The Netherlands announced on Monday, 06 February 2017 that it will work with Japan and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to establish a Global Centre of Excellence to help countries, institutions and businesses to adapt to a warming climate, which is increasing the frequency of natural disasters and causing economic disruptions.
The Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation will bring together international partners, including leading knowledge institutes, businesses, NGOs, local and national governments, international organisations and financial institutions.
The Dutch Minister for the Environment, Sharon Dijksma, says: “Many around the world are hit hard by global warming. The ground-breaking Paris Climate Change Agreement puts climate change adaptation on par with mitigation.
“Failure of dealing adequately with climate change will increase a multitude of risks such as natural disasters, social and economic disruptions and increasing political tensions. Many people are looking for good practices and guidance with regard to climate change adaptation. I am convinced the Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation can help addressing these challenges.”
“Even with the Paris Agreement on climate change, our planet is heading for a global warming of around 3°C,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, deputy chief of UN Environment.
“Our survival depends on learning to live on a hotter planet with more extreme weather, erratic rainfall and rising sea levels. This Centre is a welcome step, but other countries need to follow this example and urgently invest in climate adaptation.”
By signing the Paris Climate agreement countries have made climate change adaptation a top global priority and the Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation, a joint initiative of The Netherlands, Japan and UN Environment is an important step to deliver on that commitment.
The Centre will support countries around the world to effectively adapt to climate change. It will collect lessons from recently executed projects and use those to develop guidance to accelerate climate adaptation. The resulting pool of global knowledge and know-how to understand what works and what doesn’t will be used to support countries, communities and companies to successfully integrate climate adaptation into their investment decisions. In that way, every new road, every construction, every crop field becomes an opportunity to become more resilient.
