NO 3. THURSDAY 12 MAY 2016
Daily Adapt
4TH INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION CONFERENCE ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
INDEX THURSDAY
4 - Introduction 8 - Themes and Issues 32 - Round Table 38 - Special events 42 - Expo Floor 43 - Poster presentations 46 - Social media 48 - Plenary sessions 63 - Colophon
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INTRODUCTION You're now reading the Daily Adapt. A visual and inspirational magazine of the Adaptation Futures 2016 conference.
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THEMES AND ISSUES There were 155 parallel sessions during the Adaptation Futures 2016 conference. Here you will find some of the highlights of the Practice sessions, Science-practice and Science sessions.
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DESIGNING A CLIMATE RESILIENT FUTURE Early this morning the Goudriaan room 1 was filled with people who had come together to take up the challenge of how to design a climate-resilient future. The response took the form of presentations given by young scientists in what turned out to be a productive, roll-up-your-sleeves atmosphere. Jeroen Waegemaeker of the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and PhD at the University of Antwerp, gave a presentation on how design can contribute to climate adaptation. ‘’Climate adaptation is a wicked policy problem’’, he said. Design as a research tool helps designers, stakeholders and researchers to work together to develop plans. Waegemaeker recounted how he had organised a design workshop with an academic perspective with 24 design students from a number of different countries. These students were brought together with professionals, such as architects and spatial planners, and prominent designers. The students were really eager to create a design, first had to understand the climate factors involved and how to translate this to a possible design. ‘’Climate change has specific barriers that makes it difficult to create a design for climate adaptation’’, says Waegemaeker. He gave a telling example: during one workshop it turned out that students had considerable difficulty imagining a drought striking in Belgium. That showed two things:
first, that a lot of climate-specific information is needed in order to develop a design for climate adaptation—and second, that it takes a lot of time and effort to really get to grips with this major challenge in all its complexity. Organised by: Till Below Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany Chair: Virginie Fayolle Acclimatise, United Kingdom
"Hurricane Sandy acted as a trigger and an accelerator for finding a solution to make cities more resilient. The project Rebuild by Design provided the platform for finding that solutions by bringing experts together." ROTTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS 10 - 13 MAY 2016
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NEW DIRECTIONS IN FOOD-SYSTEM ASSESSMENTS When it comes to climate change, food security is right up there as a key area of scientific inquiry because of its potential to wreak havoc across entire societies. This session focused on new directions in food-system assessments, including integration across global and regional scales, links between nutrition and health, and sustainable agriculture. It also explored the biophysical and socioeconomic impact of extreme climate events. Organised by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, this was a rather technical session, with a lot of model simulations that will certainly prove valuable in the search for new directions. Organised by: Cynthia Rosenzweig NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS), USA Chair: Jean-Francois Soussana Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France
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"We need to constantly improve the models rather than just using them."
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PLANNING THE NEXT GENERATION OF ADAPTATION RESEARCH: HOW TO COORDINATE, BROKER AND AMPLIFYING LARGE RESEARCH CONSORTIA TO ACHIEVE DEVELOPMENT IMPACT
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RESILIENT RISK GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS: ENHANCING INTEGRATION AND ADAPTIVE CAPACITY ACROSS SCALES
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ADAPTATION INTERVENTIONS: GETTING THE REAL MEASURE OF “RESILIENCE” The focus of this session was adaptation on the ground, even at the level of individual households. Nathan Engle, of the Climate Change Policy Team (USA), noted that a lot is done at a higher level, but asked: “Does it work at the project level, and what can we learn from each other?” One of the problems, he observed, is that resilience is difficult to quantify, let alone measure. “At a workshop, we were able to cut the number of indicators that several studies had identified from 1,200 to 250.” The next speaker, Lindsey Jones, began by saying why subjectivity is not a bad thing. “We all like to make frameworks, coming out with a figure; ‘4.6 for resilience’, that kind of thing. It all makes sense. But is it measuring actual resilience?” For Jones, an individual’s resilience can go far beyond a set of quantifiable factors. “What about something like marginalisation—how could that be measured. What about relations— family, social, work? So in fact, we know more about their resilience than they do—on paper. But there’s just a lot more to all of this than meets the eye.” Patrick Pringle looked back at all the work that has been done on resilience, and focused on discrepancies between transformations promised, and transformations delivered. He noted that there is a growing consensus around the
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need for transformational approaches to adaptation. However, there’s one catch: “For transformational language to be useful, it has to have purchase—it has to be real. If we promise any kind of transformation, we need to be able to show down the road that we have delivered.” Organised by: Dennis Bours Global Environment Facility’s Independent Evaluation Office (GEF IEO), USA Chair: Anna Viggh Global Environment Facility’s Independent Evaluation Office (GEF IEO), USA
"If we promise any kind of transformation, we need to be able to show down the road that we have delivered."
