Climate change stands as one of the biggest threats to the global development. Pakistan has witnessed a spike in the incidence of extreme weather events in recent years, many of them climate change induced - in the form of floods, earthquakes, heatwaves and cyclones, which have caused massive destruction and resulted in a high death toll. Research reveals that while natural factors may account for climate change, human activities also have a significant role to play in contributing to the phenomenon. Climate change has thus come to occupy an important place in the development discourse which in turn is trickling down to policy debates. Decision makers are in the process of looking into adaptation initiatives to guard against the impact of natural disasters and are making efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the threat of climate change.

The LEAD Climate Action Programme (L-CAP) aims to enable effective, prioritized national and international responses to climate Change by a cross-section of key Pakistani stakeholders. It was designed in 2007 to form the basis of research, stakeholder consultations and policy responses to climate change in Pakistan. Since then, LCAP has firmly placed climate change on the agenda for government policies, highlights its importance relating to the public and private sector and works with communities in building more resilient landscapes. Since its inception, the focus of L-CAP has narrowed from an adaptation-mitigation approach to a more specialized thematic approach that is intended to treat impacts on households, communities, businesses and industries from a governance, resilience and sustainability perspective. The focus areas included in L-CAP are Climate Finance Readiness, Low Carbon Development and Climate Change Resilience.

Major Initiatives under this Programme are;

Ongoing Initiatives

1.Acting on Adaptation in the Hydro-Electricity Sector

2. Building Readiness of the Private Sector in Bangladesh for Green Climate Fund (GCF) Accreditation

3. Climate and Development Knowledge Network - CDKN

4. Climate Change Policy & Action Plans

5. Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) for Pakistan

6. Deepening and Expanding Heat Health Action in India

7. Facilitating Karachi City District Government in Heatwave Management

8. Increasing the Resilience and Effectiveness of Small and Medium Scale Irrigation Systems in Nepal

9. Mobilising Efforts To Reduce Deforestation For Water, Energy And Food Security In Indonesia

10. Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Programme of the UK Government International Climate Fund

11. Partnership with Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE)

12. Policy Development on Climate Change for Sindh & Punjab

13. Raising Risk Awareness

14. Scaling-up Climate Smart Agriculture In Nepal

15. Supporting Government of Bangladesh to Implement National Determined Contributions

Completed Initiatives

1. Achieving Green Growth in Developing Countries: the Political Economy of Energy Security

2. Adaptation Policy Options And Interventions For Climate Change Induced Displaced People Of Banglades

3. Addressing Environments of the Poor: Priorities for SDGs’ Actions

4. Advancing CCD for Food Security through Implementation of National Climate Change Strategies

5. Assessing the Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Nepal

6. Assessment and Strengthening for CSOs and GOP

7. Assessment of the Effectiveness of Micro Disaster Insurance in india

8. Building a Community of Practice on Community Based Adaptation

9. Building Capacity on Climate Change Adaptation in Coastal Areas of Pakistan

10. Climate change: Addressing heat-health vulnerability in rapidly urbanising regions of Western India

11. Designing a Franchise Model for Conversion from Diesel to Renewable Energy in Rural India

12. Development of LAPA in District Mirpurkhas (Sindh) and Rajanpur (Punjab)

13. Disaster and Climate Resilience Across the Eastern Himalayas

14. Disaster Risk Insurance For Vulnerable Communities In Pakistan

15. Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in Koshi River Basin, Nepal

16. Entrepreneurship Education and Skills Development through School-Based Productive Enterprises

17. Exploring Local Access to the Green Climate Fund

18. Finding the Finance: Climate Compatible Development in Asian Cities

19. Future Proofing Indian Cities

20. Gender and State Climate Change Action Plans in India

21. Getting Climate Smart for Disasters

22. GLOBE Climate Legislators Initiative – Phase 1

23. Improving Access To Knowledge On Climate And Development

24. Indonesia Energy Sector NAMA Coordination

25. Integrating Climate Change Into Food Security Data Collection In Nepal

26. Knowledge Management for Madhya Pradesh State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC)

27. Loss and Damage in Vulnerable Countries Initiative

28. Methods Toolbox For Assessing Loss And Damage At Local Level

29. Monitoring and evaluating community-based adaptation

30. Multi-Stakeholder Action to Mainstream DRR and Climate Adaptation

31. Nepal’s strategic engagement with the UNFCCC

32. Promoting low-carbon construction in rural India

33. REDD-net Asia: Dialogue with governments and civil society organisations in Asia and the Pacific

34. Scaling-up Climate Resilience with Partners for Resilience

35. Scoping A Combined Programme On Climate Compatible Development For Pakistan

36. Sheltering from a Gathering Storm

37. Strengthening Climate Change Knowledge Architecture in Nepal

38. Strengthening Climate Negotiation Capacity in Pakistan

39. Strengthening ICCTF’s capacity to access global climate funds

40. Support for the 2011 Climate Vulnerable Forum

41. Supporting Climate Finance Readiness in Indonesia and Vietnam

42. Supporting Climate Resilient Construction in Vulnerable Areas in the Punjab

43. Supporting the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) process in Pakistan

44. The Climate Asia Communications

45. Understanding Flood Rand Resilience in Eastern India

46. Vulnerability and Risk Assessment to support implementation of the Uttarakhand Action Plan

47. Water Pricing to Promote Equity, Efficiency and Sustainability in the Growing City of Faisalabad