The call for abstracts for oral presentations closed on Friday 5 February 2010.

• Add an abstract for a poster presentation only
  

For more information please email nccarf-conf2010@yrd.com.au

Sessions

 Keynote speakers include:

Conference and Abstract list

Adaptation and the community

Convened by:

• Coleen Vogel, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa)
• Lisa Schipper, Stockholm Environment Institute (Thailand)

Moving beyond the ‘case study’: New and emerging perspectives on the role of communities and adaptation

Adaptation to climate change is now a research topic that is attracting huge interest. There is a body of evidence suggesting that adaptation should take place locally and be integrated into development activities, and frequently community-based adaptation (CBA) is promoted as the entry point to both. But how does CBA relate to other adaptation initiatives being discussed and planned? In this call for papers we seek to expand notions of community-based adaptation to include a wider focus and renewed attention to the meaning of the word 'community'. We therefore invite papers on aspects coupled to adaptation and community focussing on one of the following:

1. The role of a sectoral approach and CBA. How useful is a sector-based approach to CBA? Can one extrapolate any lessons learnt from sector-based CBA that may be useful for wider application in the climate change discourse e.g. at regional and international scales? How does a sectoral adaptation approach on a global or national scale inform and relate to CBA that is not focused on sectors?
2. The business sector as a community usually engages with climate change from a mitigation perspective. This theme, however, explores the possibility of the business sector and adaptation. Papers are invited that highlight business engagement in the 'adaptation' sector - including barriers for engagement, constraints and opportunities for effective business community engagement and climate change adaptation.
3. Case studies highlighting successful civic-society engagement in adaptation to climate change and variability. How can one design adaptation strategies that move beyond the 'local' (e.g. household level) to wider community engagement (e.g. civic society) and vice versa?
4. Case studies that explore the tensions between 'top-down adaptation' actions (e.g. possible NAPAs) versus effective local community engagement. To what extent are adaptation strategies externally driven and top-down? Are they mutually exclusive? How can 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' community-based activities be better crafted to ensure resilience and adaptation to climate change and climate variability?
5. Approaches and tools for integrating and 'scaling-up' local CBA for advancing debates on climate change adaptation. Provide some examples of effective community-based adaptation? What elements of these case studies make them an adaptation 'success' story? How could the methodology and process and/or outcomes be transferred to other communities?

For further information about this session, please contact Coleen Vogel at Coleen.Vogel@wits.ac.za and Lisa Schipper at lisa.schipper@sei.se

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Adaptation and development

Convened by:

• Saleem ul Huq, International Institute for Environment and Development (UK)
• Jean-Pascale van Ypersele, Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium)

Concept note on organization of Session on Adaptation and Development

Many developing countries such as the least developed countries, and development actors, such as development funders, government agencies and non governmental organisations have started to carry out planning and implementation of adaptation to climate change at different scales ranging from national to local. Efforts are also taking place in developed countries. A major debate both at national as well as international levels is also taking place with regard to the differences (if any) between adaptation to climate change, adaptation to current climate variability and development. There are various views on this issue. There is also a debate about what sustainable development means in the context of climate change and adaptation.

This session is designed to:

• share good examples that explore the relationship between adaptation to climate change, adaptation to current climate variability, and development
• look at such linkages across scales including community based adaptation, sectoral adaptation and national adaptation
• identify differences between adaptation to climate change development
• strengthen the policy, practitioner and researcher interface
• look at the relations between sustainable development and adaptation

This session will bring in policy makers, planners, practitioners and scientists at national, regional and international levels to share experiences and knowledge and develop key policy recommendations for the setting up of future adaptation research and action agenda.

For further information about this session, please contact Saleem ul Huq at saleemul.huq@iied.org and Jean-Pascal van Ypersele at vanypersele@astr.ucl.ac.be

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The economics and costs of adaptation

• Frank Jotzo, Climate Change Institute, Australian National University, Australia
• John Quiggin, University of Queensland, Australia

Session Description to come

For further information about this session, please contact Frank Jotzo at frank.jotzo@anu.edu.au and John Quiggin at j.quiggin@uq.edu.au

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Human security

Convened by:

• Neil Adger, University of East Anglia (UK)
• Karen O'Brien, University of Oslo (Norway)

Human security and adaptation

Human security is characterised as the freedom from harm and the resources and capability to act in the face of climate change risks. These issues raised by human security include those of identity, place, livelihoods and well-being. Emerging science and social science is beginning to engage with these framings to examine adaptation strategies that include migration and demographic change, health impacts and status, as well as issues of food and water security and access to ecosystem services.

