Urban climate governance: Better planning for successful adaptation

BC3 Seminars
“Urban climate governance: Better planning for successful adaptation“

Dr. Diana Reckien

Associate Professor of Climate Change and Urban Inequality, Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management, Faculty of Geo-Information Science & earth Observation, University of Twente, the Netherland.

Abstract:

The need for adaptation is unanimously recognized as urgent and becoming universal (IPCC, AR6, WGII). And, while the IPCC AR6 WGII highlights that adaptation has been increasing across all regions since AR5 (very high confidence) (IPCC, AR6, WGII, SPM: 23), it underlines at the same time that there is increasing evidence of maladaptation (high confidence) (IPCC, AR6, WGII, SPM: 30).

Climate adaptation is a complex societal task faced by a number of challenges, such as the multiple definitions and meanings of risk, the occurrence of multiple risks often affecting the same location, the dynamics of baseline risk indicators, and a lack of uniformly agreed and applicable metrics. Despite these challenges, society needs to move forward with adaptation implementation and science is asked to evaluate these interventions. Not only but also, because the Paris Agreement (2015) demands a Global Stocktake of collective adaptation from 2023 onwards.

In this talk I address two timely questions of adaptation research: 1) how to better plan for adaptation; 2) how to evaluate adaptation outcomes for successful adaptation. The talk will present guidelines for adaptation planning and evaluation, and highlight results after applying them. The talk concludes with lessons drawn from the empirical evidence on where to improve adaptation planning and adaptation outcomes for more successful adaptation.

About the Lecturer

Dr. Reckien is Associate Professor Climate Change and Urban Inequalities at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. She served as Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC AR6 WGII CH17 as well as SPM author. She is also an expert in the technical dialogues (TD) around the first global stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement. Diana specializes at the interface of climate change governance and urban research with a focus on justice and equity. She also works on climate change migration, disaster preparedness, and the role of urban greenery to initiate transitions in urban areas.