Climate Change and Variability

Welcome to GEF IW:LEARN guidance for projects on climate change and variability. The guidance is designed to assist GEF IW projects with the GEF V requirement to take climate change and variability into consideration in the implementation of IW projects.  In particular, this manual is meant to help explain the need for mainstreaming climate concerns and where to find the available wealth of information. However the guide is not intended to tell project exactly what to do – this is left to nation/regional experts who projects should be consulting. The guide does indicate the type of discussion/research that should be undertaken at the inception, implementation and the closure of a GEF IW project. The guide also provides examples from the IW Portfolio to bring accessible and practical approaches to supplement the extensive list of approaches given in a reference section.  The manual therefore serves to capture the relevant material from a vast library of climate guidance (which are listed in the references section) into an accessible format that suits the particular needs of IW projects.

The guidance is split into a freshwater (rivers, lakes, groundwaters and wetlands) and a marine (LME and open ocean) section. Both follow a similar form and use similar material supplemented with water-type specific material.

As the subject area is always expanding and the examples of good practices are evolving and GEF IW:LEARN welcomes feedback and suggestions on successful (and not successful) approaches.