KnowledgeForClimate: strengthening capacities and resilience in climate adaptation
Background
Climate change poses unprecedented and increasing risks to life, livelihoods, and ecosystems, undermining the ability of all countries, especially developing ones, to achieve sustainable development. Adaptation to changing and new environmental conditions is therefore of fundamental importance to sustainability. However, climate change adaptation (CCA) is a complex and interwoven process, and human capacities, as a crucial resource to address climate change, are not sufficiently developed in many countries. There is therefore a need to strengthen the capacities to produce and disseminate knowledge but also to better translate research to CCA practice. To this end, we require collective responses of researchers from different disciplines, policy makers, and groups of the civil society.
Objective
Our goal is to advance the production and dissemination of knowledge on CCA, its application in policy and practice, and related capacities. For this purpose, we adopt a joint knowledge production (JKP) approach where researchers, policy makers and groups of civil society engage and cooperate in a framework of different forms of knowledge to ultimately negotiate adaptation.
Expected benefits
For the South partner countries, where adaptation needs are pressing, this project will reform university teaching in CCA and enable new centers of education and research.
In Switzerland, where adaptation related education is currently scattered and uncoordinated within and between academic institutions, this project will systematize the knowledge to produce comprehensive education material and courses.
Contact information
Veruska Muccione & Christian Huggel, , phone: +41 44 63 55 119
Department of Geography, University of Zürich - www.knowledgeforclimate.net