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ADAPTATION SUPPORT TOOLS In order to adapt to climate change, tools are available that can help decision- and policymakers to determine which measures are most urgently needed. These adaptation support tools, as they are called, are as often as not created by scientists with limited conceptual or design input from actual users. To make matters worse, a lot of these tools are highly specialised and tricky to use, and the way they present their information is not geared towards lay users. David Rissik, deputy director at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, has one answer to this problem: ‘’There is a need for tools that are demand-driven and that have been tested at all stages of development, so that they better match the demand and the capabilities of the people who will actually be using them.” Rissik shared the experience he had gained in developing the CoastAdapt tool in Australia: he had had frequent contact with stakeholders and end users, who told him what they needed and expected from an adaptation support tool: alignment with activities being pursued by other groups, flexibility, easy accessibility, and reliability of information, and a ready connection with the sphere of concrete action. Rob Lokers, project manager ICT at the Wageningen University and Research Institute in the Netherlands, seconded Rissik’s views, and added that it is very important for developers of tools to get know users as early as possible in the conception and design stages and then the press on with development. He also stressed the importance of using visuals and infographics: “We need, not just technicians, but also usability experts, graphic designers and editors, who should ideally be journalists and not scientists.”
Chair: Roger Street UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), United Kingdom
"Engage intensively and as early as possible with your stakeholders, and continue to work closely with them on developing the tool. It is key to recognise their particular needs: no two sets of needs will be the same, so no two tools will be alike."
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INSURANCE SOLUTIONS IN CLIMATE RISK MANAGEMENT The Paris Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol and the recent G7 Summit have, taken together, led to the suggestion that insurance and other risk-transfer solutions have an important role to play in adaptation to climate change. Participants in this session learned a lot about how insurance can complement national and regional strategies. The also gained a lot of keen insights into recent research into insurance for low-income households face risks from extreme weather events. A panel discussion looked at these insights, as well as at lessons that have been learned in both risk management and insurance. Charlotte Norman, Chief Climate Change and Disaster Risk Control Officer at the National Management Organisation (NADMO) in Ghana: ‘’Unfortunately, many people already experienced destruction caused by droughts and floods, so it will not be very hard to convince people about the need for insurance.’’ Organised by: Kehinde Balogun Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), Germany
Matthias Range Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany
"It is important to integrate financial solutions for risks regarding disasters and climate change. They have an important role to play."
