CLIMPSE in South Asia

South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change.

It hosts a quarter of the world’s population, making any initiative to capacitate government and CSOs in climate action extremely important. It has some of the most polluted cities in the world (29 of the 30 most polluted cities are in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).

Receding snow cover in the Himalayas threatens the livelihood of 200 million people. Rising sea levels (even by one meter) threaten 95 million people. Most of the Maldives will go underwater.

Although climate change poses an existential significant threat in South Asia, efforts are mostly confined to policy discussions; CSO activities are localised, remain disconnected from policy, and are often overlooked.

Bridging the gap between policymaking and CSO efforts on climate change is vital.

Equally important is synergising the policy landscape given South Asian governments’ overlapping policies.

Over the next 24 months, GPPAC South Asia members aim to:

• Strengthen civil society climate action by establishing a multi-stakeholder network of CSOs and policy research institutes (and individuals). This will build on GPPAC South Asia’s hybrid membership of policy research institutes and CSOs.
• Bridge the policy-advocacy gap by facilitating learning through multi-stakeholder engagement. Familiarise CSOs with climate action plans and policy and introduce policy research institutes, policymakers, and the scientific community to grassroots climate activism. Our efforts will build on the EU’s support for climate action, which is concentrated at the policy level.
• Facilitate learning within each country by exploring how one sub-region/province has performed vis-à-vis others in addressing challenges posed by climate change.
• · Foster inter- and intra-regional learning by engaging with regional intergovernmental organisations (SAARC, BIMSTEC, BBIN, ICIMOD) and other GPPAC regional networks in LAC, Central Asia, Southern Africa, and the Pacific Islands, which also work on climate change and are impacted by it.

Specific activities will include a baseline survey; mapping policy and CSO action on climate change; mapping the nature of climate change threats at regional, national, and provincial levels; and auditing and comparing existing government strategies and approaches on climate change to identify synergies and success stories.

Our key objectives are to enhance CSO capabilities for effective advocacy on climate change and to encourage policymakers to tailor their climate action plans by prioritising grassroots initiatives.

This initiative is co-funded by the European Union as part of GPPAC’s CLIMPSE – Climate, Peace and Security: See More. Act Together project, which empowers local peacebuilders to act on the connections between climate, peace and security. By amplifying local solutions, the project informs policies and inspires action for the safety and security of people, communities and societies. Click here to find out more about CLIMPSE.'