Seminar on Climate Change

The subject of the first Humanitarian Centre seminar was Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change, and took place on 21st November 2009.

Climate change is already having a dramatic effect on the way people live their lives, particularly in developing countries. Extreme weather shocks and altered seasonal patterns are fundamentally changing how communities access food and water and make their living. As global leaders prepared to gather in Copenhagen, the seminar focused on the efforts being made on the ground to adapt to climate uncertainty, and how these efforts can be supported by governments and development practitioners.

Read a summary report of the seminar here.

Presentation Slides (PDF format):

Dr Nick Brooks, University of East Anglia: Community Based Adaptation: a long-term perspective

Ian Willis, University of Cambridge: Some strategies and challenges for water supply in the drought-prone areas of the Coast Province of Kenya

Dr Joelisoa Ratsirarson, University of Antananarivo: Community based adaptation to climate change in Madagascar

Hugh Brammer, former Senior Advisor, FAO in Bangladesh: Community based adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh (presentation slides) See also: extended notes

Jonathan Ensor, Practical Action: National Strategies, Local Needs: Governance for community based adaptation

Links

Report from the Fourth Annual Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change

Jonathan Ensor's book 'Understanding Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons from community-based approaches'

Practical Action's website

TropIKA article: Learning to adapt: why we need research on the health impact of climate change

University of Cambridge news article

Community based adaptation portal from the Institute of Development Studies

International Institute for Environment and Development page on CBA