Chair: Soenke Kreft German Watch, Germany Matthias Range, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany Chair: Soenke Kreft German Watch, Germany
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THE NAP PROCESS The Diamond 2 room, where this session was held, looked like nothing so much as a nice classroom—a studious atmosphere, with a lot of laptops out on the tables. The session, on National Adaptation Plans, was kicked off with three presentations, after which the participants split up into three discussion groups. Group 1 looked at mainstreaming, and asked: What has worked best in efforts to get climate change integrated into development planning? What factors have been most likely to lead to success on this score? Salim from Bangladesh explained that more than half a billion dollars is spent the last few years on reducing vulnerability. “We brought in the research community. That meant a change for us: for us, adaptation had meant doing first and learning lessons afterwards. So Now, Bangladesh is two steps ahead on this comparing to the rest of the world”. Bangladesh has the most successful earlywarning system for hurricanes. “We cannot prevent damage, but we have managed to keep more than 2 million people out of harm’s way.” Andro from Montenegro is trying to build a broad consensus around a national adaptation plan for Montenegro. The government has put out a white paper that floats a number of proposals. “One proposal is that no construction can take place within 100 metres of the coastline.” In the meantime, a lot of work has been
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done on creating a set of tools that can help implement the plan over the long term. Group 2 discussed how to base adaptation planning on rigorous data. One question they focused on: What have been the experiences with science-policy communication? The discussion looked at how to bring together climate-change and health data. Scientists, it was noted, can be good at data modelling. But what happens with the results? Data-sharing, it was agreed, can be an issue: usually you have to pay, so a data-sharing facility could help. Group 3 looked at implementation: What are the key barriers to implementing national action plans, and how can they be overcome? What are the solutions, and what are the key contributors to success? Discussants agreed on one thing: there is a great need for a coherent funding strategy. And how do you hit on the right mix of external and internal funding? Consensus here, too: it is about allocating existing budgets better, about an appropriate financial strategy, for instance on how to finance one or another project. Here, too, as with so much else: it’s all about the money. Organised by: Till Below Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany Chair: Virginie Fayolle Acclimatise, United Kingdom
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BANGLADESH DELTAPLAN 2100 "Bangladesh is the holy grail of water management, because so many issues come together in its delta. It has 160 million inhabitants and 90 percent of the water coming in from other countries. You cannot design a single strategy for a single future in such an area. You have to be flexible. Flexibility is key to be able to adapt plans to changing circumstances."
Chair & Organised by: Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga Wageningen UR, the Netherlands
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MAKING WEATHER FORECASTS MORE ACCURATE FOR THE WATER SECTOR The last round of sessions at Adaptation Futures 2016 included one on weather and climate services in the water sector. Participants looked at experiences in innovating these services, including a number of case studies related to two big projects, BINGO and IMPREX, both of which have been funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. BINGO is about bringing innovation to water management and providing a better future, even in the face of climate change. The aim is to provide end users, water managers, and decisionand policy-makers with practical know-how and tools for making projections about droughts and floods, for instance. Teun van der Spek, water policy advisor at the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, argued that it is crucial for scientists, governments, water authorities, end users and businesses to work together, pooling knowledge from their particular fields of expertise. ‘’Nobody has the definitive overview”, he said. “And communication between researchers and stakeholders is really important, especially since stakeholders have such a big say in shaping the research agenda.” The other big project, IMPREX, is all about improving predictions of, and better managing, hydrological extremes. Accurate predictions depend on two factors: time and space. Predictions for larger areas such as Europe as a whole, combined with short time spans such as one day, are the most accurate. The primary aim of the project is to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, by focusing on predictive modelling.
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Organised by: Laurens Bouwer Deltares, the Netherlands Chair: Laurens Bouwer Deltares, the Netherlands
"We see people concerned, not so much with climate change as such, but almost exclusively with extreme weather events."
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THE ECONOMICS OF ADAPTATION The Oscar Auditorium is a lovely place: nicely appointed with red armchairs. The subject: the institutional economics of adaptation Matteo Roggero from the Humboldt University in Berlin, explained his detailed research on local administration. He offered his conclusions from an academic viewpoint: institutions adapt and become integrative in a reactive way. “It has been shown that local administrations vary in their approach, and that discussions of the appropriate level of adaptation may be misleading.” His conclusions are drawn from the research done on municipalities in North Rhein Westfalen. He has some advice for practitioners: “Preach the problem, keep saying it, over and over again.” Emmy Bergsma from the University of Amsterdam gives an overview of flood safety and risk management. She speaks on her doctoral dissertation: “It took 4 years to write it. I’ll try to tell you all about it in 10 minutes”. Her thesis was a comparative study on changed relationships between experts and political actors in Dutch and American flood governance. “It is all about a change in government practice, in spatial planning, in the way policy makers act with experts. There are implications for political decision-making.” Bergsma: “There is a high level of security in the Netherlands, a dominant safety paradigm. Three programs formed the basis for it. First the idea was, “You can build
everywhere—the engineers will find a way.” This changed with the programme, “Living with Water.” Then flood insurance came along. This meant a first shift to local and personal responsibility: What can people do to reduce their insurance costs? The Dutch Delta Programme 2008 strengthened the levies.” In closing, Bergsma noted the concern that experts would influence decision-makers. “Yes, they have influence, but they can also help explicate the distributive consequences of policy proposals and in turn facilitate the understanding of political/distributive shifts in governance.” Chair & Organised by: Alexander Bisaro Global Climate Forum, Germany
"It is all about a change in government practice, in spatial planning, in the way policy makers act with experts."
