Integrating Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation into Development Planning (CCMAP) project

Funders: European Commission and UNEP

Partners: WMO, IPCC, UNEP, University of Dar es Salaam, University of Ghana, and the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies

Despite the urgency of adapting to climate change, a number of factors impede effective action in developing countries. These include low levels of awareness of climate change and its risks, lack of understanding of the findings of the IPCC and other sources of scientific information, lack of location and sector specific knowledge that is needed to guide more effective decisions, poor sharing of information in forms that are relevant and useful to decision-makers and stakeholders, and the uncertainties and distrust of information from sources external to the region.

In an effort to address these obstacles, START and its partners are engaging scientists and policy makers in West Africa, East Africa and South Asia through a series of science-policy dialogues based on the findings of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. The national dialogues will take place in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, with the objective of broadening support the for the integration of climate change mitigation and adaptation knowledge into national strategies for sustainable development and poverty reduction. The dialogues are intended to inject the best available scientific knowledge from the IPCC Climate Change 2007 report and other sources into policy processes and decision-making in the targeted countries, and to engage the science and policy communities of the targeted regions to develop a shared vision of research and assessment needed to serve climate change decision-making needs.

In addition to these dialogues, scientists and key decision makers from these regions will also collaborate on knowledge assessments at local to regional scales. A major outcome of this effort will be enhanced capability in target countries to engage in IPCC and SBSTA/UNFCCC activities and dialogues.

Download the Final Report from the First National Science-Policy Dialogue at the University of Ghana.

For more information, contact Jon Padgham, jpadgham@start.org

Links:

Ghana Science-Policy Dialogue Final Report

Last Updated on February 18th, 2010