Driving Climate Resilience and Adaptation with Renewables: Solutions for People and Nature

Context & Background

Climate adaptation is rising on the global agenda as the impacts of climate change intensify, with governments and communities under increasing pressure to protect lives and livelihoods while building long-term resilience. Yet current approaches often overlook the central role of renewables in driving adaptation. While renewables are widely recognised for their role in supporting climate change mitigation, they are just as critical for climate adaptation, helping communities respond to climate shocks, reduce economic vulnerability, improving air quality, and power essential services like health, water, and food systems.

For renewable energy to fulfil its full potential as a driver of climate, economic and societal resilience, it must be embedded in integrated planning processes that align energy, climate, and development goals. This includes designing resilient grid infrastructure, enabling community ownership, and ensuring long-term resilience in climate-vulnerable regions. At the same time, renewables-based economies are only possible working in tandem with nature. Poorly planned projects can strain ecosystems, but nature-positive approaches, such as ecologically sensitive siting and biodiversity-inclusive planning, ensure that renewable deployment supports both people and planet.

As countries update their National Adaptation Plans and define progress under the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), COP30 must secure the momentum for renewables-based economies to be embedded as a cross-cutting enabler of adaptation, resilience, and sustainable development. Aligning energy planning, finance, and infrastructure with these goals is crucial to ensuring lasting benefits for both people and nature.
 

Objectives

• Position renewable energy as a key enabler of climate adaptation, delivering climate, economic, health and social resilience across systems.
• Highlight the importance of integrated energy planning, resilient infrastructure, and community-driven approaches in climate adaptation strategies.
• Demonstrate how nature-positive approaches can be embedded in energy system planning and grid development to ensure just outcomes for people and biodiversity.
• Showcase examples from diverse regions and sectors where renewable energy is already contributing to adaptation goals, especially in vulnerable communities.
• Advance cross-sector dialogue on aligning renewable energy with National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and COP30 outcomes.

Speakers include:

• Rana Adib, REN21
• Pooja Dave, Climate Action Network International
• James Fletcher, Former Energy Minister of Saint Lucia
• Qiulin Liu, IUCN
• Joseph Nganga, Africa Climate and Energy Nexus (AfCEN)
• Shailendra Yashwant, Climate Action Network
• Marjorie Kauffmann, State Secretary Rio Grande do Sul
• Friday Phiri, Amref Health Africa

Learn more about IUCN's renewable energy portfolio.

See more events by the IUCN Global Climate Change and Energy Transition Team here.