January 2010: Volume 3

This newsletter is brought to you by the UNDP Regional Team and is meant to give you the latest and greatest news and information from our activities in the Asia-Pacific Region. It includes updates on: new project approvals; impacts and results; policy and mainstreaming work; noteworthy climate, environment and energy announcements; staff movements; events; and our activities in the Pacific.

Martin Krause, Team Leader

Newsletter Contents

PROJECT APPROVALS

In the fourth quarter of 2009, the UNDP Regional Climate, Environment and Energy team facilitated access to GEF and LDCF funding for 13 projects (worth $46,633,112). Four projects worth $10,620,000 of GEF, LDCF and UN-REDD funding began implementation.

• Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF)
• UN-REDD

IMPACTS & RESULTS

This quarter's newsletter details impacts and results from the biodiversity and climate mitigation portfolios.

• Biodiversity Portfolio
• Climate Change Mitigation Portfolio

POLICY & MAINSTREAMING

This section features two interventions from our Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Portfolio. In Timor-Leste the development of the National Action Plan to Combat Land Degradation is well underway as well as the preparation of SLM Mainstreaming Guidelines and capacity building within key government agencies. In Bhutan we are supporting numerous demonstrations of SLM to mitigate land degradation. This section also features mainstreaming news from our International Waters portfolio highlighting the Seas of East Asia Programme (PEMSEA).

• Sustainable Land Management

• Sustainable Land Management for Combating Desertification in Timor-Leste
• Integrated Management of Land Degradation and Desertification in Bhutan

• International Waters

• Seas of East Asia Programme (PEMSEA)

NOTEWORTHY

Noteworthy climate, environment and energy news from the region includes:

• UNFCCC Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen – A failure or a break-through?
• Climate Institutions in Asia Pacific: The State of Play
• UN-REDD takes off in Asia-Pacific
• Recent UNDP Climate, Environment and Energy Publications
• GEF $5.5 billion Replenishment Scenario
• East Asian Seas (EAS) Congress, Manila, Philippines
• The Fifth GEF Biennial International Waters Conference, Cairns, Australia

EVENTS

Six events from the fourth quarter of 2009 are highlighted here. Events planned for the first quarter of 2010 are also listed.

• Highlights from the last quarter

• UNDP-RCB initiative on ‘comparative analysis of energy service delivery models for expanding access for the poor’, Write-Shop, Bangkok 9-12 November 2009
• Community-based Adaptation through Coastal Afforestation Project in Bangladesh, a NAPA follow-up project, Dhaka, 29 October
• Local Government's Role in Environment, Natural Resource Management and Climate Change, Bangkok, October 5-6
• ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity, Singapore 21-23 October 2009
• Heart of Borneo Regional Forum on Forest Connectivity, Kota Kinabalu 26-27 October
• Technical workshop on Land Utilization and Management and Sustainable Development: Opportunities for Integrated Spatial Planning, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 17-18 November

• Upcoming

• 6th Mangroves for the Future Regional Steering Committee Meeting
• Project Inception Workshops

STAFF MOVEMENTS

In the last quarter, the UNDP Regional Climate, Environment and Energy team welcomed Yusuke Taishi on a short secondment from Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. We also said goodbye to one valuable team member, Pia Treichel.

• Joined the team
• Departed from the team

PACIFIC BRIEF

UNDP is providing policy, technical, knowledge and programme development/implementation services to Pacific Island Countries (PICs) on a wide range of climate, environment and energy related topics. UNDP has assisted PICs to access financial resources for climate, environment and energy programmes worth approximately USD 79 million over the last 4 years. UNDP country offices in Suva, Apia and Port Moresby are staffed with dedicated environment officers and supported by Regional Technical Advisors based in Samoa, the UNDP Pacific Centre in Fiji and the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok. As a response to PICs priorities, UNDP’s assistance is increasingly focusing on climate change adaptation. This volume of the “Pacific Brief” presents highlights from two renewable energy interventions (SEDREA and PIGGAREP); climate adaptation activities in Samoa and Tuvalu; the regional waters resources programme (IWRM); consultation on the Asia-Pacific Human Development Report on climate change and the latest portfolio statistics.

• UNDP supported climate, environment and energy portfolio statistics
• Government of Palau/UNDP/GEF Sustainable Economic Development through Renewable Energy Applications (SEDREA) project
• Advancing in NAPA implementation
• Samoa’s Integrated Climate Change Risk on Agriculture and the Health Sector
• Tuvalu National Adaptation Programme of Action
• Pacific wide Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) project launched in Fiji
• Consultation on the Asia-Pacific Human Development Report on climate change in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Suva, Fiji
• SPREP/UNDP/GEF Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP)
• Download the January Pacific Brief

 

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