Background

Environment and energy are essential for sustainable development. UNDP’s role is to strengthen national capacity to manage the environment in a sustainable manner while ensuring adequate protection of the poor. In particular, UNDP seeks to ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into national development strategies and frameworks. UNDP activities focus on helping developing countries assess and develop policy options, strengthen implementation capacities and mobilize finance. These activities support the efforts of these countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and meet obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

The Environment and Energy Group (EEG) in UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) provides advocacy, policy advisory and operational services to support the organization’s work in these areas across 166 countries. It leads UNDP’s efforts to advance the environmental agenda in development through a close partnership with other UN agencies and especially with the UNEP. On behalf of UNDP, it also has responsibilities for communications, outreach and global advocacy on development related environment and energy issues.

EEG focuses its efforts in four priority areas of intervention: mainstreaming environment and energy; mobilizing environmental financing; promoting climate change adaptation; and expanding access to environmental and energy services for the poor. In finance, the focus is to mobilize funding from financial instruments under Multilateral Environmental Agreements, particularly the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Multilateral Fund under the Montreal Protocol, and sequence and combine them with ODA, Foreign Direct Investment, and market based financial instruments such as the CDM, the voluntary carbon markets, and payments for ecosystem services, in order to assist developing countries in moving towards sustainable development.

In UNDP’s vision of our climate future, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are stabilized at levels that prevent catastrophic climate change. Developing countries have vibrant economies fueled by low carbon energy technologies, encouraged by pro-active energy policy frameworks. Land and water use is built on sustainability principles with active management for carbon storage, including sequestration and maintenance of carbon sinks. Sustainable transport systems guarantee adequate mobility to their citizens.

To achieve this vision, UNDP promotes, supports and monitors the implementation of a climate change regime that is pro-sustainable development and pro-poor. Specifically UNDP’s objective is that the capacity of developing countries is adequate to a) deal with the impacts of climate change that is already happening and can no longer be avoided, and b) adapt their societies to advance in human development in spite of it.

UNDP works towards this through four strategic priorities:

1. Together with other partners, assist developing countries to meaningfully contribute to the development of the post-Kyoto regime, particularly ensuring that the new regime reflects their needs and development aspirations
2. Increase the capacity of developing countries to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change
3. Create conditions that encourage markets to provide effective solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation in support of sustainable development
4. Internalize climate change considerations in all UNDP activities and programmes

UNDP recognizes that disaster risk reduction has many elements in common with climate risk reduction and, where applicable, combines its results in these areas.

Assisting developing countries to develop their capacity to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change requires that they are able to predict the impacts of climate change. This requires that they are able to access information, analyze this information, generate models and future climate scenarios, and then apply the results of this analysis in their development planning, policy, and programmes.

The UNDP Global Climate Change Impact Advisor is responsible for strategic leadership and business development, programme support, technical support and training, and the development and dissemination of guidance and tools, in all matters relating to the prediction of climate change impacts and consequences.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership and Business Development

• Identify and develop, in coordination with other UNDP bureaus and units, new business opportunities and partnerships for UNDP related to the application of climate impact modeling and analysis
• Support the development of other related business opportunities where climate information and climate impact modeling are key elements
• Identify and develop specific programmes and projects that apply or develop innovative cutting-edge climate impact analysis and modeling

2. Programme Support

• Develop and apply a coherent methodological framework for the access to and application of climate information, and for conducting policy relevant climate impact analysis, in support of relevant UNDP programmes and projects, including the National Communications Support Programme, the programme to support the development of national climate strategies and climate proofing UNDP assistance, and the Territory based approach to climate change management.
• Identify and develop opportunities for the application of climate impact analysis and modeling throughout UNDP’s work
• Provide strategic support and guidance, where it can make a critical difference, to a limited set of strategic or innovative UNDP activities

3. Technical Support and Training

• Provide technical advice, guidance, support, training and mentoring to UNDP internal units on all aspects of climate information management, climate impact modeling and analysis, and its application
• Develop, test and apply training materials and programmes for UNDP staff and partners
• Develop and deliver a limited amount of direct training to clients and partners where such is highly strategic or tests or deepens particular understandings and methodologies

4. Development and Dissemination of Guidance and Tools

• Scope, identify, compile, analyze, synthesize and evaluate results and learning regarding the use of climate information and impact analysis from the programmes and activities of both UNDP and others in order to develop new understandings, lessons and knowledge and to identify opportunities and limitations
• Actively develop, test and disseminate new and refined guidance and tools to support policy relevant climate impact analysis
  

Competencies

Corporate:

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Professional and Technical:

• Highly advanced technical knowledge of the science of climate change and the prediction of its impacts;
• Demonstrated competence in accessing, analyzing and modeling climate change impacts;
• Demonstrated ability to inform and advise developing countries on strategic policy making and planning in regard to climate change impacts;
• Sound knowledge and experience in how organizations and individuals learn and change;
• Demonstrated ability to research, analyze, synthesize and generate quality knowledge and learning products;
• Demonstrated intellectual leadership and ability to integrate knowledge with broader policy and operational objectives;

Client Orientation:

• Demonstrated ability to see things from the clients perspective
• Ability to identify client needs and match them to appropriate solutions
• Demonstrated ability to establish trust and respect

Creativity:

• Demonstrated interest in new ideas, new ways of doing things;
• Demonstrated interest in improving programmes or services;
• Demonstrated ability to “think outside the box”
• Demonstrated ability to take calculated risks on new and unusual ideas and approaches

Communication:

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and most essentially written;
• Demonstrated ability to promote and persuade others to consider new ideas;

Commitment to Continuous Learning:

• Demonstrated eagerness to seek out new learning, keep abreast of new developments in the relevant technical fields, and to develop own skills.

Planning and Organizing:

• Proven ability to plan and organize work;
• Good judgment and decision-making skills.
  

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree (or preferably PhD) in climate science, environmental modeling, GIS or closely related field.
• Over 10 years of progressively responsible relevant experience in the field of climate change impact analysis, including the provision of policy advice, technical support, guidance and training to developing countries.
• Experience in programme and project development and management.
• Experience with analysis, business systems, and information technology for data and information management.
• Excellent command in written and spoken English is essential; working level proficiency in Spanish and/or French is highly desirable.