Climate Adaptation Futures: Second International Climate Change Adaptation Conference, 29-31 May 2012, USA

Climate Adaptation Futures: Second International Climate Change Adaptation Conference, 29-31 May, 2012

University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2012 (Conference registration/call for abstracts opens September 5)

Climate change is one of the most important environmental, social and economic issues facing the world today. Despite growing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some impacts such as higher temperatures, more intense floods, droughts, wildfires, and rising sea levels are now inevitable. We must plan for and adapt to these changes, to minimize the negative impacts and enhance the benefits to natural systems, societies, and human activities and well-being. This challenges decision making at all levels, from individuals to governments, as well as in business and industry.

Co-hosted and convened by the University of Arizona (www.arizona.edu) and by UNEP’s Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA www.provia-climatechange.org), the conference focuses on adaptation to climate variability and change. The conference will bring together researchers, policy makers, and practitioners from developed and developing countries to share insights into the challenges and opportunities that adaptation presents.  It will showcase cutting-edge research from around the world, focusing on themes of equity and risk, learning, capacity building, methodology, and adaptation finance and investment. It will explore practical adaptation policies and approaches, and share strategies for decision making from the international to the local scale.

This conference follows on the success of the pioneering Climate Adaptation Futures Conference, co-hosted by Australia’s National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship in Australia in 2010 with nearly 1,000 participants from around the world.  Inspired by this 1st conference we hope to build on the community that came together in Queensland and foster a connected, collaborative and creative international network of adaptation researchers, decision makers and interested citizens. 

·         The conference program includes plenary lectures and panels, paper sessions, posters, and workshops. Conference Registration opens September 5, 2011 with deadline for abstracts January 30, 2012.  Conference themes and possible ideas for presentations include:

·         Regional studies: where are the places and people most at need? What are their adaptation options and strategies for implementation?

·         Update on key emerging climate change and impacts science, including the latest on future extremes, sea level change, water supplies and landscape transformation; how will uncertainties change in the coming decade?

·         Communicating climate risks to facilitate adaptation: what do people want and need to know and how best to understand and deliver information?

·         Building adaptive capacity: communities, institutions, and individuals lack sufficient capacity for implementation; what are the most effective ways to build capacity? What types of investments in capacity are appropriate and what scale of decision-making should be targeted?

·         Examples of adaptations through case studies and best practices, including costs and benefits of implementing these options

·         What can we learn from past adaptations to environmental change? How can we foster adaptations to futures characterized by surprise, non-linear change and unexpected consequences?

·         Ecosystem based adaptation

·         Funding priority research and adaptation: who pays, and for what, where, and how?

·         Tools for adaptation: what approaches, tools, and methods are available? How do we judge their effectiveness?

·         What are the relationships between mitigation and adaptation? How can the green economy facilitate adaptation?

·         Measuring and evaluating adaptation: how do we know whether investments in adaptive capacity and adaptation are working?

·         Adaptation under 4 degrees Celsius warming: as mitigation options are exhausted or delayed how might we face the challenges of adapting to 4 degrees C of warming?

Conference timeline

(All updates will be posted to the conference website at http://www.adaptation.arizona.edu/adaptation2012)

·         Call for papers and posters will be posted on web site and circulated by email  July 2011

·         Outline program and key speakers announced: September 5th 2011

·         Registration opens: September 5th 2011

·         Deadline for abstracts: January 30th 2012

·         Deadline for funding assistance requests: January 30th 2012

·         Deadline for early discounted registration March 1st 2012