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LIMITS TO HUMAN HEALTH SYSTEM ADAPTATION Adaptation can reduce the burdens of climate-sensitive health outcomes over the short term. In five engaging presentations, lessons that have been learned in this specialised area were presented to a fully engaged audience. Kathryn Bowen, (Australian National University), talked about the importance of evidence-based public-health research. She discussed a number of regional findings, which she grouped under five main themes: awareness, level of priority, climate-change action plans, technical and financial resources, and governance. “The research shows”, she said, “that all countries had a large array of partnerships with different organisations and institutions, from national and local governments to NGOs.” In capacity development there are important intersections between climate change and health outcomes. “We support countries that offer support, training and funding within and across these two disciplines”, Bowen reported. And the same goes for other fields, including those focusing on the environment. “That’s also true of departments of economics and finance”, interjected one audience member. Bowen called for the establishment of a community of practice among researchers and practitioners. Bowen ended with some thoughts on the financing: “More money is needed—
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a finance compendium on climate and health that outlines the main funding opportunities, providers, and mechanisms.” Perry Sheffield from Columbia University talked about child-focused healthsystem adaptation. The first slide in her presentation offered keen insights into the magnitude of the problem: “Over 80% of burden of diseases and other ailments— such as diarrhoea, malaria, and protein deficiencies—afflict children.” Sheffield showed an astonishing picture of a truck spraying DDT, with children playing nearby. “They were playing in this powerful insecticide. Of course this would not be possible anymore. It just goes to show that the perception of risk is always changing.” Chair & Organised by: Kristie Ebi University of Washington, USA
"Over 80% of diseases and other ailments, caused by climate change afflict children."
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ROUND TABLE High level Round Table discussions are organised on issues of crucial importance for adaptation to climate change. Seasoned practitioners, politicians and scientists will facilitate the debates, and will actively involve audiences.
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LOCALS MUST BE INVOLVED IN ADAPTATION PLANNING The third day of the conference kicked off with a lively debate on linking across local, regional and national scales in planning for adaptation at the national level. David Bresch, Head of Business Development at Global Partnerships in Switzerland, remarked: “We are far better off sharing risks than having everyone trying to manage on their own. That’s why we need structures for dialogue between the different scales.” A recurring topic in this connection is the difficulty of getting access to data. The lively audience spoke its mind. A number of participants expressed the view that the value of data might be overrated. “Planning adaptation is driven too heavily by science”, said one. “Climate change is a moving target. We can never give enough data to planners, because it is not static.” Attention also turned to community involvement and the value of local knowledge in planning. “Bring real problems and information from communities to the arenas where decisions are being made. That is more important than producing more and more scientific data. And yes, that takes a lot of time—sometimes years. The actual discussion should start from the bottom up. Local people are experts. They know exactly what is going on in their environment. Officials come and go, as do politicians. Communities stay, so of course they must to be involved.”
David Bresch also pointed to the responsibility of policy-makers and practitioners. “We always hear, ‘We don’t have enough data.’ But there is so much information out there, often freely available through the Internet. Sometimes you just have to be a little bit creative and proactive. It is more a problem of a lack of skills than it is of a lack of data.” David Bresch Head, Business Development, Global Partnerships at Swiss Re, Switzerland Sirkku Juhola Associate professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki and Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland Ignacio Lorenzo Executive Secretary, National Climate Change Response System of Uruguay Hermen Borst Deputy Delta Commissioner, the Netherlands Tbd, Least Developed Countries Experts Group, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
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"We need other kinds of science-policy dialogue. And we have to know our limits. Science doesn’t have all the answers."
