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CoM SSA Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) course

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  1. MODULE 1: Setting the scene
  2. Lesson 1.1: Introduction to the CoM SSA initiative
    2 Topics
  3. Lesson 1.2: Introduction to the SEACAP
    3 Topics
  4. Lesson 1.3: Climate change and cities in Africa
    2 Topics
  5. MODULE 2: SEACAP mitigation pillar
  6. Lesson 2.1: Key concepts in climate change mitigation
    1 Topic
  7. Lesson 2.2: Introduction to the mitigation pillar
    2 Topics
  8. Lesson 2.3: The SEACAP development process for the mitigation pillar
    1 Topic
  9. Lesson 2.4: Emissions inventories: GHG emissions
    4 Topics
  10. Lesson 2.5: Developing a Baseline Emissions Inventory (BEI)
    3 Topics
  11. Lesson 2.6: Tools for BEI development
    2 Topics
  12. MODULE 3: SEACAP access to energy pillar
  13. Lesson 3.1: Key concepts in access to energy
  14. Lesson 3.2: Introduction to the access to energy pillar
    2 Topics
  15. Lesson 3.3: The SEACAP development process for the access to energy pillar
  16. Lesson 3.4: Data collection
    3 Topics
  17. Lesson 3.5: Developing an Access to Energy Assessment (AEA)
    2 Topics
  18. Lesson 3.6: Setting an energy vision and targets
    3 Topics
  19. Module 3.7: Planning energy actions
    3 Topics
  20. MODULE 4: SEACAP adaptation pillar
  21. Lesson 4.1: Key Concepts in climate change adaptation
    1 Quiz
  22. Lesson 4.2: Introduction to the adaptation pillar
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  23. Lesson 4.3: The SEACAP development process for the adaptation pillar
    1 Topic
    |
    1 Quiz
  24. Lesson 4.4: Developing a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA)
    1 Quiz
  25. Lesson 4.5: Setting an adaptation vision and sectoral targets
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  26. Lesson 4.6: Planning adaptation actions
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  27. MODULE 5: Steps to take before you implement your SEACAP
  28. Lesson 5.1: Next steps for prioritised actions
  29. Lesson 5.2: Categorising actions to access external finance
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  30. MODULE 6: Communicating your SEACAP
  31. Lesson 6.1: Designing your SEACAP
    3 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  32. Lesson 6.2: Communicating your SEACAP to key stakeholders
    1 Topic
    |
    1 Quiz
  33. MODULE 7: Reporting your SEACAP
  34. Lesson 7.1: Introduction to reporting your SEACAP
    3 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  35. Lesson 7.2: Introduction to reporting the mitigation pillar
    4 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  36. MODULE 8: Integrating your SEACAP into existing planning processes
  37. Lesson 8.1: Integrating your SEACAP actions into local level plans
    1 Topic
  38. Lesson 2.7: Setting mitigation targets
    2 Topics
  39. Lesson 2.8: Planning mitigation actions
    1 Topic
  40. Lesson 7.4: Introduction to reporting the access to energy pillar
    3 Topics
  41. Lesson 7.3: Introduction to reporting the adaptation pillar
    3 Topics
Lesson 21 of 41
In Progress

Lesson 4.1: Key Concepts in climate change adaptation

16 September 2024

Weather

The state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time.

Example:
“Today is a sunny day.”
OR
“Yesterday it was partly cloudy and windy.”
OR
“Tomorrow it will be raining.”

Climate

Climate is the prevailing weather condition or trend for a specific geographical region over a period of about 20 to 30 years.

Example:

“In Harare, Zimbabwe, observations taken over the past 50 years show that the summer months occur from September to March and are hot and wet, whilst the winter months occur from April to August and are cool and dry.”

Climate change

Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define local, regional and global climate.

Example:

“In Harare, Zimbabwe, over the last five years we have observed shifts in the seasonal rainfall patterns to much later in the season.”

