Policy paper

Adaptation Action Coalition: workstreams

Updated 8 February 2022

Water launch, 4 May 2021

COP26 President-Designate, Alok Sharma, opened the Adaptation Action Coalition’s Water Launch, organised in partnership with the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA). The event featured ministers from Indonesia, Malawi, Egypt, Costa Rica, The Netherlands, Guinea as the G77 Chair, and the UK. Early on, ministers shared challenges and innovations around climate change and water management from their respective countries as they highlighted the need for the new Water Tracker, a tool to help countries strengthen water resilience in their national climate planning.

Complementing the ministerial session were high-level non-state actors from IWMI, IUCN, UNDP, the Global Commission on Adaptation, WaterAid, the Asian Development Bank, Sanitation and Water for All, UNICEF, CDP, the Adaptation Research Alliance and a Water Youth Champion.

These presenters and panellists introduced 3 levers for change as means of advancing water resilience for effective climate adaptation:

  • better information for decision-making
  • stronger political will
  • improved financial flows

A full report on the 2.5-hour session will be made available shortly.

Health launch: building climate resilient health systems, 6 May 2021

The Adaptation Action Coalition in partnership with the Governments of Fiji and Spain and WHO, launched a new initiative on building climate resilient health systems. The launch event included participation of Government ministers from UK, Egypt, Fiji and Spain, WHO Director General, senior government officials from Bangladesh and Ethiopia, and civil society organisations.

The workstream will encourage and support countries to commit to building health resilience, initially through developing health vulnerability and adaptation assessments, and national health adaptation plans, and proposals for submission to the Green Climate Fund and other donors. This is one of at least 4 health initiatives that will be launched by the UK COP26 Presidency, which is making health a central pillar of the Climate Change COP, and its 5-year renewal of commitments to the 2015 Paris agreement.