First African visit for premier climate change conference

Innovation and shared knowledge and experience will underpin the fifth International Climate Change Adaptation Futures 2018 conference, which will be hosted by UCT’s African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) in June. This is the first time that this premier world conference is being held in Africa.

Over 1 000 scientists, practitioners, business leaders and policymakers from 87 countries will attend the conference to “connect, learn and inspire” by sharing different perspectives and creating a platform for learning.

Seaking on CapeTalk radio, ACDI director Professor Mark New said the aim is to bring together a growing community of people concerned about the risks that climate change presents and ideas on how best to respond to the challenges presented.

The African setting will foreground issues that developing countries have in responding and adapting to climate change. Some 500 delegates from developing nations are set to attend.

The conference will be taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 18 to 21 June and is open to all. The opening plenary session is scheduled for 19 June and over the four days 190 parallel sessions and 128 poster presentations will take place.

New said it would be a “problems-based conference”.

“What climate change is doing is changing the frequency and intensity of droughts like we’re experiencing now.”

He said that the conference is about, first, how we understand the implications of these extreme weather events and, more importantly, how to mitigate the effects, for example, by building better water resource systems, or agricultural practices that can cope with these stresses on our social and economic systems.

“Cape Town isn’t alone in having experienced water security issues over the past five to 10 years. The point of the conference is to bring people together who have the same problems so they can learn from each other and their innovations. It’s not always about having to innovate yourself but taking those ideas and seeing how they fit into your own situation.”

Read more about Adaptation Futures 2018…

Listen to the CapeTalk radio show…