Climate change adaptation

Climate change adaptation is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects.

  • Adaptation actions are undertaken in anticipation of the adverse effects of climate change.
  • Adaptation actions aim to prevent or minimise the damage the impacts of climate change can cause and/or take advantage of opportunities that may arise.

Climate hazard

A physical climate-related process or event that can harm human health, livelihoods, or natural resources. A hazard is not simply the potential for adverse effects.

Example:

A cyclone is an example of a hydro-meteorological climate hazard, whilst storm surges are an example of oceanographic climate hazards.

The following video details different climate hazards (link to climate hazards video (ENG, FR, PT).

Exposure

The presence of people, livelihoods, species or ecosystems, environmental services and resources, infrastructure, or economic, social, or cultural assets in places that could be adversely affected by a hazard.

Risk

The potential for consequences where something of human value (including humans themselves) is at stake and where the outcome is uncertain.

Adaptive capacity

The ability of systems, institutions, humans, and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences of climate hazards.

Impact

The effects of hazards on human or natural assets and systems. These potential effects, which are determined by both exposure and sensitivity, may be beneficial or harmful.

Resilience

The capacity of a social-ecological system to cope with a hazardous event or disturbance, responding or reorganising in ways that maintain its essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation.

Stakeholder

Stakeholders are persons, groups, or institutions with an interest in a project or the ability to influence project outcomes, either positively or negatively.

Stakeholders may be directly or indirectly affected by a project. Stakeholders may include groups opposed to proposed interventions. The “stake” that each of these different groups has in the project will vary.

Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholder engagement is an overarching term that encompasses a range of activities and interactions with stakeholders throughout the project cycle.

The intensity and scale of stakeholder engagement will vary with the type of project, its complexity, and its potential risks and impacts. It starts early in project planning and spans the entire life of the project. Stakeholder engagement involves more than just occasional consultations; it seeks to involve beneficiaries and interested parties in decision-making processes.

Gender vs. sex

Gender is used to describe the characteristics of women and men that are socially constructed, while sex refers to those that are biologically determined.

People are born female or male (sex), but learn to be girls and boys who grow into women and men (gender).

Gender Mainstreaming

“Gender mainstreaming is the process of assessing any planned action in all areas and levels to determine the implication for women and men. It is a strategy for making women’s, as well as men’s, concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects so that men and women benefit equally. Gender mainstreaming aims to transform unequal social and institutional structures...”.

Guide to Gender Mainstreaming in UNDP Supported GEF Financed Projects

Climate justice

Climate justice approaches the issue of climate change from a human rights and equity perspective.

“Climate justice has emerged from the idea that historical responsibility for climate change lies with wealthy and powerful people – and yet it disproportionately impacts the poorest and most vulnerable.”
Carbon Brief

Climate justice is being advanced by governments and civil society to argue for fair and equitable climate action in terms of economic and financial responsibility.

Energy justice

Energy justice is a concept that helps us to think about the distribution of costs, benefits and risks that arise from the energy system as it is, and as it transitions toward a low-carbon future form.

Energy justice also considers issues of participation and inclusion in decision making and democratic governance.

Concrete questions that help us to think from an energy justice perspective are:
  • Who has access to energy and at what cost?
  • Who owns energy infrastructure?
  • Who benefits financially from energy investment decisions?

Environmental justice

Environmental justice considers the distribution of costs, harms and risks arising from the economic activities and the energy sector that drives it. It is a corrective approach where actors seek to privatise benefits (e.g. financial gains) and socialise costs (e.g. pollution).

Although first advanced by activists, for governments, it is a useful lens for identifying these negative impacts and enabling those who create them to pay to mitigate them.

Just transition

“Just transition—the idea that justice and equity must form an integral part of the transition towards a low-carbon world—is increasingly being mobilised both to counter the jobs versus environment binary and to broaden the debate on low-carbon transitions.”

Mapping Just Transition(s) to a Low-Carbon World