From months of social distancing and self-isolation in Indonesia, this month has brought the beginning of the transition to a “new normal” period. During this controlled social life, IUC Asia Team held a virtual meeting with Makassar City Government for a capacity-building session “Adaptation Planning Based on Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA)” on 11 June 2020. The workshop was second capacity-building session to arrange and develop the local Climate Action Plan of Makassar City. The first one, development of GHG inventory , took place on March 2020.
Chaired by Ms. Andi Khadijah Iriani as a Head of City Planning Agency, the workshop was attended by 58 participants representing various municipal departments and local university. During the opening remark, she highlighted the importance of inter divisional work among the city government to achieve the best outcome.
Supported by CCROM as IUC’s technical partner, the workshop addressed the need for integrating climate change adaptation considerations into the city development plan agenda. Assessing climate risk and mainstreaming adaptation into development plans ensures that hard-won development gains are not undermined, and that future development interventions are resilient in the face of a changing climate. A four step process to mainstream climate change into development plans was outlined in the workshop.
CCROM oriented the participants on the how CRVA fits in the climate change adaptation framework. SIDIK , an online tool developed by Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia, was introduced which could be useful for the local government. This tool follows the IPCC’s approach to risk assessment, where the risk of negative impacts of climate change is dependent not only on exposure to the hazard itself, but also vulnerability to that hazard and the extent to which vulnerability may be offset by adaptive capacity. Building resilience comes from reducing risk, and thus can be done by reducing vulnerability or increasing adaptive capacity.
In the process of mainstreaming adaptation plan into local development plan, CCROM emphasized the significance of synergy, integration, and synchronization of CAP and development plans based on Sustaianable Development Goals (SDGs) toward a climate-resilient and low-carbon city. Tagging was introduced as one of the steps to integrate CAPs with city development plans. It is purposed to identify which existing local actions that have contributed to SDGs and climate change.
There was a lively discussion among the participants on several aspects on how to conduct the CRVA. Among other, how to set the indicator on vulnerability and adaptive capacity were discussed.
