Across the globe, we are already experiencing significant destruction of infrastructure and community assets along with loss of livelihoods, ecosystems and human lives due to climate-related events and heightened climate-related stresses. These losses and impacts are often an outcome of poor resilience planning, design, and management. Climate change losses related costs are projected to rise to US$300 billion by 2030 (UNEP 2019) and US$500 billion per year by 2050 (PWC, 2020). Climate change hazards and risks are not evenly distributed across the globe. 

Growing awareness of these impacts has resulted in the increasing mobilization of public as well as private impact funds and capacity-building programs for national and local jurisdiction adaptation planning. For example, the EU commission recently committed over €1 billion for building climate adaptation and resilience measures in Africa. Hundreds of local authorities in middle to high income countries—and surely soon to be joined by authorities in low- and other middle-income countries—have developed (or are in the process of developing) local adaptation and resilience plans to address the impacts of climate change. However, all too often, these plans are not followed by the preparation of the necessary portfolios of adaptation projects required to unlock greater adaptation investments and to reduce projected harms and losses.

An adaptation project standard can be a powerful tool to aid the development of stronger adaptation project pipelines and portfolios, at the same time supporting the broader development of an ecosystem of aligned technical professionals, policy makers, and investors needed to scale adaptation investment globally.

Gold Standard and Resilient Cities Catalyst have tested the adaptation framework and guidance on two pilot schemes. The first project was in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. led by the City in collaboration with local nonprofits and community based organizations (CBOs). The second, an ecotourism resort project on San Cristobal island in the Galapagos Islands. The project was led by a private developer in collaboration with a global capital investing firm. 

The City of Pittsburgh’s Greenways program, aims to maintain over 605 acres of primarily forested, hilly and often steep-sloped ‘greenway’ corridors. These are passive, largely forested spaces that were transferred to the municipality during the decline and abandonment of the city’s steel industry. They are located on steep land unsuitable for building, and have been historically neglected. Over time, the environment has degraded, impacting the neighboring communities. Increasingly heavy rainfall events and ice storms have increased the incidence of landslides on the greenways, on occasion damaging abutting properties and blocking roadways.

The application process highlighted the need for developing adaptive management approaches that would help cope with the expected increases in rainfall due to  climate change. 

The Standard’s detailed process helped the City prepare necessary actions for climate resilience based on scientific and local advice and evidence. It also helped them secure additional funds for Greenways site regeneration. As these vital spaces become better managed, additional jobs will be created with  increased sense of wellbeing from improved communal green spaces.

The Cerro Verde eco-tourism resort project located on the San Cristobal island, which like most Galapagos islands has highly unique coastal, lowlands, and highlands micro-climates and ecological sensitivities. The island’s biodiversity is already being impacted by a variety of climate hazards. These climate hazards range from shorter and more intense rainy seasons in the highlands to ocean acidification, from more frequent El Niño events to increases in invasive pests and pathogens affecting local agricultural sector and the endemic flora and fauna population.

In collaboration with XCO2, Pegasus Capital Advisors, Orgal, and Gold Standard, RCC conducted an on ground stakeholder engagement workshop on Sept 25, 2022 to receive input from local stakeholders such as farmers, tour operators, parks department, local community based organizations, etc. on hazards and changing climate scenarios based on their lived experience.

The Standard was applied to develop short- and long-term climate adaptation measures for consideration  in the design of the resort’s buildings, landscaping, amenities, and business strategies. It was used to further prepare the planned contributions of the resort to the local economy as well as endemic species preservation, suppression of invasive species, local food systems, and tourism. 

Key Lessons from the Pilots in Pittsburgh and Galapagos

The early findings from these pilot projects show that as climate hazards become more commonplace, the long-term existential viability of public assets as well as private investments will depend on adapting to each project’s site-specific and systemic climate risks. Investing in adaptation delivers almost immediately in two ways. It mitigates site- and project-specific climate risks, and the associated current and future harms and economic/business losses. It also increases the performance of projects and investments by detailing ways that project’s can be designed to include other SDG co-benefits. These include, strengthening the local farming, tourism, and recreation sectors, providing new sources of local employment, and increasing local transportation, food, and water security. The Adaptation Standard promises to be a powerful tool to measure, manage and maximize sustainable development impacts over the long-term. 

In partnership with Gold Standard (GS), the international impact standards organization, RCC has developed a new international standard for the preparation and implementation of climate adaptation projects. This new adaptation projects standard is to guide local project owners to design, prepare, and implement quality climate adaptation projects in the context of still-evolving local climate change scenarios. By improving adaptation project viability, science and stakeholder informed quality, and investment worthiness, the Gold Standard/RCC standard can also improve the quality and scale of project pipelines for existing and emerging climate adaptation and resilience funds.

Unlike existing frameworks, the Gold Standard/RCC Standard assesses adaptation at the level of projects which has two key benefits. By defining a project design standard within the emerging national and local adaptation frameworks, the Standard aims to support both public authorities and the private sector in aligning the designs and management of projects with the defined goals and requirements in their climate action plans and resilience planning strategies. 

As part of the Standard’s development process, RCC and Gold Standard convened a Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) over the course of 9 months representing 9 global organizations representing impact investing, private consulting, development banks, and global non-profits and think tanks. The TAP provided feedback on the draft requirements for the Standard, addressing critical feedback on the 28 requirements addressing critical project components such as team qualification and formation, stakeholder engagement, project technical design, hazard analysis and risk assessment, and adaptive management approaches.

The Standard’s 18 adaptation project preparation requirements provide a roadmap for project developers to design and implement projects taking current, projected, and as yet uncertain climate change risks into account. See the infographic below summarizing the structure of the requirements.

Standard’s 5 project Development Phases

The Standard’s 18 requirements and guidelines help project owners address both direct and systemic climate risks.