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This Technical Report has been prepared within the Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities (FG-SSC) and responds to the need to explore how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their infrastructure can support cities' adaptation to climate change. It is a contribution to the ongoing work on climate change adaptation within Question 15/5 of ITU-T Study Group 5, which leads ITU-T standardization activities on ICT and environmental aspects of climate change.

Because of the current and projected impacts on climate due to the high levels of greenhousegas (GHG) emissions, adaptation is a necessary strategy at all scales in a changing climate. At its 17th session, the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process as a way to facilitate effective adaptation planning in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and other developing countries.

This document presents the World Health Organization (WHO) Operational framework for building climate resilient health systems. The framework responds to the demand from Member States and partners for guidance on how the health sector and its operational basis in health systems can systematically and effectively address the challenges increasingly presented by climate variability and change.

When climate change was first recognized as a threat to national development goals, capacity building efforts were mainly focused on understanding the science as well as developing national policy and institutional frameworks for climate change. As awareness of the risks has increased and become experience based, it has become evident that a broader range of skills and capacities are required.

The Joint Principles for Adaptation are a statement by civil society organisations from across the world on what they consider to be a benchmark for good adaptation planning and implementation. They are a tool for ensuring that national policies and plans meet the needs and fulfil the rights of the most vulnerable people to adapt to climate change. The JPA were developed over 2014 and 2015 by civil society networks working on climate change from Africa, Asia and Latin America, under a project known as Southern Voices on Adaptation (SVA).

Launching, managing and supporting a NAP process are complex tasks that need input and capacities from a broad range of stakeholders. This training raises awareness of challenges and opportunities in the NAP process, assists in identifying institutional and financial needs, and familiarises participants with existing NAP support tools and methods. The training will strengthen the awareness of the NAP process in-country, and will also provide specific knowledge on the NAP framework conditions and key steps in the process.

This introduction is intended to provide support for country-driven approaches to adaptation, with consideration to indigenous and traditional knowledge (ITK) as a cross-cutting theme in the elaboration of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), and related instruments, such as national adaption platforms where different stakeholders engage with one another and contribute to an integrate national approach to flexible and sustained adaptation.

The Guidelines presented in this document have the same structure as those prepared by the Least Developed Countries Expert Group, so that they can complement and contribute to the NAP process, addressing the genetic resources dimension of adaptation planning.

The core objective of the tool is to help facilitate an efficient process for consideration of ecosystems within the National Adaptation Planning (NAP) planning process. To achieve this, there are two discrete steps involved in using the tool, which link closely with the UNFCCC’s NAP Technical Guidelines. This structure will help a NAP Planning Team to explore the issues relevant to both the current phasing of national government planning and also the government’s local policy priorities pertaining to ecosystems and biodiversity.

This guidance document is designed to ensure that the process of iteratively managing the health risks of climate change is integrated into the overall NAP process, including through assessing risks; identifying, prioritizing, and implementing adaptation options; and monitoring and evaluating the adaptation process. Supported by the LEG, the UNFCCC and other relevant partners (e.g.