CCWG Position Paper on National Adaptation Plan

Addressing the adaptation challenge though civil society participation and a focus on vulnerablegroups in the National Adaptation Plan process in Vietnam

There is a sobering gap between adaptation needs and the current reality of adaptation. This holds not only with regards to finance, but also with respect to technology, knowledge, and capacity, as recent UN reports reveal. Given that global warming proceeds faster than predicted2 and that ambitious mitigation actions are not being taken, the need for adaptation will be increasing. This will widen the current adaptation gap even more and it means bad news for countries like Vietnam that are already highly vulnerable to climate change.

Governments need to act to close this gap and enable large scale adaptation of people and ecosystems across sectors and regions, that is equitable, effective, and gender-sensitive. The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) is a means to enable adaptation planning on all levels based on a strategic outlook, available knowledge, and assessed vulnerabilities. It also helps making itoperational in the national context and aims for integrating it with development processes. Therefore, NAPs can enable countries to close the gap regarding current, adaptation needs and narrow it towards future needs.

This paper shows how the government in partnership with civil society and private sector can achieve this goal, what difference the NAP can make, and what results the process can deliver. The approach of this paper follows the existing NAP technical guidelines issued by the UNFCCC’s Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG) and the Southern Voices Joint Principles for good adaptation planning and practice.