COP23: Launch of GCECA centre to speed up worldwide climate adaptation
At the climate summit COP23 in Bonn, the new centre of excellence on climate adaptation has officially been launched on 14 November.
The Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation (GCECA) aims to accelerate worldwide preparedness for climate change by getting a better understanding of climate adaptation, by stimulation of knowledge exchange and international collaboration worldwide. The centre will be based in Rotterdam and Groningen, the Netherlands.
Present at the launch event (left to right): Erik Solheim, (UN Environment), Yasuaki Hijioka (National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan), Cora van Nieuwenhuizen (Dutch Minister), Elhadj As Sy (International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent Societies IFRC).
International collaboration
In the opening address, Mrs. Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, the newly appointed Dutch Minister of infrastructure and Water Management (on top photo), underscored the importance of international collaboration in the new centre and the uptake and exchange of knowledge.
‘There are many examples of adaptation, like the mangroves being replanted along the coast of Indonesia’, she said. ‘Or the way the World Meteorological Organization is using big data to inform African farmers with text messages when to plant and to harvest their crops.’
‘All these examples, all this knowledge is worth spreading all over the world. And that’s exactly what the Global Centre will do’, Van Nieuwenhuizen explained.
GCECA's Operations director Christiaan Wallet wants to make climate adaptation more measurable.
Paper into practise
Speaking ahead of the launch, Operations Director, Christiaan Wallet linked the demand for GCECA with the Paris Agreement.
‘We are grateful that the Paris Agreement has put climate adaptation on a par with mitigation but there is a long way to go. Understanding climate adaptation is crucial if we want to put paper into practice’, according to the centre’s operations director Wallet.
According to Wallet it will be important to learn what makes climate adaptation effective and how it can become measurable. ‘We need to understand to which degree the results of climate adaptation add up to meeting the global goals of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals’.
Wallet sees also an important role for his centre to unlock the large amounts of money already available and make it flow more direct to where it is needed most.
Key issues the GCECA centre wants to address.
Worldwide knowledge network
The centre will amass an ever-expanding network of international partners, among which leading knowledge institutes, businesses, NGOs, local and national governments, international organisations, and the financial sector.
Previously at COP23, GCECA supported the launch of UN Environment’s Adaptation Gap Report and held a side event, with Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre regarding measuring excellence in Climate Adaptation.
Looking beyond COP23, the Centre’s next engagement will be co-hosting the conference ’Towards a Resilient Financial Sector’ in London on 31 May 2018.
Many participants
The initiators of GCECA are the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, UN Environment and Japan National Institute for environmental studies.
Other participating organisations include Acclimatise, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport, S&P Global, Delta Alliance, Deltares, Stockholm Environment Institute, Acclimatise, Netherlands Water Partnership, MCII, World Resources Institute, Wageningen University and Research Centre, UNEP DTU Partnership, SNV, Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, GEF, Adaptation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, NDC Partnership, Climate-KIC, Fundación Avina, African Climate Policy Centre, World Meteorological Organisation, Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, C40, Care, WWF, IDRC, Delft University of Technology, and IHE.
This news item was originally published on the websites of GCECA, Acclimatise, Dutch government and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
Read also on this website
● Global climate adaptation centre gets a floating office in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 22 September 2017
● The Netherlands to host new global centre on climate adaptation, 7 February 2017
More information
Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation
www.gceca.org