Our hope is to adapt rather than cope with climate change – experts

Climate change experts have expressed the need for populations to adapt to climate change as opposed to coping.

Speaking on the sidelines of a training organised by the African Sustainability Hub, Regional Project Manager at Care Kenya Ms Fiona Percy said that adapting to climate change would ensure communities continue living in peace and harmony and survive the effects of climate change.

“Adapting in a collective effort to make a change. People need to move from coping to adapting,” she said.

Coping means to manage a situation while adapting means changing one’s way of life to suit a changing situation.

The training that was conducted over a period of four days last week focused on climate change financing under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) where participants from across Africa were trained on writing competitive GCF project proposals.

Government departments such as NEMA, which is mandated with coordinating GCF funding at the national level, also provided insights to participants on procedures for submitting requests for GCF funds.

The Green Climate Fund is a global initiative that invests in low-emission and climate-resilient development and innovations.

According to Ms Percy, projects funded by GCF have not yet begun implementation although the approval process began two years ago.

She added that people at the community level could propose projects and access funding.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Dr Joanes Atela, who was the training’s organiser, said the objective of the East Africa Climate Change Capacity Building Initiative is to provide training on climate change aspects emphasized under the Paris Agreement.

“These aspects include climate change financing, innovation systems for climate change technology transfer, gender mainstreaming, transparency as well as credible monitoring and reporting on NDC performance in line with the UNFCCC requirements,” he said.

This comes even as counties in the coastal region continue to suffer the effects of a biting drought that threatens about 1.3 million people with starvation occassioned by poor rains.

“If the imminent short rains season is also below average, as the forecast suggests, then not only will these areas deteriorate to the alarm or even emergency phase, but drought stress will deepen in many other arid and semi arid counties as well,” the National Drought Management Authority said in a statement on its website.