Profile

The UN Climate Resilience Initiative: Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape (A2R) is a global multi-stakeholder initiative that strengthens climate resilience for vulnerable countries and people. It forges linkages between climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable development, in order to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction for delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals.

A2R promotes three key capacities as a common frame for climate resilience in the UN System and for its partners. By strengthening these three capacities, Partners can better understand and manage climate risks and hazards;

Anticipate: Capacity to better anticipate and act on climate hazards and stresses through early warning and early action.

Absorb: Capacity to absorb shocks and stresses by increasing access to climate risk insurance and social protection systems.

Reshape: Capacity to reshape development pathways by transforming economies to reduce risks and root causes of vulnerabilities and support the sound management of physical infrastructure and ecosystems to foster climate resilience.

Overall Approach

Essentially, A2R:

i. Forges coherence, integrating results and targets for delivering on three global policy processes: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Climate Agreement and the overarching 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

ii. Advocates for more investment and action on climate resilience, including on early warning and early action, climate risk insurance and social protection and climate risk-sensitive green and grey infrastructure at scale by multiple actors, across the most vulnerable sectors threatened by climate change.

iii. Increases the effectiveness of the broad spectrum of UN entities and its partners, by enabling alignment of approaches across three capacities for climate resilience, with the aim of effecting transformative change for the most vulnerable countries and people

Core Functions

• Raise awareness at the global level of the importance of building climate resilience, including in the context of the Global Climate Action Agenda.
• Analyse progress under the three climate resilience capacities in the light of already-agreed global goals and targets.
• Promote climate resilience information, knowledge, good practices as well as available technologies, resources and mechanisms to facilitate and scale-up effective climate resilience building actions.
• Mobilize targeted support for vulnerable countries and people that require resources (human and/or financial) to develop their capacity for climate resilience.