Peter Bentley, Adaptation and Resilience Team Lead at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said his country’s third national adaptation plan currently under development will take the international aspects of climate adaptation into account. While the first and second such plans had not done so, Bentley said, the third plan was going to be the result of a “whole of government” approach beyond the climate and environment remit involving the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Trade.

Other countries are also increasingly mentioning cross-border and cascading climate risk in their national adaptation plans, said Anne Hammill, Director of the NAP Global Network, emphasizing that “the messaging of Adaptation Without Borders is being picked up by countries.”

From a regional perspective, Estherine Fotabong of the African Union Development Agency warned that failing to take into account cross-border and cascading climate risk meant underestimating the true climate vulnerability of regions.

“An approach focused solely on what’s happening within national borders will not give the solutions you’re looking for,” she said, drawing on the example of rice: “What adaptation measures South East Asian countries take against sea level rise and saltwater intrusion on rice fields matters for rice-importing countries in Africa,” she said.