Launch of Adaptation Without Borders: A New Era in International Cooperation on Climate Change

This high-level event will launch a collaboration between the European Commission and Adaptation Without Borders, shine a spotlight on the implications of cross-border and cascading risks for climate diplomacy, and make the case for a new era of adaptation defined by global cooperation.
Visual
Recording – The launch of Adaptation Without Borders

Summary

As the COVID-19 pandemic has so vividly reminded us, in our interconnected world, shocks can ripple out well beyond the countries where they first occur, as they disrupt flows of trade, finance, people, and shared resources. This is why, as the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change notes, “the impacts of climate change have knock-on impacts across borders and continents”.

Adaptation Without Borders is a global partnership that aims to build understanding of cross-border and cascading climate risks, identify effective strategies to manage them, and foster international cooperation and multilateral action to forge a common path to a more just and resilient future.

DG CLIMA is Adaptation Without Borders’ inaugural institutional supporter. AWB partners around the world will work with the EU’s international and regional partners to promote dialogue and joined-up action on this “next generation” of climate risks, supporting vulnerable communities while recognising that all countries share an interest in building global resilience to climate change.

This high-level event launched the collaboration between the European Commission and Adaptation Without Borders.The EU is investing €700,000 in the partnership, which will run through 2022 and puts into practice the vision of the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, which stresses that in a deeply interconnected world, building resilience internationally is “not only a matter of solidarity, but also of open strategic autonomy and self-interest” for Europe.

The drawing below by illustrator Jorge Martin provides a visual summary of the discussion.

Agenda

  • Welcome
    • Katy Harris, Director of Adaptation Without Borders
  • Opening keynote remarks
    • Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal
  • Adaptation Without Borders
    • Ayman Cherkaoui, Adaptation Without Borders Ambassador
  • Strengthening international cooperation on adaptation, reflecting on the implications of cascading and cross-border climate risks for national, regional and global policy:
    • Teresa Ribera, Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Spain (national perspective)
    • Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko,the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission (regional perspective)
    • 1st audience discussion and 1-2 minute break
    • John Haley, Chief Executive Officer of Willis Towers Watson (private-sector perspective)
    • Abdoulaye Dia, Executive Secretary of the Pan African Agency for the Great Green Wall (programming perspective)
    • 2nd audience discussion
  • Short presentation of the discussion from visual illustrator, Jorge Martin
  • Closing keynote remarks
    • Cecília da Silva Bernardo, Co-Chair, UNFCCC Adaptation Committee
    Close
    • Katy Harris, Director of Adaptation Without Borders

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