This session invites contributions across the social and natural sciences which engage with aspects of human security including:

• Conceptual issues of human security and its relationship to sustainable development
• Rights based approaches to adaptation and development
• Traditional security studies on threats to sovereignty and citizenship
• Migration and climate change
• Resource scarcity, conflict and co-operation
• Identity, place and cultural constructions of harm and risk
• Resilience of individuals and communities in the face of risk.

For further information about this session, please contact Neil Adger at n.adger@uea.ac.uk and Karen O’Brien at karen.obrien@sgeo.uio.no

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Climate extremes and disaster management

Convened by:

• Jean Palutikof, NCCARF, Griffith University (Australia)
• John Handmer, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (Australia)
• Reid Basher, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (New Zealand)

Adaptation to disasters and extremes under climate change

Disasters and extreme events test our relationship with the climate in which we live, sometimes up to and beyond the limit. The occurrence of droughts, floods, storms etc. may expose vulnerabilities of which we were unaware. In their aftermath, there will be recriminations, investigations; there may emerge more robust communities, better adapted to their environment. This has something to tell us about adaptation - whether to present climate and its variability, or to future climate as it evolves along its likely pathway towards more frequently occurring extremes later in the century.

This session invites contributions which examine interactions between adaptation and extremes, including:

1. Case studies of historical and present-day extremes: preparedness, impacts, recovery, the generality of lessons learned etc. What can we learn of relevance to adaptation to future climate change?
2. Tools for managing extreme events: forecasting, early warning systems etc., and their utility for managing extremes in the globally-warmed climates of the late twenty-first century
3. Climate change adaptation and extreme events. What strategies are required to manage the changing climatologies of extremes: more frequent, more intense, more widespread, more likely to be simultaneous with other severe events?
4. The roles of government and aid agencies in managing climatic disasters under climate change. How must these roles change? Will there be sufficient capacity?
5. The roles of the insurance and re-insurance sectors and how these are likely to change to meet the needs of society under climate change.
6. What factors affect resilience and vulnerability to extreme events? How can we reduce vulnerability and increase resilience, the face of the likely increasing frequency and intensity of extremes under climate change?
7. Adaptation of ecosystems to changing climatologies of extreme events.

For further information about this session, please contact Jean Palutikof at j.palutikof@griffith.edu.au, David Karoly at dkaroly@unimelb.edu.au, John Handmer at John.handmer@rmit.edu.au and Reid Basher at reid.basher@un.org

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Trans-boundary cooperation for adaptation

Session Description to come

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The interface of adaptation and mitigation

Convened by:

• Kathy Hibbard, The National Centre for Atmospheric Research (U.S.)
• Andrew Ash, CSIRO (Australia)

Climate change and tradeoffs between adaptation and mitigation

How have human activities contributed to changing the Earth's climate? What are the potential impacts of these changes, and the consequences of proposed response measures to reduce emissions and enhance sinks ("mitigation"), and to prepare practices and systems to meet new climate conditions ("adaptation")? Policy and research has quite deliberately separated mitigation and adaptation activities. However, in practice adaptation and mitigation are increasingly being considered together and so there is an urgent need to examine the synergies and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation. For example, adapting building design to a warming climate can in some situations lead to improved energy efficiency while elsewhere energy usage is increased through artificial cooling. This session encourages contributions from research activities that investigate the multiple facets of adaptation, mitigation and climate change through the use of modeling and case study analyses. In particular, new developments in mitigation and adaptation compromise and tradeoffs through integrated assessment and multiple storyline development.

For further information about this session, please contact Kathy Hibbard at kathyh@ucar.edu, Andrew Ash at andrew.ash@csiro.au

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National and international adaptation activities

Convened by:

• Jian Liu, United Nations Environment Programme
• Youssef Nasssef, UNFCCC

Concept note on organization of Session, National/International Activities

National activities for adaptation include policy setting, planning and implementation. National actions are the ultimate final steps for climate protection, which are supported by a series of adaptation efforts ranging from climate projection, impact and vulnerability assessment, capacity building, demonstration, knowledge/technology transfer and dissemination of good practices. Many LDCs have completed their NAPAs, and many other countries have developed their respective national adaptation strategies, developed and developing country alike. Parties to the UNFCCC have identified clear needs for national adaptation actions in developing countries including finance, technology and capacity. Meanwhile these Parties have also proposed "knowledge-based adaptation," given that all sections in the chain of adaptation actions are in nature knowledge intensive.

