The threats posed by climate change are increasing all over the world and regional governments are at the forefront of increasing loss and damages incurred by flooding, drought, extreme heat, sea-level rise, and more extreme weather events. Adapting communities and living environments to the impacts of climate change is no longer a choice.

That’s where the Race to Resilience comes into play. Launched by the Marrakech Partnership High-level Champions Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Muñoz in January 2021, the Race to Resilience is a global campaign seeking to mobilize action on climate resilience ahead of COP26 and beyond. It calls attention to the urgent need to build global climate resilience in a way that prioritizes people and nature, enabling vulnerable communities to thrive in spite of climate shocks and stresses.

A sister campaign to the Race to Zero campaign, the aim of the Race to Resilience is to ensure that climate resilience goals are treated with the same if not greater urgency as our race to halve emissions by 2030, targeting the most vulnerable first.

To develop and implement effective adaptation strategies, all levels of government need to be engaged. Due to their key position between national and local levels, subnational governments are natural leaders in coordination and policy coherence, innovation and in developing ambitious resilient and adaptation actions that are crucial for long-term resilience.

As part of their commitment as members of the RegionsAdapt initiative, which is an official partner of Race to Resilience campaign, more than 75 regional governments, commit to:

RegionsAdapt pledges to the Race to Resilience to support these regions to achieve this goal by:

  1. Double the number of signatory regions working on building resilience from 70 to 140, raising the number of impacted people by 2030, positioning RegionsAdapt as the voice of subnational governments in the Race to Resilience.
  2. Increase the number of regions developing adaptation plans and integrating climate change adaptation and resilience in sectoral policies and local development planning.
  3. Support regions in developing, adopting and improving their adaptation plans and/or programmes (mainstreaming adaptation into other sectoral policies) through capacity building, knowledge exchange, compilation and dissemination of good practices, and cooperation amongst peers.
  4. Support regions with capacity building and information in order to raise the number of implemented adaptation actions targeting vulnerable communities.
  5. Increase the number of regions reporting annually and reporting back on their annual progress to inform the Marrakesh Partnership and members pathways on adaptation and resilience.

In 2020, most of the regional governments that reported in RegionsAdapt 2020 annual report have already adopted an adaptation plan (68%) or are in progress of developing one (21%), having already reported over 230 adaptation actions.

HOW TO JOIN?

Regional governments and RegionsAdapt call on more regions to join the race by joining the RegionsAdapt initiative and commitments. To do so they are required to:

  1. Complete and sign the adhesion form accepting the aforementioned commitments. Interested regions can request de adhesion form through email at mgarcia@regions4.org
  2. Assign two representatives from your region who will work directly with us throughout the initiative.

Regions joining RegionsAdapt automatically become part of the Race to Resilience and pledge to implement the commitments mentioned above. Member regions benefit from the initiative’s support in enhancing their visibility, strengthening their capacities, and showcasing their leadership in adaptation and resilience.

Check out the list of current signatories here.

Join us and help us to catalyse adaptation action to build resilience of 4 billion people!

FURTHER INFORMATION

To learn more about Regions4 Race to Resilience click here

Related news: RegionsAdapt named official partner of the Race to Resilience – link

Announcement of the RegionsAdapt Pledge – link

Related publications: RegionsAdapt Brief Report 2020 & Climate Change Adaptation in a Multi-level Governance Context