Climate Change Archives - Sanitap

Reducing Climate Change Vulnerability

Andrew Tanswell — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 17:20:25 +0000

The World Bank estimates that up to 1.9% of the world population is most vulnerable and at risk of falling into extreme poverty due to the effects of climate change: most of them are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The least developed countries (LDCs) are a group of 47 low-income countries highly vulnerable to a changing climate, as well as other economic and environmental shocks, while being minimal contributors to climate change.

Food prices and access to clean water are the most important factor impacting sub-Saharan Africa; while health effects, natural disasters and food prices are more likely in the South Asian context.

To date only 18% of climate finance reaches LDCs, with only 10% reaching the local level

Startle supports new and emerging models for Adaptation funding aimed at engaging the private sector, finance institutions and nationals and local communities in vulnerable countries and communities where Adaptation is needed most.

There is a huge injustice here: LDCs are especially vulnerable even though they are responsible for less than 1% of mankind’s historical greenhouse gas emissions.

Vulnerability is “the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected”, including susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt. This is especially true for many poor people in developing countries.

Vulnerability to climate change is determined by three factors:

Exposure to hazards (such as reduced rainfall);
Sensitivity to those hazards (such as an economy dominated by rain-fed agriculture);
Capacity to adapt to those hazards (for example, whether farmers have the money or skills to grow more drought-resistant crops).

Adaptation measures can help reduce vulnerability – for example by lowering sensitivity or building adaptive capacity – as well as allowing populations to benefit from opportunities of climatic changes, such as growing new crops in areas that were previously unsuitable.

Care must be taken when defining a community’s level of vulnerability to avoid bias. Outcome vulnerability (considering quantitative measures) and contextual vulnerability (considering qualitative measures) are two dimensions that must be considered to gain a holistic understanding and picture of a community’s vulnerable state.

One measure of vulnerability is the Climate Risk Index (CRI) by Germanwatch, which indicates a level of exposure and vulnerability to extreme events, highlighting the country’s greatest in need of preparedness and adaption to address increasingly frequent and/or more severe events in the future.

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Only 9% of Madagascar’s rural population has access to safely managed drinking water.

Andrew Tanswell — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 15:15:27 +0000

Just 9% of Madagascar’s rural population has access to safely managed drinking water. A further 27% of the rural population does have some level of basic service but the 64% have limited or no access to clean water. A full 18% of rural populations only have access to surface water.

The picture is better – in relative terms – in urban areas with 38% having access to safe water, but the national average is still only 21%.

Source: SDGData

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Supporting the SDGs

Andrew Tanswell — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 10:54:59 +0000

The benefits of access to water, sanitation and hygiene cannot be underestimated. Satisfying the physical need for a safe drinking water source is the most immediate advantage of gaining access.

Essential, too, is access to adequate sanitation and good hygiene practices. Access to water, sanitation and hygiene are interconnected and are also essential for achieving other development goals, including the

elimination of poverty and hunger,
reduction of inequalities and
good health and well-being.

It also has profound wider socio-economic impacts, particularly for women and girls.

Nearly every one of the other goals rely in some way on Water, sanitation and hygiene. Critically, the United Nations General Assembly recognizes access to safe water and sanitation as human rights.

SDG 6 seeks to ensure safe drinking water and sanitation for all, focusing on the sustainable management of water resources, wastewater and ecosystems, and acknowledging the importance of an enabling environment. In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, countries have committed to engage in systematic follow-up and review of progress towards the Goals and targets, using a set of global indicators.

UN Water provides a detailed picture of progress against SDG 6 by country

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Consultancy for the WASH Sector

Andrew Tanswell — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:41:34 +0000

Led by the two SaniTap founders, each with over 30 years of experience providing management consultancy along side the team of consultant advisors, associates, and practitioners, SaniTap provides support to: –

· Manage projects in the areas of climate adaptation, community resiliency, and climate risk management;

· Conduct vulnerability assessments and develops adaptation strategies for urban and rural communities through research and stakeholder engagement;

· Develop climate action plans that describe projected climate impacts, quantify current and future greenhouse gas emissions, and identify strategies to build resiliency and reduce emissions;

· Incubate, develop and build businesses including formulating products and services which mitigate, adapt and build resilience in communities facing the impact of climate change;

· Project management of initiatives, managing teams through all phases of a project (planning, implementation, analysis, reports) from initiation to completion;

· Development of Financial Planning and Business/Project Models;

· Gold Standard Voluntary and CDM Compliance Carbon Project for registration of carbon tradable projects;

· Non-market vehicles for Adaptation funding;

· Monitoring, Validation and Reporting for projects.

