Climate in Asia and the Pacific: a synthesis of APN activities

The adverse effects of climate change and natural climate variability pose a significant threat to humanity, with the poorest communities being the most vulnerable. Scientific understanding of our climate is advancing at a significant rate, with new information emerging about the likely impacts of climate change, the options to adapt to these changes, and new approaches to mitigation. Through national and international fora, it is becoming clear that climate is one of the most pressing issues in the political arena today. This has been evident in government and stakeholder meetings such as the 34 th G8 Summit (Japan, 2008) and the most recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 16 th Conference of the Parties (COP) Meeting (Cancun, Mexico, 2010) and the Copenhagen Accord, where commitments to climate change have been underscored, particularly the need to support developing countries for financing and transferring knowledge and skills to respond effectively to climate change. IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change and its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) states that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal” and that climate change will interact at all scales with other aspects of the global environment and aggravate existing concerns about the provision of natural resources including water, soil and air pollution, health hazards, disaster risk, and deforestation. Their combined impacts may be compounded in the future in the absence of integrated mitigation and adaptation measures [IPCCAR4 (SPM), 2007].

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