Climate Change Action Plans: How Countries Around the World Are Preparing for Climate Change

What Are Climate Change Action Plans?

A climate change action plan, sometimes referred to as an adaptation plan, is a plan for how an area plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These are often created by the regional government, such as a city, state or country, and lay out how the area will create institutions and policies to address climate change and its effects.

While climate action plans vary by city and by country, many include some of the same overarching strategies to fight or adapt to climate change. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a climate action plan usually includes the following:

1. Regional and local climate risks and vulnerabilities
2. Baseline greenhouse gas emissions
3. Goals and targets
4. Alternative policy options
5. Identification and screening of mitigation actions
6. Forecast impacts of mitigation actions
7. Recommendations and strategy for implementation 

Climate change action plans must create specific goals, establish priorities for how these goals should be achieved, and then identify options for how key sectors or policy-makers can achieve these goals. Communication and constant evaluation are crucial for ensuring the action plan is implemented efficiently and effectively.

Why Are Climate Action Plans Important?

There is no question that climate change is occurring, and the associated negative effects, such as extreme weather events, are already impacting us severely. Climate action plans help local governments not only attempt to slow climate change, but also prepare so that its effects are less devastating.

For example, a climate action plan may include strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (climate change mitigation), but it may also include strategies to build infrastructure that is resilient to extreme weather events like hurricanes (climate change adaptation).

The strategies laid out in a climate action plan may also have added benefits in addition to mitigating climate change. One of the best examples of this is increased savings due to lower energy costs, or increased green spaces in cities due to reforestation.

Read more: Climate Change Mitigation vs. Adaptation

Climate Change Action Plans Around the World

Climate change action plans are being created and implemented around the globe. Here are a few examples of the different kinds of climate action plans.

Canada

Canada’s first climate change action plan, “Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF)”, was passed in 2016 and has since been strengthened by the introduction of a new plan, “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy.”

The Government of Canada’s plan seeks to work with smaller, non-Federal governments as well as Indigenous Peoples and other partners. The plan seeks to reduce pollution, increase jobs, and create a healthier environment.

The 2020 plan works in conjunction with Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy, which works to reduce the risks Canada faces from climate change. Overall, the goal is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Various provinces in Canada also have local climate change action plans, including Manitoba, Ontario, the Yukon, Quebec, and Vancouver.

Read more about Canada’s Climate Action Plans

Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) was first published in 2008 and revised in 2009. It includes six key pillars:

1. Food security, social protection and health
2. Comprehensive disaster management
3. Infrastructure
4. Research and knowledge management
5. Mitigation and low carbon development
6. Capacity building and institutional strengthening.

Another key component of Bangladesh’s action against climate change is the National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA). This was first published in 2005 by the Bangladeshi government’s Ministry of Environment and Forest. NAPA’s themes and goals are quite similar to the key pillars listed above.

Read more about Bangladesh’s Climate Action Plans

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s “Climate Change and Governance in Afghanistan” was first published in 2015 by the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA). It provides an overview of how Afghanistan’s government plans to incorporate climate action into their plans for future national development.

It focuses mainly on how government institutions and policies can aid in mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the country. This includes a particular emphasis on evaluating several key resources, ecosystem services, and climate change effects:

1. Agriculture
2. Biodiversity and ecosystems
3. Energy and infrastructure
4. Forests and rangelands
5. Natural disasters
6. Water.

Read more about Afghanistan’s Climate Action Plan

Philippines

The Philippines’ National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) was passed in 2011, and outlines the risks and mitigation measures related to climate change in the country to create a plan for 2011-2028. The plan is focused on reducing vulnerability, particularly of marginalized peoples, in addition to creating public policies and encouraging collaboration with the private sector.

The plan’s main targets can be summarized as follows:

1. Improving the resiliency of human communities and natural ecosystems in the Philippine’s to adapt to climate change
2. Using natural resources wisely to preserve biodiversity while still keeping economic progress and success viable
3. Creating a system that puts value on the direct use, indirect use, and non-use of natural resources in order to achieve sustainable development

Read more about The Philippines’ Climate Action Plan

Nigeria

In 2019, Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council of Ministers passed the National Action Plan (NAP). which focuses on improving air quality and lessening Nigeria’s contribution to climate change. If the plan is successful, it could result in an 83% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a 61% reduction in methane emissions, compared to business as usual.

The plan creates specific measures that impact 8 sectors:

1. Transportation
2. Cooking and lighting in households
3. Industry
4. Waste
5. Oil and gas
6. Agriculture
7. Power

Read more about Nigeria’s Climate Action Plan

A climate change action plan, sometimes referred to as an adaptation plan, is a plan for how an area plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These are often created by the regional government, such as a city, state or country, and lay out how the area will create institutions and policies to address climate change and its effects.