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WE NEED AN IPCC 2.0 Adaptation to climate change is expected to feature prominently in the next report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). One of the round tables on Thursday dove into a key question that will have to be faced: How can the IPCC engage more fully with the needs of end users—or, in the words of Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II, put it, “How can we tap into the voices that we need to hear?” “After the Paris Agreement, we have new game rules”, said Minpeng Chen of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a member of the Adaptation Committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC. “We need other kinds of science-policy dialogue. And we have to know our limits. Science doesn’t have all the answers.”
sorts of cakes is this short-form report. Here we tapped into the local communities as a starting point. These reports resonate more with governments and with the stakeholders we want to reach. They are more practical and more useful reports, and—most important—reports that are actually used more frequently.”
Virginia Murray of Public Health England and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, argued that 2015 marked a huge turning point in the debate on what courses of action to pursue. “Since last year there has been more-concerted focus on the communities that need our support. If you want to save people’s lives, it’s local people—those who are in the firing line—who you have to turn to in order to get the job done.”
Debra Roberts Co-chair of IPCC Working Group II
Minpeng Chen Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; member of the UNFCCC Adaptation Committee Jan Corfee-Morlot Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (tbc) Virginia Murray Public Health Englandand UNISDR
Asun Lera St. Clair DNV GL, Norway David Thompson Committee on Climate Change, United Kingdom
“In my view, the smaller, special reports of the IPCC, are what the world really needs,” says Murray. “The Paris agreement is a big beautiful cake. The recipe for all different
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ADAPTATION FORUM When you have assembled in a single venue the best and brightest in the field of adaptation, you can’t miss out on the opportunity to tap into as much of their expertise and experience as possible.
The central questions were: What is needed to objectively review the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation actions and the support for adaptation in countries?
That was the thought behind the Adaptation Forum, organized by the Adaptation Committee, the overall advisory body on adaptation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
What can be done to effectively and efficiently recognize the adaptation efforts that have been undertaken by developing countries?
The entire world, it seems, is represented in the Town Hall room, with attendees from Bhutan to Uruguay, and South Africa to Canada. Input from participants will help shape the future adaptation regime under the UNFCCC. This round table showed the power of meetings such as Adaptation Futures: in lively and engaged discussions, one eloquent speaker after another shared their views, argued a position, and asked probing questions. Throughout the exchanges in this last session, the same drive and enthusiasm were on display as we had seen in the first, three information-packed days before. At the request of the committee members, the discussion will continue online after everybody has gone back home because, as Don Lemmen, cochair of the Adaptation Forum, put it: “I always get the best ideas two days later, when I’m out walking my dog.”
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Panelist Katherine hit home a point the room seemed to share: “Adaptation is not an end goal. It is an ongoing process.” Minpeng Chen, Committee Co-Chair, closed the proceedings with an observation that was as much an exhortation as it was a wrap-up: “The truth is that we’ve just started to flesh out answers to these two questions: we have a lot of work ahead of us yet.” Organised by: UNFCCC Adaptation Committee Chairs: Minpeng Chen & Don Lemmen Co-Chairs of the Adaptation Committee
"Adaptation is not an end goal. It is an ongoing process."
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SPECIAL EVENTS Here you will find some special events, announcements and press events.
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LAUNCH OF THE WATER ATLAS OF THE WORLD The World Water Atlas (Noordhoff) tells the story of the global challenges, presented through maps, images and solutions. "There is a way forward, if we start taking care of our water."
LAUNCH OF THE ADVANCE APPROACH
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EXPO FLOOR: UKKO PROJECT “At the Barcelona Supercomputing Center we develop user-driven approaches that provide climate information in a usable way. The UKKO project predicts future seasonal wind speeds for the windenergy sector, using all available data and scenarios.� Dr. Isadora Christel Jimenez Communications Specialist Barcelona Supercomputing Center ADAPTATION FUTURES 2016
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POSTER PRESENTATION: COMMUNICATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE “We have listened to practitioners and partnered with them to develop a range of products based on Australian climate adaptation research.” Sarah Boulter NCCARF Australia
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POSTER PRESENTATION: THE INFLUENCE OF URBANIZATION ON CLIMATE ADAPTIVE CAPACITY “I’m looking at how urbanisation affects two small communities biophysically and socio-economically.” Andrea Chu National Taiwan University
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COMMUNICATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE “I was hesitating about whether to go on with a PhD after my master’s. But here at Adaptation Futures I got really inspired to go for it. This conference has made it even more obvious that it is up to my generation to bring about change. We know why we need to act. Now we need to find answers to the how and the what. I want to contribute to finding those answers.” Laire van Wyk Master student ROTTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS 10 - 13 MAY 2016
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SOCIAL MEDIA At this moment (18:47) we've already reached over 1.700.000 people with our hashtag. #confAF2016
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@ELSenviron
@scnbath
@AnnaBunce
Last full day of #confAF2016. Good luck everyone!