Our consultancy services are marked by fair treatment and meaningful involvement of clients, community members, and related stakeholders.

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Corporate carbon emissions offsetting

Andrew Tanswell — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:42:54 +0000

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Climate action cannot be one-dimensional: projects must deliver meaningful sustainable development benefits beyond emission reductions. [Gold Standard]

By partnering on this project, your company can offset its carbon emissions – whilst contributing to lives saved and improved health of hundreds of thousands of people, who are guaranteed access to safe drinking water for at least the next decade. This combination of environmental and human impact, made possible through your partnership, is an important CSR and communications opportunity – demonstrating genuine care and commitment towards employees, customers and suppliers.

For this project, we partner with one of the world’s leading carbon firms, who assists businesses, NGOs and governments reduce their climate impact and address sustainability issues. The carbon credits generated by this project are Gold Standard verified, which sets best-practice standards for climate and sustainable development interventions to maximise impact, creating value for people around the world and the planet we share.

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Adaptation to climate change

Andrew Tanswell — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 17:07:49 +0000

What Adaptation means in practice is that individuals, communities, cities and nations (‘We’) will need to adapt to the changes that will – inevitably – occur due to climate change and actions that mankind (but particularly the so-called ‘developed’ world) which has, is having, and will continue to have on global warming.

Here the collective noun ‘We’ is used because all of us will be impacted in one way or another. The difference is that some will be better equipped to adapt, others less so. Some will be impacted more severely; be more capable; or have more resources (money/skills/information) than others.

SaniTap works with communities and funders to look beyond ‘Development’ (important though this is) to help prepare and adapt infrastructure, processes and behaviours: adaption measures to build resilience for the future inevitable changes.

“Adaptation” refers to adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts. It refers to changes in processes, practices, and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change.

Adaptation measures can range from building flood defences; protecting clean water sources; setting up early warning systems for cyclones and switching to drought-resistant crops; to redesigning communication systems, business operations and government policies.

Adaptation also encompasses making the most of any potential beneficial opportunities associated with climate change (for example, longer growing seasons or increased yields in some regions) and also lifting communities above the most basic of living standards to more lasting, resilient, stronger standards taken for granted by the developed world.

Adaptation clearly goes beyond just development to include measures which address additional risks specifically caused by climate change. It is still unclear how expensive these measures will be or who will pay for them, but the World Bank suggests adaptation could cost the same again as the world currently spends on development assistance. Development Banks and national Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) are committing time, energy and finance to bring together NGOs, national and international bodies and the private sector to address the macro issues. What is vital is that the communities themselves – the affected people are properly represented and co-developers of appropriate micro and local level solutions.

SaniTap has experience with, and understanding of, working at both the macro and the micro – developing and using globally applicable approaches to implement local solutions.

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Climate Change Mitigation

Andrew Tanswell — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 14:54:50 +0000

To mitigate climate change, we must reduce or prevent the emissions linked to human activities.

While climate mitigation is one important dimension of our work our projects look forward to achieving climate adaptation and building climate resilience – providing depth to ensure genuine impact and sustainability.

Mitigation addresses the root causes of climate change, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation seeks to lower the risks posed by the consequences of climatic changes. Both approaches are necessary, because even if emissions are dramatically decreased in the next decade, adaptation will still be needed to deal with the global changes that have already been set in motion.

Global emissions of greenhouse gases are still on the rise. Even with commitments to cut net global emissions to zero, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will continue to increase for the coming decades, and average global temperatures will climb.

Mitigating (or reducing) climate change, is described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as “reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere”. This is done by either reducing emissions of these gases (for example, by reducing the burning of fossil fuels and biomass for electricity, heat or transport) or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and store these gases (such as in oceans, forests and soil). The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human interference with the climate system, and “stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner”.

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