WASCAL and SASSCAL participated jointly at the Adaptation Futures 2016 Conference that was held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from 10 to 13 May 2016.
Over 1,600 scholars, practitioners, policymakers and business people from 107 countries took part in the event that was aimed at collecting new input for the next COP-meeting in Morocco in November 2016. Dr Laurent Sédogo and Safietou Sanfo represented WASCAL, while Peter Erb, Dr Jörg Helmschrot and Christoph Schumann participated on behalf of SASSCAL.
The programme offered a variety of plenary and some 160 parallel sessions, with both scientists and practitioners reporting on their adaptation projects. The conference also included round tables and a project poster competition.The point was made that adaptation has become just as important as mitigation. Even if all greenhouse gas emissions would stop today, the world would still need to adapt to a climate that is changing even without further emissions.
It is also clear from this conference and the Paris COP that the business sector is becoming an important partner in the implementation of adaptation measures.
The next Adaptation Futures Conference will be held in Cape Town in 2018 and this represents a great opportunity for Africa to more actively participate and present its adaptation success stories.