Day 3 of #confAF2016 I'm starting with "City Resilience Leadership." Great practice oriented leadership workshop!
Co-benefits of #adaptation will help reduce the costs of adaptation - excellent point by Pulwarty at the #ParisAgreement session #confAF2016
@katerina_ elias
@NicoleMHMetz
@D_Maselli_SDC
Biggest takeaway from #confAF2016? @ CFigueres encouraging us to "swallow the clock". Time is ticking on 5yr window to reverse #climatechange
Innovative research session #confAF2016 Survey among 40 researchers showed collaborative multstakeholder approaches have more pros than cons
After 2 days of talks, presentations & discussions I sense that cc has somehow just become a new field of work/business 4 many #confAF2016
@firth_john
@needycities
 @lnery
Thanks to everyone who organised, and participated in #confAF2016 - a massive success. Be inspired and act!
Inspired to work towards implementing #adaptation based on learning, knowledge sharing, networking @confAF2016 thank you! #confAF2016
So Adaptation Futures conference is over! Great learning opportunity in it and also between @ c40cities #confAF2016
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PLENARY SESSIONS The Adaptation Futures 2016 conference plenary kick-off. With about 1700 participants coming from over 100 different countries.
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YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS NEEDED FOR THE FINAL BREAKTHROUGH Watch the video Sharon Dijksma
“One hundred and sixty sessions later and there’s not an empty seat in the house. That speaks volumes about your resilience and your adaptiveness.’’ That’s how conference facilitator Vivienne Parry kicked off proceedings. ‘’You’ve come to this conference, not to sit around in a talking shop, but because you are leaders, driven to action, the crème de la crème. And the world is depending on you.” And with that, Parry introduced the first speaker, Dutch Minister for the Environment Sharon Dijksma. Minister Dijksma began by repeating an oft-heard question. “What’s the big deal? Why all the fuss? Well, over the last three days, you’ve given answers aplenty, and then some. I was at the last Conference of the Parties (CoP) in Paris. We signed an historic agreement and, with it, the world took a major step forward. That moment is bound up closely with this conference. For the next CoP in Morocco, and beyond, we need your knowledge, your can-do, and your commitment to reach the final breakthrough.” Dijksma emphasised that “adapting to climate change is just as important as fighting it. Christiane Figueres made this clear. The world is crying out for new knowledge. That’s important, of course. But how do we find the right partners, including those who can fund our adaptation
activities? Answering these questions will point the way forward, and allow us to build the best business model for climate adaptation.” The Environment Minister also saw the conference as a springboard for the next steps. “And adaptation needs to stay right up there on the agenda. As it happens, in two weeks we’ll be gathering in Nairobi for an international conference with environment ministers from around the world. And adaptation, and specifically implementing adaptation strategies, will be on the agenda.” In concluding her remarks, Minister Dijksma said we need to learn more. “The Netherlands has the knowledge: the country has, in a way, been built on adaptation. Among other things, this helps us identify risks. At the end of this year we have CoP 22 in Marrakesh. The challenge is to keep the focus on adaptation—and you can rest assured that I will be taking the outcomes of this conference with me to Morocco. In the meantime, there is plenty more to do—and I know the world will continue to hear from you.” Sharon Dijksma Minister for the Environment, the Netherlands
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The three questions: 1: What is the challenge you discussed during your session? 2: How has your session helped to address this challenge? 3: What are the next steps, and who needs to take them? ADAPTATION FUTURES 2016
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SO WHAT? Watch the video Outcomes of the conference
Three questions were asked at the beginning of the conference. Two people, Richard Klein and Laura Canevari, were tasked with answering them, based on the outcomes of all sessions. They gave an impressive presentation: every question answered, in just 140 words. “So what?” The first slide on the screen needs a small introduction. Herewith refers Richard to the remark of Roger Pulwarty from NOAA, Boulder ‘’Three days of conference saves you four hours of Google’’
Richard: “On the one hand, yes, narratives are important. As scientists, we also need analysis, so we can figure out what works and what doesn’t. That is an important role for science.” Richard Klein Stockholm Environment Institute, Germany Laura Canevari Acclimatise, United Kingdom
Laura: “Siloing: Many sessions took the view that tearing down the existing silos is necessary. Adaptation is a means to an end, something to contribute to further goals”. Richard: “There are also silos in science – and would not want them all to disappear.” The room is filled with champions of one and another cause, one and another approach. Richard quoted Vivienne, the facilitator: “This is a conference about leaders—that means you.” Laura noted that, if you look at the big picture, “This is just the tip of the iceberg.” Laura saw another challenge in the importance of narratives.
