Climate change forum in APAC aims to bring global solutions

​​As the global community steps up to accelerate urgent action against climate change, a multitude of sustainability events are taking place over the next few months to make critical progress towards a healthier planet.

From the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit and Climate Week NYC to the UN’s climate change conference COP 28, the collective goal is to unite people worldwide to steer passion and innovation into tangible climate action solutions.

The 8th Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation (APAN) Forum kicks off on August 30 in the Republic of Korea to support climate solutions in Asia-Pacific (APAC).

What is the 8th Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation (APAN) Forum?
The event is considered Asia-Pacific’s largest and longest-standing gathering of adaptation practitioners who will convene in Incheon City to share knowledge, best practice and solutions on adaptation and resilience-building to address climate change challenges.

The forum acts as a key regional platform for collaboration between adaptation practitioners and is the biennial flagship event of the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) secretariat.

The in-person event, hosted within the UN Environment Program (UNEP) Regional Office for Asia-Pacific, runs from August 30 to September 1, during the Korea Global Adaptation Week (KGAW) 2023, one of the most notable adaptation events of the year, aiming to promote actions and practices to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. 

A group of organizations are hosting the forum: the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea, the Korea Environment Institute – Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change and Incheon Metropolitan City. It is co-organized by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UNEP through the APAN secretariat. 

The forum will unite representatives from a plethora of organizations, including governments, financial institutions, UN agencies, academia, research, international organizations and the private sector, as well as youth and civil society organizations to work collectively across sectors.

What does this event aim to achieve from a longer-term perspective?
It is vital that the issues surrounding climate change adaptation, approaches and planning policies are more comprehensible. There will be knowledge and funding gaps since the last forum and so this event aims to provide a clear report of actions and progress to date.

Communities, practitioners, and policymakers will be offered guidelines and the forum will act as a platform for implementing adaptation knowledge and accelerating action. Through such knowledge sharing and collaboration, adaptation and resilience to climate change will be promoted and raised from a local to a global level.

What is the forum theme this year?
The theme is Resilience for All: Enabling transformative implementation. Resilience has been a key forum focus over the past two decades but as the climate crisis remains a critical challenge, time is running out to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

The current climate change impacts are disrupting sectors such as agriculture, ecosystems, human health, urban settlements and infrastructure, hence resilience is ever more urgent to protect communities to prepare for and withstand the worst-case climate scenarios. This is in conjunction with the key outcomes of COP 27, which focused on adaptation as a priority.

The outcomes of COP 27 will be reflected on at the APAN forum, and will focus on lessons learned regionally, to prepare for future discussions at COP 28 in November.