What tools and methodologies can you use to assess climate change impact on projects?

1 Why CCIA is important

A CCIA is a systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating the effects of climate change on the environment, society, and economy of a project area. It can assist you in identifying climate hazards and risks that may affect your project objectives and performance, assessing the vulnerability and resilience of your project components and stakeholders to climate change, evaluating the potential impacts of your project on the climate system and GHG emissions, developing and prioritizing adaptation options and strategies to reduce risks and enhance opportunities of climate change, as well as monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of your adaptation measures. Moreover, a CCIA can help you comply with legal and regulatory requirements, meet expectations of clients and funders, and demonstrate social and environmental responsibility.

2 How to integrate CCIA with EIA

A CCIA can be integrated with your EIA as a complementary or supplementary component, depending on the scope and scale of your project and the availability of data and resources. You can use the same steps and principles of the EIA process, such as screening, scoping, baseline study, impact prediction, mitigation, reporting, and monitoring, to conduct a CCIA. Nevertheless, you may need to modify or expand some of the aspects of the EIA to address climate change specific challenges and uncertainties. This includes defining the spatial and temporal boundaries of your CCIA, selecting climate scenarios and models to project future climate conditions in your project area, applying suitable methods and indicators to quantify and qualify climate change impacts and adaptation measures, incorporating stakeholder participation and consultation throughout the CCIA process - particularly vulnerable and marginalized groups - and communicating results and recommendations in a clear and transparent manner while acknowledging limitations and assumptions.

3 What tools and methodologies can you use for CCIA

Conducting a CCIA requires various tools and methodologies, depending on the project objectives, context, and data availability. Climate risk screening tools, such as the World Bank's Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP), can help you to identify and prioritize climate hazards and risks. Climate impact assessment tools, like the Climate, Land, Energy, and Water (CLEW) framework, can help you to analyze the interactions between climate change and energy, water, and land sectors. Climate adaptation planning tools are available to develop and evaluate adaptation options and strategies for your project. The Adaptation Support Tool (AST) is one example that can help design and implement adaptation actions based on the principles of the EU Adaptation Strategy. Climate monitoring and evaluation tools, like the Climate-Eval Community of Practice platform, can help access best practices for evaluating climate change. However, it is important to consider the suitability and applicability of these tools for your project context before using them and consult with relevant experts and stakeholders.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?