Page - 537 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

22 Technology forClimate Justice… 537 EquitableAccess toEarlyWarning The focus of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) is on calculating accurate forecasts nationwide. However, ensuring equitable access to theseforecastsalsoforpoorandvulnerablecommunitiesisnotcoretotheirmandate. Community-basedearlywarningsystems(CBEWS)trytobridgethisgap,buttheydo notcoverallflood-pronecommunities,provideonlyveryshortleadtimesandarenot well integratedwithnational systems, hampering their sustainability.Communities that donot receive anearlywarning inevitably facehigher losses anddamages, but even those thatdo receiveanearlywarningoftendonothavesufficient information to takewell-targeted (early) actions that could limitor avoid lossesanddamages. It iskeytocharacterise theearlywarning-earlyactiongaptoasufficientlyquantitative extent andnot—as is currently the case forHFA—inamulti-hazard, country-wide andmostlyqualitativeway.Theself-reportingonaccessintheHFA,andsoonSendai, has tobe interpretedcarefully, as the reporting is, toour current understanding, not basedonrepresentativesurveysconductedbygovernmentsamongcommunities that dependonearlywarning.Ingeneral,localself-reportingseemstogiveamorerealistic picture thannational self-reporting. EquitableAccess toTechnologyandKnowledge Access to services and technology is far fromequitable both at the public andpri- vate level. Access tomore advanced flood riskmodelling and observational data, including the required advanced computational power, enablesNMHS to improve the spatial and temporal precision of the EWS. This in turn allows for better tar- getingof adaptationactions for reducingor avoiding losses anddamages.Poor and vulnerable communities face digital disparities, impeding equitable access to early warningandearlyaction information. Technological Innovationand Implementation Communities arebetter able tomanageandutiliseCBEWSwhen theyare involved in the technology development process from the onset. The dissemination, com- munication and response component of EWScan benefit from relatively low-tech innovations, whereas the riskmodelling andmonitoring andwarning components requireboth lowandhigh-tech innovations.Current policies andplanshave identi- fiedseveralof these innovationneeds,butavailablebudgetsusuallybarelycover the rollingoutandscalingupofexistingcopycat-type technology. Inaddition, capacity building to roll outfloodCRMat local level is oftennot sufficient, due tomanyad hoc, short-lived,mainlyproject-based interventions (Khanet al. 2016). Governance Manyorganisations are involved in implementingEWSat local, national, regional andglobal level.MostCBEWSinitiatives start at theproject orpilot level and face difficulties in scalingupandbecoming sustainable. It is at thenational to local and national to regional/neighbouring countries’ interfaces that current governance is insufficient.Governancehas tooccur across thesedifferentdimensions, topromote synergy and coherence and to create political and financial support for using new