International/regional activities for adaptation aim to create the enabling condition/environment for national activities. International activities include negotiation to reach an agreement on the finance, technology/knowledge and capacity flows from capable countries to vulnerable countries, and multi-lateral and bilateral processes to support national institutional capacity building, policy, planning and practices as well as to secure adequate financial resources.

This session is designed to:

• share good practices and lessons learnt at both national and international levels,
• enhance coherence between national and international actions,
• identify knowledge gaps and uncertainties in taking actions,
• strengthen the science and policy interface,

This session will bring in policy makers, planners, practitioners and scientists at national, regional and international levels to forge the science-policy forum, and to come up with key policy recommendations for the setting up of future adaptation research and action agenda.

For further information about this session, please contact Jian Liu at jian.liu@unep.org, Roberto Acosta at RAcosta@unfccc.int and Jo Alcamo at alcamo@usf.uni-kassel.de

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National and sub-national case studies of adaptation

Convened by:

• Emma L. Tompkins, School of Earth and Environment (UK)
• Heather McRay

Climate change is happening and people and institutions are already adapting to the changes they are experiencing. Initial studies suggest that adaptations are not necessarily being undertaken solely in response to actual climate change, but perceived changes, climate change mitigation policy and other government policies. National governments are increasingly developing adaptation policies and plans to direct, support and advise on how best to adapt. In some cases, national adaptation policies are being developed in the absence of data showing how adaptation is happening, what people are adapting to, and why they are adapting. Yet this type of information is critical to ensure that government policy curtails adaptation activity that is mal-adaptive, and encourages adaptation that is effective.

This session invites contributions which describe how adaptation is happening at the national level and sub national level, specifically we are interested in:

1. Cross-regional sub-national studies of observed adaptation: who is adapting, where, at what scale, how are they adapting, what are they adapting to?
2. Triggers and motivators of adaptation: what is driving people and institutions to adapt to climate change? What does this tell us about how national adaptation policies should be shaped?
3. Monitoring observed adaptation: what tools do we have to monitor adaptation to climate change over large scales and over long time periods? What monitoring systems exist? How effective are they?
4. Methods for evaluating case studies of adaptation: how can we evaluate the effectiveness of adaptations to climate change? What tools exist and how useful are they? What data do we need to collect to evaluate effectiveness, sustainability, or success of adaptations?
5. Historical case studies of the evolution of national adaptation policy: how have governments shaped national adaptation policies? What have been the main drivers of adaptation policies?

For further information about this session, please contact Emma Tompkins at e.l.tompkins@leeds.ac.uk

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Climate information for users

Convened by:

• Chris West, Environmental Change Institute (UK)
• Roger Street, Environmental Change Institute (UK)
• Andrew Watkins, Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)

This session invites contributions which examine the process of delivering useful climate information to users (understood to be principally but not exclusively engaged in adaptation), including:

1. Case studies of design, delivery and uptake of specific climate information packages;
2. Case studies of use of climate information for specific adaptation decisions;
   1. Descriptions of uncertainty and guidance for its management in parallel with delivery of climate information;
   2. Consideration of utility of data at different temporal and physical scales, and different downscaling methodologies;
   3. Different methods for expressing modelling uncertainty and delivering probabilistic climate data;
3. Prospects for quantifying emission uncertainty, possibly leading to new IPCC scenarios.

For further information about this session, please contact Chris West at chris.west@ukcip.org.uk , Roger Street at Roger.street@ukcip.org.uk and Andrew Watkins at A.Watkins@bom.gov.au

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Communication of information for adaptation

Convened by:

• Marie Waschka, NCCARF, Griffith University (Australia)
• Simon Torok, CSIRO (Australia)

In order to support adaptation at all levels, individuals, communities, governments, industry and other organisations need information that is relevant to them and to the spectrum of spatial, demographic and sectoral factors that will influence their decision making and subsequent actions. Challenges associated with communicating information for adaptation include a fragmentation of the knowledge base, providing information at the appropriate scale, time and in the most effective mode, linking global responses with local knowledge and communities, ensuring equitable access to information, and communication of information in the context of relevant economic, social and political issues.

