Policy brief: technologies for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage in coastal zones
Coastal zones are home to about 40 per cent of the world’s population, living within 100 km of the coastline.
The most recent technology needs assessment indicates that one-third of developing countries placed infrastructure, including in coastal zones, as a prioritized sector, and most of the prioritized technologies in this regard were related to coastal protection, including both hard and soft measures.
Today more than 600 million people live in coastal zones that are less than 10 meters above sea level, and approximately 60 per cent of the world’s metropolises whose populations exceed 5 million people are located within 100 kilometers of a coastline. Coastal zones are a critical component of national economies, including shipping, aquaculture, tourism and other coastal services and industries.
Furthermore, entire economic activities in those of small islands developing states and low-lying delta countries, belong to their coasts. And yet coastal areas stand at risk from rising sea level and extreme weather intensity caused by climate change.
Recently as evidenced in many coastal areas, the impacts of these climate change phenomena, including the losses and damages, are increasingly becoming disruptive.
The report aims to inform policy-makers and practitioners on technological solutions to assess and manage climate-related risks comprehensively in coastal zones. It also identifies recovery and rehabilitation measures to address the impacts from tropical cyclones, storm surges, sea level rise, ocean acidification and other climate-change-related impacts.
Source - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change