^th September. Why were we there? Practical Action is a development organisation with a keen interest in technology but we recognise that Climate change presents a unique technology challenge as we struggle to understand a cope with the consequences.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), entered into force in 1994. This was a seminal moment when technology was recognised alongside finance and capacity, as the means to deliver climate action. Technology shapes our world and has nurtured human development, but at the same time technology has allowed utilisation of resources at increasing rates with unintended consequences for current and future generations. This year with numerous climate disasters the challenge has become more urgent. Hence the role that technology plays in tackling climate change is starting to become more apparent.

Technology underpins mitigation efforts through supporting energy efficiency, or switching to renewable sources. Technology is vital for adaptation to allow lives and livelihoods to adapt to new climate norms, for example by providing solar water pumps in areas suffering longer and more intense droughts. But for many people these actions are too little and too late. Many of the people we work with are already suffering the irreversible impacts of climate change, for them climate losses and damages are real. For example in Nepal already destructive monsoon floods have been turned into unpredictable and destructive events. In communities in the Karnali and Koshi river basins, the absence of appropriate early warning technology, have led to severe loss of life and assets. The communities and local records recognise that these floods are occurring more frequently, and are more intense, with a clear climate signal present in these changes.

These impacts are not restricted to a few isolated communities but are happening at increasing rates around the world, with the poorest and marginalised bearing the brunt. But appropriate technology could respond and reduce these losses. The role of technology is crucial in this context, as it shapes risks and the possible limits to adaptation and risk management. Yet, access in developing countries is constrained. For example, National hydrological and meteorological services, are limited in their optionsto improve the spatial and temporal resolution of flood forecasts. This is because these countries lack the funding and capacity necessary to use state-of-the-art technology (i.e., computing power, advanced hydrological and meteorological models) and acquire or collect more granular data, such as digital-elevation-model data and local impact studies such as those undertaken by communities. In addition, the poor and the vulnerable can often not benefit from early warning/early action information due to the digital divide.

Global leadership under the UNFCCC is needed to change the status quo. Support for progressive levels of innovation and technology already mandated in the Paris Agreement is needed to lead from incremental to transformative change. The UNFCCC’s Technology Mechanism can play a prominent role in this change. While the executive committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism should lead on an assessment of technologies from a climate justice perspective. For both mechanisms to operate effectively they need to rethink access, use, innovation, finance, and push for bottom-up governance mechanisms from the perspective of the poor and most vulnerable. We still have a lot of work to do.