Though adaptation is a key concern of climate policy community, to date there has been little attention to the employment implications of adaptation policies and programmes. Nevertheless, there are some recent developments which may provide opportunities for the ILO.
 A content analysis reports on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation in Uganda (DENIVA-Uganda, 2005)
This report is indicative of the situation within developing countries with respect to climate change responses. On page 16 it notes the "heavy dependency on natural resources and rain-fed agriculture" in Uganda coupled with an "inadequate human resources capacity for the enhancement of climate management systems. Overall, there are "low levels of awareness on climate change issues; and insufficient information dissemination on the existing indigenous adaptation knowledge/options" which means a good of deal of preparatory work needs to be undertaken to develop an adequate set of climate change responses.
Climate change, drought and pastoralism in the Sahel (WISP, 2006) In this note commissioned by the World Initiative on Sustainable Pastoralism and prepared by Nick Brooks, the uncertainty of the impacts and adaptive capacities of pastoral communities is highlighted. The forward explains that: "... with the current marginalisation of pastoralists, their adaptive capacities may have been eroded and they may be more susceptible to climate change than other communities. Conversely, climate change could conceivably lead to the creation of more dryland resources that are suited to pastoralism, thus creating new opportunities for pastoralists to exploit. However, the likelihood and the implications of such changes are very uncertain." (page 1)
Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) Website: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-94424-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html "The Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) research and capacity development program aims to improve the capacity of African countries to adapt to climate change in ways that benefit the most vulnerable. Building on existing initiatives and past experience, the CCAA program works to establish a self-sustained skilled body of expertise in Africa to enhance the ability of African countries to adapt.
The CCAA is a joint program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, and the Department for International Development (DFID), U.K." (From the home page)
One of the objectives of the CCAA is to "To support adaptation by rural and urban people, particularly the most vulnerable, through action research." In support of this objective, a new activity on "Monitoring adaptive capacity" has been developed: "In June 2007, IDRC approved a research support project oriented towards monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of adaptive capacity. This project will help CCAA program staff and partners better assess how their activities are contributing to adaptation, and to use M&E as a capacity strengthening tool. It will facilitate a community of practice that will involve M&E experts, CCAA-supported project teams, and program staff, in reflecting on ways to evaluate the capacity of vulnerable groups, organisations, governments and ecosystems to adapt to climate change."
(See: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-114331-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html) Summary of the first ten projects supported by the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) research and capacity development program (CCAA, 2007) Managed by the IDRC with additional funding from DFID, this short document highlights some of the cutting-edge work underway by CCAA to support adaptation in Africa. For example, of one the projects: "assesses the vulnerability of smallholder farming communities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to the effects of climate change and variability on agricultural productivity and livelihoods and identifies opportunities for enhancing the adaptive capacity of different categories of households and communities."
Another of the projects: "intends to facilitate a process of interaction and learning where information/ knowledge from different sources (local, national, regional and international) is shared and integrated in a way that results in its novel use by stakeholders in agricultural innovation systems to better adapt to climate change and variability."
The CCAA is clearly undertaking adaptation work relevant to rural transitions and small and medium enterprise development in Africa. It would appear that the ILO should approach them to find out more about future plans to explore opportunities for collaboration, perhaps particularly with respect to retraining rural labourers.
USAID programme on adapting to climate variability and change Website: http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/environment/
climate/policies_prog/vulnerability.html This programme is focused on strengthening the ability of USAID's programme to deal with climate change: "USAID’s climate change adaptation program seeks to assist Missions and other development partners to build resilience to climate change through a variety of activities. Adapting to climate change requires a hierarchy of linked efforts. We are linking information from observation systems to those lacking such information, improving their understanding of current climate, climate variability and future climate change. We are working to make earth observation information readily applicable to development decisions, including creating innovative applications and appropriate tools to then communicate that information to stakeholders and decision makers. Through interaction with local partners and new tools, we can better understand how environmental changes may impact sectors critical for development. Once those impacts are understood, stakeholders need to assess and agree on preferred adaptation options. Then, on-the-ground actions are implemented to build the resilience of projects designed to promote economic development." (From the website)
Adapting to climate variability and change: A guidance manual for development planning (USAID, 2007) The Preface explains that the manual was developed to: "to assist Missions and other partners to understand how climate change may affect their project outcomes and identify adaptation options to integrate into the design for more resilient projects." (page iii)
It presents a "six-step approach for assessing vulnerability and identifying and implementing climate change adaptations" which is labelled the "the V&A approach." Similar to a project cycle, the steps are: 1: Screen for vulnerability.
2: Identify adaptations.
3: Conduct analysis.
4: Select course of action.
5: Implement adaptations
6: Evaluate adaptations.
The manual explains these six steps in detail and also shows their applicability to issues related to employment. For example, the manual notes that: "With agriculture accounting for half of GDP and 80% of jobs, the Ethiopian economy is sensitive to climate variability, particularly variations in rainfall." (page 1)
It appears that the ILO should approach USAID directly to explore opportunities for collaboration.
CRISTAL (Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation & Livelihoods) Website: http://www.iisd.org/security/es/resilience/
climate_phase2.asp Brochure This initiative is component of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) programme on livelihoods and climate change. The website explains that Cristal: "enables project planners and managers to (i) assess an intervention's impact on local capacity to cope with climate stress, and (ii) think about how to adjust project activities so that at the very least they don't undermine local coping capacity and, where possible, they further enhance coping capacity.
"Field tests of CRiSTAL were conducted in Mali, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. Feedback from each of the tests allowed project partners to fine-tune CRiSTAL, rendering it more useful and usable for project managers interested in mainstreaming climate risk into their field work."
