July 8, 2019
This year we run the 10th edition of the BC3-UPV/EHU Summer School on Climate Change that started in July 2010, when the international community was in the search of a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, following a non-binding Copenhagen Accord put forth in 2009. Since then, the Summer School has covered a wide range of topics from an interdisciplinary perspective and has closely followed the international negotiations on climate change. Two years ago, the Summer School focused on the factors behind the paradigm shift in international policymaking, which eventually led to the Paris Agreement. Then, the US government’s decision to back out the agreement led to a “climate of uncertainty” that constituted the main topic discussed in last year’s edition.
December 9, 2019
In the framework of the COP25, this side event will discuss the topics of climate change adaptation and disaster risk financing as a multi-level governance challenge. Organised by Regions4 Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) and the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), it will highlight good practices and experiences from different levels of government. It will further reveal common challenges and provide recommendations for policymakers that could guide the development and implementation of national, regional and local adaptation plans and strategies.
December 10, 2019
Different lines of evidence suggest that divergence in plasticity plays a key role in adaptation to global environmental change. Many scientists argue that genetic variation in plastic responses to the environment (G × E) could be an important predictor of species' vulnerabilities to climate change. But there is not a general pattern among either experimental or theoretical studies. Plasticity acting at the level of the individual is considered a rapid mechanism for surviving under rapidly changing conditions. But plasticity can also retard adaptation by shifting the distribution of phenotypes in the population, shielding it from natural selection. We know that not all plastic responses are adaptive. I will illustrate some examples of ecological traps, and, for the case of plants, the paradoxical decision regarding roots that we are far from understanding and modelling. Plasticity may buy time for populations, but whether it will be enough, given the rate of environmental change, is unknown.
December 13, 2019
Participation of researcher Elisa Sainz de Murieta.