This session invites contributions which focus on the academic or practical aspects of communication of information for adaptation, including:

• Effective communication of information for adaptation: providing information to the right people, at the right time, in the most effective way - with a focus on practical approaches and strategies used, and why these were effective.
• How can fragmentation of the knowledge base be reduced? Accessing, managing, using and communicating available information to inform adaptation responses.
• Examination of barriers and challenges for the communication of information for adaptation, and examples of how these might be overcome.
• Highlighting existing strategies, tools, partnerships and projects that could be used to support the communication of information for adaptation.
• Roles and responsibilities for the communication of information for adaptation: who should be taking the lead, when, why and how?
• Local knowledge: harnessing and using local knowledge, links to global information and responses.
• Communicating information for adaptation to increase the resilience of communities most vulnerable to climate change: case studies and what can be learnt from these.

For further information about this session, please contact Marie Waschka at m.waschka@griffith.edu.au and Simon Torok at simon.torok@csiro.au

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Risk communication and behavioural change

Convened by:

• Jan McDonald, Griffith Climate Change Response Program (Australia)
• Suzanne Moser, Institute for the study of Society and the Environment (U.S.)

Climate Risk Communication and Behaviour Change

Adapting to climate change requires widespread and ongoing public engagement. In many cases, selected adaptation strategies will require significant behavioural changes among affected populations such as improved disaster preparedness, retreat from high-hazard zones, changing practices in agriculture, health care, water use, tourism and recreation, and so on. In order to achieve such behavioural change, climate-related risks and the risks involved in avoiding or delaying preparedness and planning need to be communicated effectively. Affected individuals, groups and decision-makers also need to understand their adaptation response options and potential costs. Communicating these risks and options will typically require sophisticated facilitation, meaningful public consultations, and dialogues to discuss the pros and cons of risks, choices, and sometimes difficult trade-offs. In some cases, even a firm understanding of risks and options may not effect desired changes in behaviour. Understanding the range of factors that drive behavioural change, including public education, economic incentives, and psycho-social and cultural factors will be critical to the efficacy of concerted adaptation efforts.

This session invites papers on aspects of the risk communication—behaviour change continuum in the climate change adaptation context. Topics may include:

• Case studies of adaptation-related risk communication in different sectors, highlighting messages, communication channels, the significance of different information sources (messengers), audience reception, changes in public understanding of the need for adaptation, and so on.
• Methods for evaluation of communication effectiveness, including clear definition of effectiveness and discussion of when, how, and by whom effectiveness was assessed.
• Case studies of adaptation-related behavior change campaigns, including discussion of relevant elements of the engagement campaign, observed changes in behaviour, unintended consequences, persistence of desired behaviour change, and so on.
• Methods for observing and evaluating effectiveness of behavior change campaigns, including clear definition of effectiveness and discussion of when, how, and by whom effectiveness was assessed.
• Conceptual and theoretical treatments of the link between risk communication and behavior change in the adaptation context.

For further information about this session, please contact Jan McDonald at Jan.McDonald@griffith.edu.au and Suzanne Moser at smoser@ucar.edu

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New technologies for adaptation

Session Description to come

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Impacts and adaptation in the tropics

Convened by:

Suzanne Long, Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (Australia)

Impacts and adaptation in the tropics

Even though the tropics are home to at least 40% of humans, as well as the greatest biodiversity on the planet, a considerable majority of the world's climate change research effort and investment has focused on impacts and adaptation in temperate zones. This deficiency is alarming given that relatively few tropical countries have sufficient capacity to research their local climate change impacts or plan for adaptation. This session aims to provide an opportunity for those working in or on the tropics to share knowledge and thereby increase collective capacity for effective adaptation in tropical regions. Presenters in this session will discuss climate change impacts on tropical communities and ecosystems in the context of transferable adaptation methods, techniques and information.

For further information about this session, please contact Suzanne Long at suzanne.long@rrrc.org.au

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Ecosystems

Convened by:

• Rik Leemans, Dept. Environmental Sciences, Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands,
• Guy Midgley, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, South African National Biodiversity Institute, South Africa.
• Alistair Hobday, Stream Leader - Climate Adaptation Flagship, Marine and Atmospheric Research.

