Thursday 20 May 2021 is Adaptation and Resilience Day at Climate Exp0, the first conference organised by the COP26 Universities Network and the Italian University Network for Sustainable Development (RUS) working together to raise ambition for tangible outcomes from the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).
The online conference, which is open to attend and free for all, opened on 17 May and runs until 21 May. It showcases the latest thinking and most relevant international research to decisions being made at COP26 in November around five key themes: green recovery, nature-based solutions, mitigation solutions, adaptation and resilience, and finance and regulation.
The UK Climate Resilience Programme Champions, along with a number of programme researchers and members of the UKCR steering committee are taking part in the Adaptation and Resilience Day, for which Robert Nicholls of the Tyndall Centre (and Principal Investigator of UKCR funded project OpenCLIM) is organising lead.
The Adaptation and Resilience day will explore the frontiers of adaptation and resilience research, outline the urgency of adaptation at scale and explore mechanisms to strengthen inclusive adaptation and resilience around the world.
Jim Hall, Chair of the UKCR steering committee is part of the panel for the opening session, on ‘Adaptation and resilience challenges in the COP26 meeting’ (09.30-10.30), which is chaired by Sarah Webb of UKRI.
UKCR co-Champion Suraje Dessai will chair one of two live poster sessions from 10.45-11.45 on ‘Enablers and barriers to practice and adaptation’, while co-Champion Kate Lonsdale chairs a session from 12.00-13.00 on ‘Enablers and barriers to the practice of adaptation – from mainstreaming to transformation’. The panel comprises Paul Watkiss (of UKCR project Climate Services Standards and Values), Kit England (Climate Ready Clyde) and Anna Scolobig (University of Geneva).
Later sessions are on ‘Adapting robustly to climate change’ (13.30-15.00) which includes Ian Townend from a UKCR phase 1 project on Coastal Resilience, and ‘Accelerating adaptation in the Global South’ (15.15-16.15).
Suraje Dessai also joins the panel for a parallel session on ‘The climate adaptation challenge: How can academics and policy professionals work together to support the UK’s domestic adaptation objectives?’. This is chaired by Gideon Henderson, Chief Scientific Advisor, DEFRA, and other panellists are Tom Handysides (DEFRA), Catherine Gamper (OECD), Amanda Crossfield (Yorkshire Water) and Keith Jones (National Trust).
The day wraps with the closing (policy) session on ‘Building international partnerships to support and achieve adaptation and resilience’ (16.30-17.30), which is chaired by Rosalind West, Climate Science Lead UK for the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO).
See the full programme for Climate Exp0 and register to attend.