The CRiSTAL Tool can be downloaded from:
http://www.sei-us.org/Cristal/Cristal_Setup.exe The brochure explains: "Community-level projects are rarely designed with a look to the implications of climate change, and especially how they might affect local adaptive capacity. Without a mechanism for assessing the role and impact of a project vis-à-vis climate adaptation, it is often difficult for project planners and managers to design activities that actually foster adaptation and minimize maladaptation." (page 1)
Apollo Alliance Website: http://home.apolloalliance.org/home2.html The Apollo jobs report (2004)
Ten-point plan for good jobs and energy independence (2007)
Community jobs in the green economy (2007) Based in the US: "The Apollo Alliance is a broad coalition within the labor, environmental, business, urban, and faith communities in support of good jobs and energy independence. It has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and 23 international labor unions as well as a majority of national environmental organizations. ...
The Apollo Alliance is pursuing a $300 billion, public-private program to create three million new, clean energy jobs to free America from foreign oil dependence in ten years. It is a program that reinvests in the competitiveness of American industry, rebuilds our cities, creates good jobs for working families, and ensures good stewardship of both the economy and our natural environment."
(from the website: http://www.apolloalliance.org/
about_the_alliance/faqs.cfm)Apollo is promoting a pro-active response to climate change by seeking ways to create new jobs in the "green economy" which at the same time reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. For example, a recently released report on "Community jobs in the green economy" explains: "The emerging green economy holds great promise for America’s cities, and especially for our low-income, heavily minority urban communities. Every aspect of clean energy development, from manufacturing to construction, operating and maintenance, can create good jobs, clean up the air and water, and save consumers money on their energy bills. Every city and community in the United States has some potential to capitalize on this new economy, whether through good wind or solar resources or through retrofit programs to bring old, dilapidated buildings up to energy efficiency codes." (page 19)
By linking decent job creation to energy self-sufficiency, Apollo is adopting both adaptation and mitigation responses that are sustainable in terms of enterprise development and employment creation.
Decoupling development of employment and use of nature (Wuppertal, 2007) The PowerPoint presentation prepared by Prof. Dr. Peter Hennicke and Dr. Wolfgang Irrek for an ETUC conference addresses the challenges of "decoupling" employment creation from global warming. It looks at how energy efficiency can generate new jobs and proposes the following new paradigm: "Make kilowatt hours and tons redundant and not people!"
Global Mechanism Website: http://www.global-mechanism.org/ Cashing in on the links between climate change and land degradation (GM, 2007) "The Global Mechanism (GM) was established under Article 21 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and began its operations in October 1997. ...
"[T]he GM is increasingly specializing in providing a range of financial advisory services to the country Parties to the Convention in close cooperation with International Finance Institutions (IFIs) - in particular the World Bank Group, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the regional development banks."
(From the website: http://www.global-mechanism.org/about-us/what-is-the-gm)
Climate change is an increasingly important issue in the context of desertification and the GM is accordingly engaging in both adaptation and mitigation activities under its programme on "Compensation for ecosystem services." The programme document entitled "Cashing in on the links" explores opportunities to link financial support for the climate and desertification agendas and highlights the following areas and opportunities: "Forestry-related
- afforestation/reforestation;
- avoided deforestation;
- sustainable forest/land management; and
- agro-forestry and silvopastoral systems. Agricultural and rural sectors
- cropland and grazing land management; and
- biodigestion and other methane-based projects in the agricultural sector. Biodiversity, watershed and soil protection
- biodiversity conservation; and
- watershed protection and management. Energy-related
- (small) hydro projects (possibly combined with forestry activities as watershed protection);
- biofuel, bio-energy projects contributing to SLM;
- other (renewable) energy projects; and
- other/new project types that are compliant with the intervention criteria." (page 13)
All of these areas are relevant to the ILO’s work on rural employment and enterprise development in Africa as well as other parts of the developing world.
A guide to climate change for small- to medium-sized enterprises: How to plan for climate change, reduce operating costs and develop new business opportunities (2006) The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has produced a guide to climate change for SMEs which explains risks and opportunities and explores both adaptation and mitigation responses. Regarding adaptation the guide explains: "To anticipate and/or respond to the changing climate, businesses may need to make changes. These might include such actions as re-locating a business to avoid the risk of flooding or planting new crops that can be grown in hotter, drier summer weather. Businesses and business sectors are particularly vulnerable to climate change if they are currently affected by weather events, and/or make long-term investments, especially in climate-sensitive infrastructure." (page 12)
Developing such guidance for small and medium enterprises in developing countries and including a focus on employment creation could become a contribution by the ILO to the topic of climate change and employment.
Adapting to climate change: Natural resource management and vulnerability reduction (2002) Produced by IUCN-The World Conservation Union in collaboration with is an example of the type of guidance coming out of the nature conservation / sustainable development community on climate change adaptation. It notes the employment impact on the poor and proposes that investing in natural resources may be a way to adapt to this challenge: "Agriculture, forestry and fishing are directly responsible for 50% of all jobs worldwide and 70% of jobs in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific.80 Because the poor have a narrow and geographically concentrated set of livelihood sources, they are most vulnerable to losing their livelihoods during disasters. ... "The poor usually have the least choice among strategies, receive the least assistance from government authorities and are therefore most dependent on the state of the environment for providing alternative livelihoods. Thus, investing in the natural resource base that sustains their livelihoods may have a direct positive impact on their immediate lives and long-term resilience to climate variability." (page 28)
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