Coleman quoted in article on California, Syria drought lessons
At first glance, California and Syria appear to have little in common other than Mediterranean climates.
But two new studies – focusing on severe droughts in these places half a planet apart – highlight a yawning gap in the abilities of developed and many developing countries to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Each study, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, documents ways in which global warming is boosting the likelihood of additional droughts as severe and prolonged as those the two have experienced.
But they also "are identifying the importance of risk and extreme events," says Noah Diffenbaugh, a researcher at Stanford University in California, and the lead author of the paper focusing on California's intense drought.
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This interplay of climate, social, and political factors in compounding risks from climate extremes has received heightened attention in recent years.
The last round of reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in 2013 and '14, placed a new emphasis on the need to focus on the full range of factors that influence the risks from global warming.
The interplay also looms over efforts to help developing countries adapt to the effects of global warming.
Negotiators are working on mechanisms for channeling aid to developing countries for green development and adaptation as part of the effort to produce a new global climate treaty by the end of this year, notes Heather Coleman, climate-change policy manager for Oxfam America, a nongovernmental organization involved in a range of global development issues.
Among the aid provisions: Countries seeking money for green-development or adaptation will have to show they can responsibly oversee the money and must meet requirements for accountability and transparency in how the money is used.
"Countries that are unable to demonstrate they can meet those standards will not be able to access those funds," she says, even if the need is great.