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Arid Land Ecosystems and Climate Change

11 December, 2009
Copenhagen, Denmark

Arid land ecosystems account for around 30% of the world’s surface area and span all continents. More than one billion people whose lives and livelihoods depend on these very fragile ecosystems face the serious threat of climate change. Recently, the number and intensity of extreme weather events has increased sharply, resulting in the severe erosion of the production base of these lands. Global warming models predict acceleration of these impacts in the future.
 
Although efforts have been made to stabilize drylands ecosystems to address these problems, the scope, scale and impact of these efforts have been limited by unpredictable, scarce resources. The accelerating rate of climate change requires a much more coherent, comprehensive and coordinated response, often on a multi-country scale utilizing state-of-the-art technologies.
 
In this context the International Fund for Agricultural Development in collaboration with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) are organizing a session on Arid Land Ecosystems and Climate Change on 11 December as part of the Climate and Development Days, running parallel to the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 7 to 18 December 2009.
 
Panellists will to respond to questions on key issues of mitigation and adaptation to climate change in arid land ecosystems and to engage in an interactive discussion on feasible solutions.
 
The Global Mechanism’s Alejandro Kilpatrick, Programme Coordinator for the GM’s Climate Change Financing Programme has been invited to speak as panellist for issue 4: “How projects, which are still the major mode of delivering benefits to isolated communities in arid zones, benefit from current and emerging financial mechanisms?” This session will also look at the role voluntary markets play and how they can be leveraged towards mitigation funding in developing countries with arid lands.
 
The outcomes of the event will be published here.
 
For more information:

Mr Alejandro Kilpatrick, Programme Coordinator, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Climate Change Finance Programme
Tel. +39 06 5459 2524
a.kilpatrick (at) global-mechanism.org