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"Congratulations to all winners!"
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AWARDS CEREMONY Watch the video Award Ceremony
The second part of the plenary session Near the end of Adaptation Futures, some time was set aside to grant some awards. A number of young scientists had made presentations of their research. These professionals are the next generation in climate science. They are the one will be making this a better world.
award on to someone who he felt played an inspiring role in climate adaptation. The new winner? Richard Klein. Mark cited, not only Mark’s positive example overall, but the ground-breaking work he had done on resilience, pushing back boundaries at every turn Congratulations to all winners!
Third prize in the best-poster category went to Fiona Cunningham of the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland; second, to Claire van Wyk from the University of Capetown, South Africa; and first to Jolène Labbé, who is studying International Development and Biology at the University of Guelph. She won with her poster about adaptation in the bigger picture. The prize? A thousand euros. She also got a big congratulatory hug from Joyeeta Gupta. Third place in the best-presentation category went to Anissa Triyanti of the University of Amsterdam; second, to Koen Zuurbier of KWR Watercycle Research Institute, the Netherlands; and first, to Dolores Rey of the University of Granfield, United Kingdom, who also won 1,000 euros. Mark Pelling had won the Burtani Award in 2015, so it now fell to him to pass the
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DO NOT FOCUS TOO MUCH ON MARKET SOLUTIONS Watch the video Panel Discussion
Staying in line with the tradition of this conference, the plenary was the scene of a lively and engaging session, given over less to discussion and more to a retrospective that took in the highlights of the conference, as well as the lessons that had been learned thus far. Christian Blondin (WMO) kicked things off: “The first thing that struck me was the good mix of participants: all the key stakeholders were here. Scientists from across the disciplines, specialists on food security, water management, energy—people studying how issues mutually intersect. Politicians and other decision-makers were here, but also young people, all fully aware of what the big challenges are, and what options we have to meet them head-on. No one can do the adaptation job alone—we need to build partnerships. There are many uncertainties, but enough certainties to take action. And to do that, we have to think globally, but act locally. A lot of knowledge and know-how can be found at the grass roots.” Áile Javo (Norwegian Saami Association) agreed with Blondin and took the audience to the North: “From an indigenous people perspective, we contributed the least to the problem, but we are among the first to experience the consequences. Action should be taken, and indigenous knowledge ADAPTATION FUTURES 2016
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should be taken into account. We Saami people have to be respected and consulted. Adaptation traditions are embedded in our traditional knowledge. But we also need more flexibility, not less, in order to use land in alternative ways and thus adapt to climate change.” Áile’s message was seconded by Princess Abze Djigma of Burkina Faso, who said, “We in Africa are sustainable by nature.” She came back to what she had said earlier in the conference: that “we build our society on trust. Without trust you cannot get anywhere. It astonishes me that our people represent our economy, while others do not take them seriously. She talks about her youth and calls herself “the result of the support we had to get girls to school. That gave us the wherewithal and the opportunity to help the people at the bottom of the pyramid. We need to organise ourselves for action, and together we can decide which paths to follow.” European Commissioner Jos Delbeke: “We are investing a lot in climate change. We have global participation, we are reinforcing adaptation and mitigation, we are putting millions of euros into scientific programmes. For me, three adaptation issues are at stake. One is the cities. We have seven billion people today. Most of them will live in cities and we will find more and more megacities in Europe, developing countries – everywhere. Two is water; and three, disaster risk reduction.” >>
"There are many uncertainties, but enough certainties to take action".
