DAILY DELTA WEDNESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2014 OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE, SCIENCE, CITIES AND BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
DELTAS IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CHANGE II
INTRODUCTION
THIS IS YOUR DAILY DELTA. A VISUAL AND INSPIRATIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE DELTAS IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CHANGE II
INDEX
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Opening Deltas in Times of Climate Change II
No Excuse for Inaction Yolanda Kakabadse WWF International President
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Panel Discussion
Bridging the Gap: Organising and communicating Climate Resilience Prof. Chris Rapley, University College London, United Kingdom
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If mayors ruled the world Benjamin Barber, United States
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Financing Climate Adaption Round Tables Chair: Nanno Kleiterp
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New Climate Change Scenarios Prof. Bart van den Hurk KNMI, The Netherlands
Brisbane Watershed Design Charette MSC Stijn Koole Bosch Slabbers Landscape + Urban Design
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USA: Developing resilient communities David Schaub-Jones SeeSaw Group & Paul van Koppen NWP
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NO EXCUSE FOR INACTION
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PRESENTATION BY YOLANDA KAKABADSE (ECUADOR), WWF INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
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Yolanda Kakabadse, the International President of WWF stressed that there is no excuse for inaction. Governments and businesses must take action now. During the plenary opening, she addressed the issue of the effect of climate change on deltas. Kakabadse believes that governments and businesses should aspire to implement a more holistic and integrated approach to fight climate change. In her speech she referred to the climate marches in New York and other cities around the world. Hundreds of thousands of concerned global citizens from different countries came together to urge world governments, multinationals and financial institutions to stop climate change. She shared this concern in her speech and emphasised the importance of nature based solutions in this fight. ‘Nature based solutions are relatively cheap to implement and maintain. Dwelling communities in-
stinctively know, from knowledge passed on for generations, how to adapt to their environment. Using this knowledge will be very helpful.’ River deltas form the habitat for an increasing number of world citizens. 30% of the world’s population lives within 50 km of river deltas. Due to the rapid climate changes this 30% is at risk. According to Kakabadse, adaptive and creative solutions are necessary. River deltas are rich and fertile land and many species rely on deltas for their survival. These deltas are affected by changing weather conditions. When land is eroding, people find themselves homeless. Recent flooding in India and Bangladesh displaced thousands of people. Kakabadse: ‘World leaders still have a lot of work to do! We need a different way of thinking; soft infrastructural measures, and more adaptive and flexible management.’
“We need a different way of thinking.”
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PANEL DISCUSSION
Bart Parmet
Staff Delta Programme Commissioner, The Netherlands
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“Building with nature is an interesting and lucrative way of earning money in the future.”
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Humberto Delgado Rosa DG Climate Action European Commission, Belgium
“The EU endorsed the ecosystem based adaptation as one of the most cost effective solutions in the long term.”
Tineke Huizinga
Delta Alliance, The Netherlands
“Let’s not act after a disaster, but prevent them.”
Cynthia Villar
Senator of the Republic of the Philippines
“The support of local people in threatened areas is critical in order to successfully create a disaster resilient area.”
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BRIDGING THE GAP: ORGANISING AND COMMUNICATING CLIMATE RESILIENCE
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PROF. CHRIS RAPLEY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
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Planet earth is the most complex object in the universe. Preserving it is one of the most complex jobs there is, according to Prof. Rapley. He explained that it is very difficult to inform people effectively on the results and analysis scientists have done. It is an enormous challenge to transform complex and technical information into easy messages, which everyone can understand. Because of this complexity, the urgent message about the catastrophic effects of climate change is still not spread wide enough amongst nations and people worldwide.
major concerns of citizens. Scientists do not succeed in creating the urgency to act now and act more decisive, which is absolutely necessary. But how will we bridge this gap? Prof. Rapley’s advice is to debate less with politicians and engage more with the community via public dialogue. People are affected by emotions and personal stories, not by graphs and statistics. There is a an urgent message to tell and the best way to tell it is by story telling. All major cooperations already do exactly that: they sell their consumers a story, a vision and a belief. They don’t sell you the specifications of their products, because the majority is not interested in stats and numbers. The time is now for scientists to tell people their personal stories, believes and visions about planet earth becoming a more difficult and dangerous planet to live on.
“Debate less with politicians and engage more with the community.”
The question is what kind of roles scientists play in delivering information to people from different cultures, ages and backgrounds. Prof. Rapley stated that scientists have several important roles. Besides being pure scientists they are arbiters and, more importantly, communicators. Research has shown that climate change related issues and consequences, are not one of the
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Minister Melanie Schultz receives first copy of Innovation in Adaptation books
IF MAYORS RULED THE WORLD
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BENJAMIN BARBER, UNITED STATES
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Today’s Round Table ‘If mayors ruled the world’ put the spotlight on the power of cities in climate adaptation in deltas in relation to national governments. Moderator and author of the book ‘If mayors ruled the world’, Benjamin Barber, raised the question what cities can do to fight climate change. At the 23th floor of the World Trade Centre, Barber asked city leaders how cities may have to take the lead when it comes to the importance and urgency of climate adaptation. Representatives of Ho Chi Minh City, New Orleans, Jakarta, Panama City, the Republic of The Philippines and of course the host city Rotterdam, shared their views on how to implement theoretical ideas in practice. During the session Barber stressed that we live in a world with interdependent challenges. He argues that cities can cooperate and act to fight these challenges. Despite the differences in some aspects, there are a lot of similarities in the challenges representatives deal with. The attendees agree that if we want to fight climate change, we need to work in networks of cooperating cities to create a sustainable economy and we have to find alternative sources of energy. In order to reach this we need strong leadership and leaders who feel responsible.
