Zihan Xuan

Zihan is a youth climate advocate with the Youth Constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He is the Co-Lead of the COP26 Global Youth Statement, a representative and inclusive climate policy document drafted in consultation with more than 40,000 young people from more than 135 countries around the world. Hailing from Shanghai and Singapore, he serves as the Regional Youth Focal Point (Eastern and South-Eastern Asia) for the United Nations International Federation of Youth (UN1FY) for Water and Climate.

Cholpon Aitakhunova

Cholpon leads Central Asian Youth for Water (CAY4W) in her role of regional co-coordinator for Central Asia and Afghanistan. Currently, as an International Climate Protection fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation she is carrying out her research on the interface of water, climate, and security in Central Asia with a special focus on collective leadership, supported by her host institution - CLI.

Isabela Espindola

Dr Espindola is a Brazilian young water professional based in London and working at the International Water Association (IWA) as the Membership Engagement Officer responsible for the young water professionals community within IWA.

Isabela holds a PhD in Human geography from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), focusing on South America's transboundary water governance and management. She also has an MSc. in Environmental Sciences and a BA in International Relations and Economics.

Ocean Resilience and Coastal Adaptation in Asia and the Pacific

Part 1: Climate Adaptation for Resilient Coastal Development and Blue Economy Objectives: This session discussed issues and challenges faced in implementing coastal climate adaptation and the importance of pursuing programmatic and system-wide approaches for building longer-term coastal resilience and the blue economy. The discussions guided ADB in scaling up its support for coastal adaptation to meet its dual commitments to climate action and healthy oceans.

Bridging the Gap Between Adaptation Planning and Financing

The session discussed the challenges and opportunities for bridging the gap between adaptation planning and financing. It identified the enabling environment needed to ensure adaptation plans are able to secure long-term financing for implementation. The discussions helped identify the support that ADB can provide countries in bridging this gap and thereby increase its commitments to #climateadaptation finance.

Accelerating Private Sector Engagement in Adaptation: The Role Of DFIs

This side event discussed the roles of DFIs in supporting the scaling up of private sector engagement in adaptation. It aimed to highlight key resources, instruments, and emerging opportunities, including key levers that could be applied through upstream policy engagement and analytical efforts, as well as downstream practices related to investment structuring and finance instrument deployment.