Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2016–2030

The Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan is a cross-sectoral national strategic document of Myanmar for the period 2016–2030. Its main goal is to achieve, by 2030, climate-resilience and a low-carbon growth pathway to support inclusive and sustainable development.
The document covers the area of natural resources and the environment noting that they provide eco-system services that are crucial to people's livelihoods and wellbeing. Communities are highly dependent on the quality and availability of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services must be enhanced and protected from unsustainable exploitation. They can also help communities use ecosystem-based adaptation to build resilience to climate impacts and carbon sequestration for mitigation of GHG emissions. For this reason, the document continues, Myanmar must engage in natural resource management that enhances the resilience of biodiversity and ecosystem services that support social and economic development and deliver carbon sequestration as a sectoral outcome. The three expected results to achieve the sectoral outcome are climate change dimensions are incorporated and enforced in environmental and natural resource management policies, rules and regulations, including gender considerations; environmentally sound technologies and good management practices are adopted to improve and maintain forest, water, land and coastal ecosystems, health and services; and framework for institutional coordination and multi-stakeholder engagement is established and supports access to finance and implementation of responses for health, environment and natural resource management.
Further, the document provides that agriculture, fisheries and livestock enable food security and are still the predominant source of livelihood for many in Myanmar, although very vulnerable to slow-onset changes in climate and extreme events. According to the Strategy, Myanmar needs to create conditions to maintain growth and productivity of agricultural and food systems — for example, by applying new technologies and modifying existing ones to enable the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices that can withstand changes in climate and contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions. The sector must integrate climate change into its policies and plans to strategies actions on climate-smart farming systems and improve the adaptive capacity of smallholder, marginalised and landless households. For this reason, the document notes that Myanmar must achieve climate-resilient productivity and climate-smart responses in the agriculture, fisheries and livestock sectors to support food security and livelihood strategies while also promoting resource-efficient and low-carbon practices as a sectoral outcome. By achieving the expected results, Myanmar will advance along the road to achieving its adaptation and mitigation objectives. The three expected results to achieve the sectoral outcomes are the agriculture, fisheries and livestock sectors having integrated climate change into their relevant policies, planning and budgeting procedures and have put these into practice, taking into account gender considerations; the agriculture, fisheries and livestock sectors having adopted climate-resilient and environmentally sound adaptation technologies and climate-smart management practices, supported by international and domestic finance; and institutional coordination and multi-stakeholder engagement framework having been established and support the implementation of climate-smart responses in the agricultural, fisheries and livestock sectors, including innovative business models and gender-sensitive approaches.
In the main area of climate change and disaster management, the document aims for communities and economic sectors to be able to respond to and recover from climate-induced disasters, risks and health impacts and build a healthy society. More specifically, it includes the following outcomes: (1) climate risk management system is well established, robust and nationally integrated to respond effectively to increased intensity and impact of risks and hazards on people's health and well-being; (2) Myanmar has improved social protection, gender consideration and risk finance capacity to prepare for and recover from potential loss and damage resulting from climate change; and (3) Myanmar’s health system is improved and can deal with climate-induced health hazards and support climate-vulnerable communities to respond effectively to disaster and health hazards from climate change.
The Environment Conservation Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation is the focal point for climate change and deals with climate change issues at international level. It is also responsible for translating global-level decisions for national implementation. The Department is also responsible for engaging other ministries and departments to address climate change.