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>> Ian Burton, emeritus professor in Toronto looked back at 2001, when “there were about 100 people working in this field. That number has grown immensely by now, which can only be a positive. Mitigation was said to be the solution and adaptation was thought of as being a poor, gradualist response. Now we know more, and we need to think of adaptation in a more systemic way.” He said market forces were not always the solution to all problems. “We certainly need the private sector, and they also need to take their responsibilities seriously. But we are in danger of focussing too much on market solutions and business models in relation to adaptation. It is a weakness of governments and institutions: the dominance of economic over social values”.
H.R.H. Princess Abze Djigma AbzeSolar S.A., Burkina Faso Jos Delbeke Director General DG Climate Action, European Commission Ian Burton Emeritus Professor, University of Toronto, Canada Áile Jávo President Saami Council Christian Blondin Director World Meteorological Organization
In concluding, he observed, “We are creating risk faster than we are reducing them. Therefore we need to adapt in more radical ways, and not just in terms of the economy: we need to think of adaptation in a much broader way, and ask ourselves the question: Why are we adapting, and what is the meaning of adaptation, and what are we trying to achieve? And remember, you find happiness only when you stop looking for it. Now, I am not pessimistic, I am optimistic— optimism, with just a touch of realism.”
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COP 22 IN MOROCCO Ayman Bel Hassan Cherkaoui is CoP 22 Advisor to Morocco Minister El Haite. “Those of you who were in Washington recently, or in Paris last year at CoP 21, were exposed to her leadership”. Regretfully she was not able to join the conference. “As a leader she is travelling the world to spread the word about the importance of efforts like Adaptation Futures and to invite new partnerships and collaboration”. He told the audience about a movie he recently saw and quoted a dialogue: “Have you ever wondered why your mother and I are so happy? It is because we’ve abandoned our dreams and we’ve adapted”. Adaptation, he continues, is not a dream, “fruitful adaptation, based on capacity building, eagerness to learn from each other, real access to technological solutions, solving problems can be the enabler of dreams”. “The CoP 22 presidency is committed to maintaining the trust and solidarity that we rehabilitated in Paris. CoP 22 will be a CoP of implementation, a CoP of action, a CoP of solutions”. In terms of fruits, “the best time to plant the tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now. So today, with Adaptation Futures, let’s water the tree that was planted in Paris so that it can grow all the way to Marrakesh in November. A beautiful palm tree with delicious dates. It is a short cut – it takes a bit longer than that for a palm tree to mature. But with the level of expertise and creativity and knowledge that is in this room, with the level of genuine mobilisation the impossible is proving to be ADAPTATION FUTURES 2016
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possible. Before CoP 22 there are a whole bunch of events we organise in Morocco. The first is June 23 in Tangiers – you are all welcome. Thank you.” Ayman Bel Hassan Cherkaoui COP 22 Advisor to the Minister, Morocco
"The best time to plant the tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now. "
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Read the Daily Adapt of Tuesday with highlights from plenary speakers such as Christiana Figueres and Roger Pulwarty, sessions and special events.
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Read the Daily Adapt of Wednesday with highlights from plenary speakers like the exceptional speech by Her Majesty the Queen Mรกxima, sessions, specials and impressions of the expo floor. ROTTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS 10 - 13 MAY 2016
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COLOPHON
Publication Adaptation Futures 2016 www.adaptationfutures2016.org Location WTC Rotterdam The Netherlands Text Synergos Communicatie Graphic design & Photography Visuele Notulen Twitter @confAF2016
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HOSTS OF THE CONFERENCE