The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) for Working Group II Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation addressed three main topics: (a) observed impacts (today), (b) anticipated (future) impacts and (c) adaptation options in response to climate change. Most of the observations used for this assessment were on terrestrial ecosystems, much less on fresh water, oceans and other vulnerable ecosystems. Also, the geographic distribution was skewed, as the largest body of evidence is collected in the Northern Hemisphere and industrialized countries in Europe and North America. Without any significant exception, new findings published from 2007 onwards confirm or reinforce the main findings of the AR4 on impacts and urgency of the problem. A selection of important developments since 2007, in the area of climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation on ecosystems, are as follows:

• Large-scale ecosystem changes are more apparent, but lack of data and monitoring still limit a full systematic assessment;
• The carbon storage capacity of forests and soils decreases due to changes in temperature, water availability and albedo; and
• Coral Reefs are severely threatened by ocean acidification and increasing temperatures.

This session invites contributions that further enhance the understanding of observed and foreseen impacts and responses of ecosystems to rising atmospheric CO2 levels and climate change. Special attention will be given to the limits of ecosystem response to climate change.

The questions that this session wants to address are:

• What constitutes a dangerous level of climate change for species and ecosystems?
• What do observed changes tell about thresholds and vulnerabilities and are they consistent with model-based projections?
• Can human action decrease the vulnerability of ecosystems (including costs, benefits, barriers and limits)?
• Is enhancing resilience of ecosystems the most appropriate approach?
• How should the vulnerability of ecosystems be communicated to policy makers and the broader public?

For further information about this session, please contact Rik Leemans at rik.leemans@wur.nl and Guy Midgley at g.midgley@sanbi.org.za, Alistair.Hobday@csiro.au,

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Human health

Convened by:

• Tony McMichael, Australian National University (Australia)
• Kris Ebi, Exponent Health Sciences Group (U.S.)

Public health adaptation to climate variability and change

Weather and climate influence the geographic distribution, seasonality, and incidence of a variety of health outcomes, including from extreme weather events, poor air quality, malnutrition, and vector-borne, water-borne, and food-borne diseases. Climate-sensitive health outcomes are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The health impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed, with particularly vulnerable populations and regions. More than 80% of the current health burden of climate change is in children. Public health has more than 150 years of experience in controlling climate-sensitive health outcomes, but only recently began mainstreaming climate change adaptation into current programs and activities.

This session invites contributions that examine public health adaptations to the health risks of climate variability and change, including:

• Adaptation assessments at community, sub-national, and national scales to identify and prioritize interventions to reduce current and projected health impacts.
• Case studies of implementation of strategies and policies for improving current health protection to climate change. How have strategies and polices been modified to address the increasing risks of climate change? How can their effectiveness by maintained in a changing climate?
• Case studies of implementation of decision support tools to increase resilience to climate variability, such as early warning systems, including evaluation of their effectiveness, best practices, and lessons learned. How well have these tools incorporated adaptation to climate change?
• Co-benefits and co-harms of adaptation policies in health and other sectors. For example, use of agricultural land for biofuels may adversely affect food security. What co-benefits and co-harms have been identified? Have these been quantified? What are some strategies to control the harms?
• Barriers and constraints to public health adaptation. What barriers and constraints have been identified, and how have these been overcome?

Costs of adaptation, inaction, and avoided impacts

For further information about this session, please contact Tony McMichael at Tony.McMichael@anu.edu.au and Kris Ebi at krisebi@essllc.org

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Water

Convened by:

• Kathy Jacobs, Arizona Water Institute (U.S.)
• Bryson Bates, CSIRO Land and Water (Australia)
• Stuart Bunn, Griffith University (Australia)

Water sector adaptation: innovations

There is significant focus on the water-related impacts of climate change, including changes in seasonality of surface flows, extreme events (including higher peak flows, longer and perhaps deeper droughts), seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers, changes in overall amounts of precipitation, and changes in demand that are related to increased temperatures. Because water is the "delivery mechanism" of most climate change impacts, it is important to explore new approaches to water-related adaptation options. The session will address the following topics as time permits:

• How can past variability (at various time scales, including paleo data and observations) inform the development of future climate scenarios
• Vulnerability assessment techniques - including new methods for measuring and assessing vulnerability in a multi-stress context
• Costs of adaptation techniques, including ways of comparing the cost of doing something with the cost of business as usual
• Planning approaches for non-stationarity - how to incorporate what we know about changes in water supply availability into short and long-term planning processes
• Economic approaches to water sector adaptation
• Water, carbon and energy: understanding the nexus between these sectors is critical to adaptation
• Climate change considerations for capital improvement decisions in water management - beyond changing engineering standards, what next?
• Visualization and engagement strategies for water management adaptation
• Downscaling for water management: magic or menace?
• What is an acceptable level of risk to water systems and who gets to decide?

For further information about this session, please contact Kathy Jacobs at kjacobs@azwaterinstitute.org, Bryson Bates at bryson.bates@per.clw.csiro.au, Stuart Bunn at s.bunn@griffith.edu.au

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Adapting agriculture to climate change: implications for food producers and food security

Convened by:

• Mark Howden, CSIRO (Australia)
• Cynthia Rosenzweig, Goddard Institute for Space Studies (U.S.)

Climate is a major driver of agriculture, influencing the choice of production system, yield potential and variability, product quality, what areas are cropped, what soil types are preferred, the management systems and technologies used, input costs, product prices and natural-resource management. Consequently as the climate changes, there are likely to be systemic changes in agricultural production and consequently on food security. There will likely be a wide range of adaptations that are implemented to offset risks and use opportunities arising from these changes. These adaptations range from farm-level adjustments to large-scale policy changes.

This session invites contributions that explore adaptations of agriculture to climate change, including:

1. Synthesis of implications of climate change for food security
2. Measuring and building adaptive capacity in agriculture
3. Showcasing agricultural adaptation technologies
4. Adoption paths (costs, benefits, barriers, limits)
5. Impacts of extremes vs means
6. Successful case studies of adaptations (including to impacts of recent climate changes and also policy examples)
7. Integration of traditional knowledge and science for agricultural adaptation

For further information about this session, please contact Mark Howden at Mark.Howden@csiro.au and Cynthia Rosenzweig at crosenzweig@giss.nasa.gov

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Coasts, deltas and small islands

Convened by:

• Robert Nicholls, University of Southampton (UK),
• Jon Barnett, University of Melbourne (Australia)
• Tim Smith, University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia)

warming to draw widespread attention to this important issue. More than two decades of assessments have reinforced the high potential impacts in coastal areas due to climate change and the need for long-term adaptation to avoid these impacts. Deltas and small islands are consistently identified as being especially vulnerable through the 21st Century. While sea-level rise dominates the assessments, the potential for other impacts is appreciated with factors such as the possibility of more intense tropical storms, or the coastal consequences of ocean acidification being two important drivers. Importantly, sea-level rise is relatively unresponsive the climate mitigation and there is a so-called 'commitment to sea-level rise' and hence a commitment to adapt to these changes or face the resulting impacts.

This session will draw together papers that assess the potential impacts of climate change on coastal areas, adaptation strategies to deal with these issues, and how responding to climate change can be integrated in wider coastal management. The policy needs are varied and include detailed local assessments to plan detailed responses, national assessments to formulate national policy and priorities, and international assessments which compare impacts and vulnerability to support intergovernmental negotiations on the climate issue. Assessments at all these scales are welcome.

For further information about this session, please contact Robert Nicholls at R.J.Nicholls@soton.ac.uk, Jon Barnett at jbarn@unimelb.edu.au, and Tim Smith at TSmith5@usc.edu.au

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Tourism

Convened by:

• Suzanne Becken, Lincoln University (New Zealand)
• Bas Amelung, Maastricht University

Tourism and Adaptation to Climate Change

Tourism is heavily reliant on the climate, and changes in the climatic conditions will directly and indirectly impact on tourism. The magnitude of impacts ranges from decreases in customer satisfaction, compromised product development and delivery, and changed seasonality to more severe risks to tourist infrastructure and people's safety and health. At all levels, proactive adaptation is likely to reduce long-term risks, increase economic viability and potentially open up new opportunities for tourism development. Often, adaptation for tourism integrates with initiatives in other sectors, for example adaptation by communities, early warning systems, water management and measures in the health sector. In some cases, tourism will require unique strategies and adaptation measures to cope with climate change, for example in relation to destination management and diversification, specific technologies (e.g. snowmaking), and stakeholder collaborations (e.g. public and private sector partnerships).

This session calls for contributions which examine interactions between tourism, climatic impacts and adaptation measures. Papers that address the following issues are invited:

• Case studies of climate-tourism dependencies and potential risks and opportunities under climate change scenarios; including assessment of tourism's resilience to climate change;
• Examination of destination attractiveness and links to climate change; how will demand change when the climate in different tourist destinations is changing?
• Analysis of stakeholder perceptions and behaviour with regards to climate change and adaptation;
• Studies on tourism-specific adaptation measures, including theoretical analysis of measures (e.g. cost benefit analysis or sustainability assessment) and implementation;
• Tourism-specific tools for climate change adaptation. Are these specific for different kinds of destinations or universally applicable?
• The role of insurance and how this is likely to change to meet the needs of tourism businesses under climate change;
• Interaction of tourism and other sectors in the context of climate change adaptation; in particular in relation to potential conflicts (e.g. with agriculture) or synergies (e.g. health sector);
• Analyses of climate change policies relevant for tourism development and management; what is the role of the public and private sector, as well as communities?
• The meaning of key concepts such as 'resilience', 'vulnerability', 'climate sensitivity', and 'adaptation' in a tourism context.

For further information about this session, please contact Suzanne Becken at beckens@lincoln.ac.nz and Bas Amelung at b.amelung@maastrichtuniversity.nl

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Adapting to Climate Change in Cities

Convened by:

• Shagun Mehrotra, Columbia University (US)
• Cynthia Rosenzweig, Goddard Institute for Space Studies (US)

Adapting to Climate Change in Cities

Methods and Application in High-Risk Cities of the World

The objective of this session is to explore risk assessment, differential impacts of adaptation mechanisms, and their limitations in a spectrum of developmental conditions that challenge the major cities of the world. The central role of cities in climate change adaptation is being recognized for two reasons. First, cities are critical to the global economy. Second, urban agglomerations house some of the world's most vulnerable populations and assets-in megacities with slums often located along the coasts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The session will focus on risks and adaptation in the approximately 400 cities with over a million people each. The goal is to present methods for city climate change risk assessments, share insights emerging from the deployment of such assessments, as well as illustrations of the key elements of ongoing adaptation planning mechanisms in developing and developed country cities.

The session will unpack risk into climate hazards measured through trends and projections in climate parameters; social and physical vulnerability measured through poverty levels, geographic characteristics, and intensity and scale of economic activity; and agency, through the ability and willingness of local governments and key stakeholders to respond to risk reduction through adaptation planning that informs ongoing and planned investments. Other key topics for papers are the limits to adaptation that may stem from geographic factors, economic barriers, lack of capacity, and knowledge gaps.

For further information about this session, please contact Shagun Mehrotra at contact@shagunmehrotra.org and Cynthia Rosenzweig at crosenzweig@giss.nasa.gov

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Scenarios of the future for adaptation

Convened by:

• Mark Stafford Smith, CSIRO, Australia
• Tim Carter, Finnish Environment Centre (SYKE), Helsinki, Finaland

Topics covered under the scenarios banner could include how scenarios are used at local, national or global scales to inform thinking about the future, how thinking about the future in general connects with adaptation decision making under uncertainty, as well as how global environmental change information is presented and communicated to the public, politicians and people with more detailed application uses (though see also ‘Climate information for users’).  We would also welcome papers considering the development and use of global scenarios in the IPCC process.

For further information about this session, please contact Mark Stafford Smith at Mark.StaffordSmith@csiro.au and Tim Carter at tim.carter@ymparisto.fi

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Energy and Adaptation: Case Studies in Developing and Developed Countries.

Convened by:

• Balgis Osman-Elasha, Climate Change Unit, Higher Council for Environment & Natural Resources, Sudan
• Cynthia Rosenzweig, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, USA

While the energy sector is most often a focus of mitigation, it also faces adaptation challenges in regard to climate change in both developing and developed countries. For example, in Africa where there is low energy consumption and high dependence on biomass, poor energy systems aggravate climate vulnerability. Energy is particularly critical when addressing the gender dimension of climate change, given that women are often responsible for household energy provision mainly the collection of biomass. Since climate change is expected to affect the availability and accessibility of biomass, this has the potential to require more hours to gather fuel. In developed countries where the energy sector is highly elaborated, the need to take adaptation to climate change into industry planning policies is beginning to emerge. Utilities are assessing the risks to energy systems of the increased heatwaves, altered hydropower potential, and changes in storms. Energy infrastructure near coastlines is especially vulnerable.

For further information about this session, please contact Balgis Osman-Elasha at balgis@yahoo.com and Cynthia Rosenzweig at crosenzweig@giss.nasa.gov

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General Issues around adaptation

Information to come shortly.

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Concepts in adaptation science

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Adaptation in industry and business

Convened by:

• Allen Kearns, CSIRO

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