Tuesday 7th February, 2017

The Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) has participated in the launch of the new Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation. SLoCaT is one of the global partners for the new center, which will be based in the Netherlands, and aims to strengthen the ability of countries, institutions and businesses to deal with climate impacts and to support their work on climate adaptation. The center will initially focus on the deltas (sea/river interfaces), agriculture and transport sectors.

SLoCaT is a member of the center´s Advisory Group and will support the center’s work on transport by providing contacts, advice and expertise to the center and through its global network of partners and events.

“The Center established by the Netherlands will be very helpful in advancing action on transport and climate change, as called for in the COP22 Declaration on Accelerated Action on Adaptation to Climate Change in Transport”, said Mark Major, Senior Advisor to SLoCaT representing SLoCaT at the launch.

The historic Paris Climate agreement has made climate change adaptation a top global priority. The Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation, an initiative of The Netherlands, Japan and UN Environment will contribute to building a climate resilient world. The Centre will address the growing need for support among countries, institutions and businesses for dealing with climate change adaptation issues, such as natural disasters and economic disruptions.

The Centre will support those that struggle to put climate adaptation effectively into practice, in all parts of the world. It will collect lessons from recently executed policies, programs and 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.

Parties that are involved in the establishment of the Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation include: UN Environment; National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan; Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency PBL; Acclimatise; Delta Alliance; Global Environment Facility; Municipality of Rotterdam; Deltares; European Investment Bank; Kingdom of Morocco; Munich Climate Insurance Initiative; Netherlands Water Partnership; Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT); S&P Global; SNV Netherlands Development Organisation; Stockholm Environment Institute; TU Delft; UNEP DTU. 

Please see full press release here.

For more information on the COP22 Declaration on Accelerated Action on Adaptation to Climate Change in Transport, see http://www.slocat.net/news/1780.