LOCALS MUST BE INVOLVED IN ADAPTATION PLANNING The third day of the conference kicked off with a lively debate on linking across local, regional and national scales in planning for adaptation at the national level. David Bresch, Head of Business Development at Global Partnerships in Switzerland, remarked: “We are far better off sharing risks than having everyone trying to manage on their own. That’s why we need structures for dialogue between the different scales.” A recurring topic in this connection is the difficulty of getting access to data. The lively audience spoke its mind. A number of participants expressed the view that the value of data might be overrated. “Planning adaptation is driven too heavily by science”, said one. “Climate change is a moving target. We can never give enough data to planners, because it is not static.” Attention also turned to community involvement and the value of local knowledge in planning. “Bring real problems and information from communities to the arenas where decisions are being made. That is more important than producing more and more scientific data. And yes, that takes a lot of time—sometimes years. The actual discussion should start from the bottom up. Local people are experts. They know exactly what is going on in their environment. Officials come and go, as do politicians. Communities stay, so of course they must to be involved.”
David Bresch also pointed to the responsibility of policy-makers and practitioners. “We always hear, ‘We don’t have enough data.’ But there is so much information out there, often freely available through the Internet. Sometimes you just have to be a little bit creative and proactive. It is more a problem of a lack of skills than it is of a lack of data.” David Bresch Head, Business Development, Global Partnerships at Swiss Re, Switzerland Sirkku Juhola Associate professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki and Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland Ignacio Lorenzo Executive Secretary, National Climate Change Response System of Uruguay Hermen Borst Deputy Delta Commissioner, the Netherlands Tbd, Least Developed Countries Experts Group, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
ROTTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS 10 - 13 MAY 2016
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