“Vestibulum pellentesque eros vel volutpat sollicitudin.�
FINANCING CLIMATE ADAPTATION
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ROUND TABLES: CHAIR: NANNO KLEITERP, FMO DUTCH DEVELOPMENT BANK, THE NETHERLANDS PRESENTATION: PIETER PAUW, DEUTCHES INSTITUT FÜR ENTWICKLUNGSPOLITIK, GERMANY
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A large amount of knowledge gathered around the Round Table ‘Financing Climate Adaptation’ on the 23th floor this afternoon. Amongst others, the panel members were representatives of The World Bank, Royal HaskoningDHV, Boskalis, Swiss Re and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The main question was how to activate private finance for adaptation. The panel focussed on the role of private actors in financing adaptation measures in deltas. Pieter Pauw from the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik gave an introduction that was used as a framework during the discussion. He made clear that public and private perspectives on adaptation are dissonant. The chairman of the discussion, Nanno Kleiterp from FMO Dutch Development Bank, was not only interested in the panelists; he asked the audience what their background was. The audience was composed of both attendees from the private and public sector. According to Stephane Hallegatte from the Worldbank a lot can be learned about public private partnerships from infrastructural works in the past. Private money is absolutely necessary to finance future works, public funding is not enough. All panellists agreed that it is hard to get private money, but it is possible. Willemijn Verdegaal added that a good business case has to be made and that the limited public funds can be used to make that business case together with the market. That is the most important first step. If a good case is made, private investors will follow.
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New climate change scenarios PROF. BART VAN DEN HURK, KNMI, THE NETHERLANDS We require new knowledge and data in order to create new scenario’s for climate change in the Netherlands. Especially when predicting and outlining natural disaster forecasts, which are based on multiple sets of variables and a sequence of events. Ironically, Bart was difficult to hear due to the pouring rain at the start of his presentation. However, this scenario was anticipated and he switched on his microphone and moved on. His presentation consisted of multiple scenario’s about sea level rise and temperature rise. The audience was listening very carefully to the different scenario’s presented for possible future climate effects in the Netherlands. But as mentioned by Bart: nowadays knowledge and data will not guarantee the scenario’s of tomorrow.
Brisbane Watershed Design Charette PRESENTATION BY MSC STIJN KOOLE, BOSCH SLABBERS LANDSCAPE + URBAN DESIGN Flooding is not only a major issue in the Netherlands, but in Australia and the United States as well. Several presenters showed the economic, ecological and social impact of flooding in cities across these countries. The graphical and visual presentations confronted the audience with the effects of possible floods in major cities. After the presentations, all the attendees gathered around the tables and discussed the flood scenario’s of the Brisbane region and the watershed in particular. All kinds of analysis, knowledge and possible solutions were discussed and shared among the attendees present. Everyone contributed and participated actively. On the positive side, everyone agreed on the complex situation of flood prevention in Brisbane. On the negative side: there was no consensus on a good solution.
BRISBANE WATERSHED: EXCHANGING KNOWLEDGE ON POSSIBLE FLOOD SOLUTIONS
Bosch Slabbers Landscape + Urban Design
USA: Developing resilient communities DAVID SCHAUB-JONES, SEESAW GROUP, SOUTH AFRICA PAUL VAN KOPPEN, NWP, THE NETHERLANDS In a very crowded and warm room the presenters drew a picture on the resilience of US citizens. A majority of the Americans believe in climate change. However, only a small group of 30% believes it is a clear and urgent danger. Unfortunately, this is not the first time this fact was mentioned today. Thankfully, many big US cooperations, governmental and non-governmental organizations acknowledge the problem. They shifted a couple gears after the devastations of hurricane Katrina and Sandy. The majority of the sheets were concentrated on the plans drawn by this extensive coalition, in order to develop a resilient community. Although billions are spent and progress is made, there is still a long way ahead.
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Per Wikman-Svahn @Perwis
Luciana S Esteves @Geography_BU
SOCIAL MEDIA
On my way to @ climatedelta conference. Looking forward to discuss how philosophy can improve adaptation. #climatedelta14
#climatedelta14
Merel van der Wal @MerelvanderWal
René Karens @renekarens
Pim Nijssen @pimnijssen
Onder de indruk van bestuur Panama city. Goed verhaal van Raisa Banfield, vice burgemeester en environmentally aware. #climatedelta14
Minister Schultz “already deserves a place in heaven for her efforts on climate measures” says former minister Huizinga #climadelta14
Are you listening? “ Doing nothing is NOT an option!” #climateadaptation #climatedelta14 #watergovernance
LCCP @ClimateLondon
Jeroen van Herk @jeroenvanherk
Veronica @VOlivotto
Harrabin: did the climate demonstration have an impact on politicians? DG Climate Action pretty much convinced they did #climatedelta14
Great congres. Funny as well! Climate Change: “A bad day in the future will be worse” @RHarrabin # climatedelta14
Looking forward to Prof Davoudi’s talk on climate and the securisation of nature at #climatedelta14
Great speaches this morning. Great messages about the importance of integrating research and practice. Happy to be here!
126.000 reached today with #climatedelta14
“There is n because there i
no plan B, is no planet B.�
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COLOPHON
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Publication Organising Committee Deltas in Times of Climate Change II Text Visuele Notulen in cooperation with the Organising Committee Deltas in Times of Climate Change II Editing Organising Committee Deltas in Times of Climate Change II Photography Visuele Notulen Organising Committee Deltas in Times of Climate Change II City of Rotterdam Rogier Bos Anneke Hymmen Bosch Slabbers Graphic design Visuele Notulen
Facebook ClimateNL-KennisVoorKlimaat Twitter @ClimateDelta LinkedIN DeltasinTimesOfClimateChange
www.climatedeltaconference 2014. org
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Anneke Hymmen