Summer School: Climate change in cities and city regions – Time to adapt?

I know what I'll be doing next summer - attending the interesting Summer School '''Climate change in cities and city regions - Time to adapt?''', which will take place at HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU) as part of the BaltCICA project.

The summer school will address the impact of climate change with the focus on the resulting responsibilities for the urban and rural areas at Elbe estuary. It consists of two modules, the first being a Metropolitan Adaptation Lab and the second a Scenario Workshop.

The summer school is an exciting opportunity for practitioners, students and young researchers of most diverse specializations and branches, ranging from urban and regional planning, environmental sciences, geography, social sciences, ecological sciences, technical engineers with interest in climate change and climate adaptation.

During the week the participants will attend seminars and experience the impacts of climate change in Hamburg and how the latest scientific knowledge is transferred into innovative adaptation measures. In line with that, the attendees will study many aspects of climate change and the role of planning in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Finally they will develop innovative solutions to adapt to a changing climate.

The Summer School will take place organized at the HafenCity University Hamburg from September 26th to 30th 2011 in Hamburg. How will you spend your summer?

See the agenda for the Summer School here and register here by May 31st!
Pictures: Stefanie Lange

Thinking about the gender-climate link

The developing countries are experiencing the impacts of climate change first-handed. Especially women in those countries are vulnerable to ethe ffects of the changing climate. Recognizing the gender-climate link is only one point of view to the issue, but it's still a significant one.

Men and women are affected by the climate change in a different way . This is caused for instance by the distribution of work and cultural norms. Being poor makes people more vulnerable to the effects of climate change no matter if you are a man or a woman. However, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 70 % of the world's poor are women. The impacts of climate change are expected to increase poverty and thus lead to increased gender inequality, too.

Should we look at the gender aspects of climate change also in the rich north? The differences are not only visible in developing countries. For the Nordic people in general are not used to heat waves and especially the elderly, most of them being women, are severely affected by the hot weather. Certain professions in the European countries are strongly dominated by women or men. If certain professions are suffering from the changing climate, also gender effects could be notable. What is certain is that more information on the impacts of climate change from the gender point of view is needed both in the south and in the north.

Photo: UNWOMEN
More information:
UNDP Resource guide on Gender and Climate Change
Gender into Climate Change: Toolkit for climate experts and decision-makers

Combatting Climate Change in 30 Ways, in 30 Days

As the UN Climate Convention meeting in Cancun approaches, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) wants to highlight that finding solutions to climate change is possible for communities, enterprises and countries in many ways.

UNEP wants to inspire action on climate change by presenting 30 ways to tackle the challenge in 30 days. It releases online case studies to show that solutions to climate change are available and could be copied and scaled up around the world if only governments, enterprises and communities were interested in moving towards low-emission climate-resilient growth.


Read more about the case studies that include Indian solar loans programme, The Green Passport Campaign and improved stoves in Haiti and Nigeria.

More information: UNEP 30 Ways in 30 Days
Picture: UNEP / Indian Solar Programme

Cities are key to fight climate change

With more than 50 % of the world' s population is living in cities, we are an urban species. Cities account for about 80 % of the world-wide pollution. According to Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, this clearly shows, that human species is putting the world in danger and cities are key in addressing this challenge. At the same time, cities are leading the world-wide process to fight climate change both in mitigation and adaptation. Adaptation strategies in developing countries are by nature survival strategies. Global climate governance should therefore include those managing the habitats. This discussion has been recorded as part of the series 'Time for Real Questions' during COP15 in Copenhagen.

"Adaptigation"

There are different views when it comes to administrations and climate change response. The opinion of many is that climate change mitigation is most important while others believe that adaptation to the effects of a changing climate is more critical. Most, however, admit that both perspectives have to be taken into account.

Recently there has been a dramatic change in the perspective of how administrations act in response to climate change. After focusing almost solely on climate change mitigation for years, different administrations are now concentrating more on climate change adaptation. According to a Senior Research Fellow in Nordregio, Richard Langlais, good planning integrates both perspectives: adaptation and mitigation. He argues that separating the two perspectives in planning is becoming obsolete and can also lead to contradictory measures.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change adoption is defined as "initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or expected climate change effects". Climate change mitigation, on the other hand, means "implementing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance sinks".

Langlais uses a simple example of a municipality planting a new forest along a local river. As he argues, this measure should be seen as both adaptation and mitigation, that is: "adaptigation", by which he means a response to climate change that integrates a focus on adaptation with a focus on mitigation, to avoid conflicts and create synergies. "Seeing this newly planted forest as both adaptation (it buffers the impacts of flooding) and mitigation (it absorbs carbon) is good planning", writes Langlais. The most important thing is to keep "adaptigation" in mind: adaptation and mitigation can be outcomes of the same measures.

Source: Richard Langlais, Journal of Nordregio 9:4, 2009.