What is CCAIRR?

CCAIRR

The CCAIRR package is applied proactively and contains six major components that are essential ingredients for incorporating adaptation into sustainable development:

Capacity Building, including awareness raising and institutional strengthening.
Data, tools and knowledge related to climatic change variability and extremes and their effects.
Risk assessments that translate scientific data and knowledge into information relevant to decision-making on adaptation.
Mainstreaming of climate change and adaptation information into policies, plans and development strategies.
Monitoring and evaluation for re-assessing risk and response capabilities over time. Implementation of adaptation measures at national, regional and local levels.

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How is it applied?

The application of the CCAIRR is an iterative process. In order to be workable and sustainable, it requires application at project, local and national levels and has to be well integrated into the planning processes of a wide spectrum of stakeholders in government, the private sector, and non-profit organisations.

The overall aim of CCAIRR is to ensure that, over time, development proceeds with due regard for the implementation of specific adaptation measures (e.g. avoidance of development in highly hazardous areas, coastal protection structures, safe building practices and infrastructural designs). In this manner, development becomes "climate-proofed" in accordance with "acceptable" levels of risk in the face of future climate and sea-level change.

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Examples of successful applications of CCAIRR, leading to adaptation, include:

State of Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia

Climate-proofing road extension against increased future risks of storm damage (funded by ADB)

State of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

Adaptations to reduce current and future risks of increased frequency of coastal flooding (funded by ADB).

Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Increased risks from stream flooding and tropical cyclones (funded by ADB)

Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Reducing current and future risks from river flooding (funding by NZ Government)

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Premise

IGCI has developed and tested a risk-based approach to promoting adaptation to climate variability and change - Climate Change Adaptation through Integrated Risk Reduction (CCAIRR).

The key premise underlying CCAIRR is that:

Adaptation to climate change is, in large part, a continuous process that involves the adjustment of society to risks arising from climatic variability and extremes.
Point Climate change affects those risks. Thus, promoting adaptation to climate change should be risk-focused.

For example, the risks are:

climate change will increase the likelihood of extreme events and hence the risk of disasters
extreme events are a major impediment to sustainable development
sustainable development planning already addresses some risks, including those associated with financial shocks, national security, human health, transport services and food, water and fuel supplies
development planning must reflect both recurrent historical risks and new risks, including those associated with climate change
effective risk management prevents precious resources from being squandered on disaster recovery and rehabilitation
many risks and losses are manifest locally, but measures to alleviate them have important national and international dimensions
there is urgent need for an integrated approach that exploits the synergies to be gained from harmonizing responses to extreme events, variability and long-term change.

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See also:
Welcome to IGCI