Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 11/2009

Beyond Aid: Ensuring adaptation to climate change works for the poor

September 2009

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

Climate-related shocks are affecting the lives of millions of poor people with increasing frequency and severity. Without urgent action, recent development progress will stall – then go into reverse. The forthcoming UN High Level Event on Climate Change in New York and the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh in September 2009 provide a historic opportunity for national leaders to make an unequivocal political commitment to fund adaptation: adequately, equitably, and additionally.