Publication

The main findings of the scoping study were:

• Priority geographic areas in terms of likely climate change impacts are:
  South Asia – semiarid lands (India and Pakistan), coastal zones (Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka), mountainous areas (Nepal, Bhutan and N. Pakistan), floodplains of major rivers (India and Bangladesh); East Africa – semi-arid lands (Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Tanzania), coastal zones (Kenya and Tanzania), floodplains (Kenya, Sudan and Uganda), mountainous areas (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) and West Africa – semi-arid lands in the Sahelian countries, coastal zones and floodplains (Senegal and Gambia).
• Climate change impacts and adaptation require ‘mainstreaming’ into development planning and practice from the global to national and local levels. Critical research questions and knowledge gaps relate to information about how climate change impacts may hinder achievement of national development objectives and how adaptation may help these objectives to be achieved. Linkages to other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs)are also needed.
• National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPAs) and other national strategies and plansprovide potential policy ‘hooks’ on which to link research on climate change impacts and adaptation offering opportunities for debate and expressing demands for planning and risk assessment.
• There is a case for enhancing capacities to use climate models at regional scale within the key regions in the developing world. In addition, the current generation of impact scenarios could be used to trigger research on adapting to shorter-term climate risks.
• The consultation process identified both key cross-sectoral issues and those sectors within which climate change research is most urgently required. Understanding vulnerability and exploring ways to enhance poor people’s adaptive capacities are considered to be the highest priority for cross-sectoral research.
• Priorities for sectoral research vary across regions. However, agriculture and food security, water and human health are important across Africa and South Asia (the scoping study has revealed many sub-themes within these sectors).
• Capacity development to conduct and to use climate change research was prioritised. Multicountry regional institutions have a mandate to work on regional issues, often including environmental issues, most of them lack the resources to generate the information needed to guide policy-making at the regional level.
• National level policy-makers were found to be are largely unaware of the potential climate change impacts. Local communities while being the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, are also the most difficult to reach in terms of appropriate messages.
• Research organisation and management needs to address how best to:
  a) promote South-South Collaborative Research especially between Asia and Africa;
  b) link research to policy-making giving emphasis on getting research messages to
  appropriate target groups;
  c) link research to practice;
  d) link research to existing local knowledge of climate related hazards;
  e) link research to appropriate target institutions (Government Organisations as well as civil society) to ensure research uptake.