Helen Clark: What will it take to achieve

coherence in the 2015 agreements? Speech at

closing session of the Development & Climate
Days event on Zero Poverty. Zero Emissions.
Within a generation? at the UNFCCC COP
07 Dec 2014
Lima, Peru
I am pleased to participate in this panel on achieving coherence in the
2015 agreements as we strive for Zero Poverty. Zero Emissions. Within
a Generation.
Three global agreements are scheduled to be reached next year on the
post-2015 agenda, on a new framework for disaster risk reduction, and
on climate change. The outcomes of each will be more powerful if there
is synergy between them. There are signs that a consensus is emerging
that eradicating extreme poverty, building resilience to disaster, and
reducing carbon emissions must go hand in hand.
This convergence is driven by awareness that while remarkable
development progress can be and has been achieved, it can also be
knocked off course by untrammeled climate change, and by lack of
resilience to disasters and shocks in general. As well, many people have
yet to benefit from global or national development gains.
Around one-seventh of the worlds population continues to live in
extreme poverty - on under $1.25 per day[1]. A majority of the
extremely poor are dependent on climate-sensitive livelihoods and
environments. For them, climate change raises issues of economic and
personal survival.
According to the World Bank [2], from 1980 to 2012, more than 18,000
natural disasters were reported, amounting to nearly $3,800 billion in
economic loss and claiming 1.4 million lives. These impacts, along with
those related to climate change, often send hard won development
progress into reverse.

At UNDP, we have no doubt that coherence across the poverty

eradication, disaster reduction, and climate agendas is essential for
inclusive, low emission, and climate-resilient development. Achieving
sustainable development requires that we achieve that coherence.

The process to gather inputs into the post-2015 development agenda

has been unprecedented in its inclusiveness and scale. The proposal of
the UNs Open Working Group echoes the calls of citizens around the
world to protect current and future development gains by advancing
across the strands of sustainable development, with progress being
underpinned by building more peaceful, more inclusive societies.
Such an integrated approach is at the core of the partnerships which
UNDP has with developing countries. In our experience, it is possible to
tackle poverty, lower carbon emissions, and address other
environmental and development priorities at the same time.
Through our partnerships, including with the Global Environment
Facility, and the Governments of Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia, and
the European Commission, UNDP has supported more than 140
countries to access over US$1 billion in grant financing. This helps
countries to adapt to climate change and pursue low emissions
development in ways which also advance socio-economic progress.
The lessons we have learned from such integrated and coherent
approaches are available to UN Member States as they work on finding
the synergies across the post-2015, disaster reduction, and climate
agreements. These lessons include:
1) The importance of mainstreaming climate risk management into
development planning and disaster reduction, and ensuring that the
capacities are there to follow through are built.
UNDP, in partnership with a number of UN Agencies, including UNEP,
FAO, and UNITAR, supports countries to integrate provision for disaster
risk reduction, including around climate change, into their development
planning, policies, and strategies. The objective is to assist Finance and
Planning Ministries to budget appropriate amounts for key line
ministries, such as agriculture, infrastructure, and health, so that
climate change risks can be addressed effectively in each sector.

For example,
we have been supporting Mali to make its agriculture more climate
resilient in ways which are grounded in the Governments overall
Poverty Reduction Strategy.
we have been supporting Samoa to adopt a whole-of-government
approach to climate change adaptation. With financing from the Global
Environment Facilitys Least Developed Countries Fund, the
Government will be able to incorporate consideration of its long-term
climate change and disaster-risk management challenges in its planning
and budgeting processes. This will enable Samoa to manage around its
fast changing climate conditions which, without adaptation, could
otherwise erode its impressive development gains.

2) UNDP has learned that empowering communities to identify

solutions and scale up local innovations is an effective way of
supporting climate-resilient livelihoods.
In Sudan, for example, UNDP is deploying resources from the
Government of Canada and other sources to help communities acquire
the tools, know-how, and support they need to address climate risks
and food security. Incomes among the 20,000 beneficiaries - at least half
of whom are in women-headed households - have increased by twenty
per cent. This is helping to improve education, health outcomes, and the
stewardship of natural resources.
3) UNDP has learned the importance of strengthening the capacity of
countries to chart their own path towards a zero poverty zero
emissions future. With sufficient capacity, countries can, for example,
develop plans for, and access and attract investment for, energy sources
which are environmentally sustainable and widely accessible to poor
communities.
In northern Pakistan, with GEF financing, UNDP has supported local
authorities to bring energy-efficient housing improvements to more
than 2,500 households. More than 14,000 others followed suit
adopting the same standards on their own. As a result, 64 kilotons of
wood fuel has been saved, and more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2
emissions have been avoided. New livelihoods have also been developed

for villagers, mainly women, including in the sale and promotion of cook
stoves. Wood fuel consumption has fallen by more than fifty per cent,
freeing up valuable disposable income, improving indoor air quality,
and allowing women and children more time for other activities.
4) UNDP has learned the importance of supporting countries to
stimulate green entrepreneurship. We help countries incentivize lowemissions and climate-resilient solutions by reducing the barriers small
and medium-sized enterprises active in these areas face to the
necessary markets, credit, and technologies.
Niger, for example, used climate finance secured with the assistance of
UNDP, to increase farmers access to water resources during droughts.
More than 3,500 farmers were supported to make the transition to
drought-resistant varieties of millet, sorghum, and cowpea. Through
this vegetable garden programme, the annual income of women farmers
increased, on average, by more than US$200 [3].
To support decision-making on when to plant, rain gauges were
installed in eighty villages, and women received training on reading
them. This combination of support led to an increase in the quality and
quantity of agricultural goods, and helped families in Niger become
more resilient to drought conditions.
The lessons UNDP has learned from integrated approaches across the
development, disaster risk reduction, and climate change agendas are
helping us to support many countries to lay solid foundations for
sustainable development. To build on these foundations in the 2015
summits and agreements, it will be important to draw on the experience
of what works in practice. That should inform the finalisation of
coherent agendas across the three agreements, and help improve the
lives of people everywhere and the health of the one planet we all share.

[1] World Bank, 2014

[2] World Bank 2013, Building Resilience: Integrating Climate and Disaster Risk into
Development.
[3] UNDP Project Implementation Review. 2014.