Action on Climate Today (ACT) is one of our flagship climate projects, which is working across five countries in South Asia to mainstream climate change into policies and budgets to strengthen resilience in and improve climate financing options for the focus countries. ACT recognises that climate change is a cross-cutting issue, and to tackle is successfully, all levels and sectors within government need to be engaged. To strengthen institutional capacity for dealing with climate change, ACT developed an innovative framework outlining a set of characteristics that institutions should possess to effectively respond to climate change.
ACT has also shared their lessons with the Global Commission on Adaptation, contributing one of the four foundational approach papers on climate change mainstreaming. ACT is set to continue their work with the Commission and will be developing a background paper exploring domestic finance for adaptation, to be published next year.
One of five focus countries of ACT, India has been a strong proponent of climate change action. During COP24, India focused the debate on the importance of building climate resilient infrastructure, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. India’s National Institute for Disaster Management (NIDM) launched a Policy Document on climate change and disaster management for the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change.
Our Urban Policy and Planning team leader Dr Divya Sharma has contributed one of the chapters, outlining the issues around building climate resilient infrastructure. In the video below, Divya discusses key messages of her paper: