Science-Based Adaptation Forum
Current scientific knowledge on future climate change has been focused on global monitoring, analysis, and projections that seek to identify the human role in climate, and the consequences under different mitigation scenarios. There is a growing concern expressed by many nations on the need to provide scientific information to underpin adaptation to climate change. The scientific community is therefore improving its climate projections by increasing its focus on regional and local climate information that can help managers and community-based organizations to address the needs of a spectrum of users from different sectors influenced by climate variability and change.
UNESCO, in close cooperation with relevant UN partners, such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), will develop a Climate Change Adaptation Forum (UCCAF) . This Forum will contribute to improve adaptation and resilience to risks posed from climate variability and change, amidst other stressors, by informing public and private sector stakeholders (national policy makers, vulnerable communities and women, the local media, social, cultural and scientific networks and local, regional and international scientific organisations) in agriculture, fisheries (including aquaculture), forestry, alternative energy, fresh water, oceanography, environmental sciences, and coastal services of the longer-term climate projections and their potential impacts, as well as strengthen capacity for appropriate response strategies.
The priority objectives of the Forum are the following:
- Climate change service and societal resilience improved through regular interactions between providers and users.
- Interdisciplinary climate change knowledge base continuously strengthened through regional and local expertise that is integrated into UNESCO capacities in 2008 by the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination 2 with convening the cross-cutting area of “Climate knowledge: science, assessment, monitoring and early warning”3. This proposal builds on the official UN-in natural and social sciences, culture, education and communication.
- Member States’ resilience improved through national climate risk management policies that integrate science, local and indigenous knowledge, and ecological and socio-cultural systems.
Related activities
- Water and Development Information for Arid Lands (G-WADI)
- Sandwatch project
- Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands (SUMAMAD)
- Climate Frontlines
- Global Change in Mountain Biosphere Reserves
- Adaptation to Climate Change in Coastal zones of West Africa