Climate Change Adaptation: Drivers, Barriers and Strategy

Autumn 2012

Course Content

Day 1 - Provisional
Day 2 - Provisional

The course will be led by: Ric Eales, Paula Orr, William Sheate and Owen White

Day 1: Drivers, objectives and barriers to adaptation and assessing climate change risks and impacts

The first day will begin by introducing participants to the course and presenting a strategic framework for adaptation planning. Participants will be able to consider where their organisations are in terms of vulnerability to current and future climate impacts.

The morning sessions will explore with participants the factors that are driving the need for climate change adaptation strategies, the objectives of adaptation and common barriers to action. During the afternoon participants will be introduced to useful techniques and frameworks for identifying climate change impacts and vulnerabilities and will have the opportunity to apply these tools to practical examples.

Day 1 will introduce the principles of risk assessment, which is a key tool in prioritising adaptation actions and developing effective strategy. Risk assessment case studies will enable participants to understand how to identify and prioritise issues and to review the resources available to prepare and respond. Futures thinking is an essential part of examining what might happen in the future to affect the way organisations adapt and some practical techniques, such as using scenarios, will be described.

Break-out sessions will enable participants to consider climate change impacts in the context of their organisations and how to assess and prioritise the risks associated with these impacts. In this way the course will maintain throughout a grounding in the practical needs and interests of participants and outcomes that can be linked directly to these as much as possible.

Key elements of Day 1:

• Drivers and strategic objectives for climate change adaptation
• Identifying impacts and assessing vulnerability to climate change
• Barriers to and success factors for adaptation
• Risk assessment and identifying priorities

Day 2: Developing a practical response: identifying, communicating and implementing options for strategy and action 

The second day will look at the practical process of, and use of tools in, developing an adaptation strategy. The day will focus on realistic and achievable adaptive action, and will be strongly based on the presentation and understanding of lessons learned from existing examples of adaptation strategy.

A key element of the day will be to understand and assess organisations’ adaptive capacity, including effective leadership on adaptation, partnership working to increase resilience and the development of knowledge and capabilities, which is essential to the successful implementation of a detailed strategic plan and framework of actions.

There will be an opportunity for participants to draw on the knowledge they have gained to develop a practical plan of action that can be applied within time and resource constraints.  An examination of examples of climate change adaptation strategies from a range of organisations and sectors will give participants further opportunity to discuss how strategies can be made appropriate to institutional contexts and constraints.  The training will conclude with a review of the information and resources available to support the development of climate change adaptation strategies.

Key elements of Day 2:

• Identifying options for climate change adaptation
• Communicating adaptation and building capacity
• Practical planning for adaptation and strategy development techniques
• Sources of information and resources