Unfortunately, marine ecosystems are near breaking point due to pollution, overfishing, and climate change.
UNDP is supporting Pacific small island developing states to strengthen the sustainable management of oceans in a changing climate.
In Kiribati, a project with finance from the Global Environment Facility-Least Developed Countries Fund and the technical support of UNDP is working with communities to develop marine resource management plans, helping ensure the ensure healthy fish stocks and marine ecosystems for generations to come.
"Abemama [island] is so rich in marine resources and the ocean is our store-keeper, but now, the resources are being depleted and we are suffering the consequences of it. Everything has changed and been threatened by climate change…from the land to the ocean." – Teboboua Biribo, local resident on Abemama atoll, Kiribati, 2020
A UNDP-supported Ridge to Reef programme, delivered by governments in partnership with UNDP, FAO, UN Environment Programme, and the Pacific Community with the backing of the Global Environment Facility, has been promoting integrated approaches to land, water, forest, biodiversity, and coastal resource management in 14 Pacific island countries.
The programme has focused on improving governance for sustainability, capacity development, establishing regional platforms for sharing information and best practices, and on-the-ground community-led activities such as tree-planting and coastal cleanups to improve the health of ecosystems.
Under an initiative with James Cook University in Australia, 31 Pacific Island students have earned a postgraduate certificate in Integrated Management of Ridge-to-Reef Ecosystems, building the knowledge and skills-base of their home countries.
According to UNESCAP’s Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2020, development efforts in the Asia Pacific region have resulted in gains in life on land, including sustainable forests management and conservation of mountain ecosystems – yet an immense amount remains to be done.
Although the total forest area of the Asia-Pacific region has slightly increased compared to 2000, 35 percent of countries continue to lose their forests. Land degradation is undermining the wellbeing of some 3.2 billion people, driving species to extinction and intensifying climate change.
The COVID-19 crisis is a powerful reminder that we are unlikely to remain healthy on a sickening planet. It is also a reminder of our symbiotic relationship with mother nature: we are all part of and depend on, a complex web of life that we have put under heavy stress.
Recognizing that protecting nature underpins sustainable development, UNDP supports countries to preserve and restore natural ecosystems that can provide cost-effective protection against climate change threats.
Since 2008, UNDP has supported the re-planting of 1.3 million hectares of mangroves and forests around the world, including in Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, and Papua New Guinea.
In Bhutan, a UNDP-supported project with the backing of the Global Environment Facility is enhancing the resilience of communities while also protecting the country’s rich biodiversity and ecosystems in the face of a changing climate. By the end of the project, 100,000 hectares of forest area are expected to be brought under sustainable and climate-resilient management, and biological monitoring, law enforcement systems, and human-wildlife conflict management also strengthened.
According to the World Bank, two billion people live in countries where development outcomes are affected by fragility, conflict, and violence.
While the causes of instability are manifold, climate change presents a major risk, exacerbating the drivers of conflict.
Shortages of food and water – expected to increase with climate change – can fuel rising tensions. Meanwhile, climate change impacts are uprooting families, with more than 140 million people expected to be internally displaced due to changing climate conditions by 2050.
Conversely, climate action offers opportunities to re-enforce peace and security and to prevent conditions that give way to conflict.
In one example, in Tajikistan, extreme weather events, crop failure, food insecurity, and lack of job opportunities have resulted in large-scale labor migration. With minimal prospects, many young people are struggling and therefore susceptible to radicalization and recruitment by extremist groups.
With UNDP support, the government is taking action to reduce risk, rolling out initiatives in livelihoods and youth entrepreneurship, disaster risk reduction, smart agriculture, cross-border market creation, and community resilience work.
“We know that violent extremism flourishes when people feel voiceless, marginalized, when their identity is questioned and when too many people – especially young people – lack hope and meaning in their lives... Inclusive and equitable development can largely contribute in preventing violent extremism using comprehensive development approach and cooperation.” – Dr Pratibha Mehta, UNDP Resident Representative in Tajikistan
17 integrated goals. 169 targets. 232 indicators. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an ambitious plan of action for people, the planet, and prosperity.
Everyone is needed to reach its ambitious vision with all of society's creativity, know-how, technology, and financial resources brought to bear.
UNDP works closely with a range of partners from governments to sister UN agencies, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations to collectively deliver on the 2030 Agenda. Global climate adaptation programmes such as the SCALA Programme with FAO, the National Adaptation Plan-Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP) with UNEP, and multi-country projects with the World Health Organization in Asia and the Pacific demonstrate the power of working together.
At the same time, UNDP is supporting south-south knowledge-exchange and cooperation to share adaptation and risk reduction solutions. In Lao PDR and Timor-Leste, this led to a fruitful exchange on the planning and implementation of climate-resilient rural infrastructure. In Cambodia, an early warning systems conference supported by UNDP brought together representatives from Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar to discuss best practices and establish networks for future collaboration. They are two examples among many.
“When we join forces, we can build forward better, towards a greener, more inclusive and resilient future.” UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner
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The 2030 Agenda is a transformational agenda, universal in scope, and uniquely ambitious in its aspiration to eradicate poverty and promote shared prosperity, while also protecting the planet.
Progress towards its goals is evident on many fronts, yet much remains to be done.
With less than ten years left to achieve the 2030 Agenda, we must embrace integrated approaches that recognize the interconnected nature of development – and ensure no-one is left behind.
As the largest implementer of climate action in the UN System, this is how UNDP is supporting Asia Pacific countries to reach their goals through all-inclusive adaptation action.
This is the Decade of Action.
