Adapt to thrive, not just survive. That’s the choice facing us today, as the climate change crisis accelerates. Efforts at mitigation have been the principal focus of climate action for years—and yet, temperatures and sea levels continue to rise at unprecedented rates, while extreme weather events increase in frequency and severity. How to deal with climate change to benefit your organization while protecting valuable assets, i.e., adaptation, is the challenge of our times.
Adaptation is the key to a more resilient future. To provide information and insights for businesses, public and nonprofit organizations, and communities to understand what climate adaptation means, Adaptation Leader has created a suite of workshops that provide essential facts and answers to the core questions. Workshop participants will learn how climate adaptation can affect their organizations, to identify climate-related threats and opportunities, and where to begin in developing response strategies.
The workshops are comprehensive, detailed presentations. They are based on deep research and led by an expert in the specific subject area. They are not general, one-way webinars. Grounded in data and current best practices, the Workshops reflect Adaptation Leaders’ unique combination of in-depth knowledge about climate science and impacts, the domestic and international policy environment, and organizational development practices.
Adaptation 101 is a unique “mini-course.” This workshop is a comprehensive introduction to the field of adaptation and resilience.
This overview is delivered live online in four one-hour modules across four weeks, one episode weekly, in an interactive format. The topics include:
- Introducing climate adaptation
- Basic approaches for businesses and communities
- Sea-level rise, coastal resilience, managed retreat & migration
- Equity, finance and implementation techniques— actionable items
Our other workshops in the suite focus on specific topic areas and are led by experts in the relevant area of activity within the adaptation and resilience field.
These workshops are “turnkey” — these offerings exist as complete programs available for immediate use upon commitment by participant.
Each workshop package includes a 2 ½ hour live session which is preceded by a pre-workshop component (such as recommended readings and a survey), and followed by a post-workshop activity (such as an online dialogue convened on the Adaptation Leader collaboration platform).
Currently available workshop topics include:
- Adaptation Metrics
- Foresight and Scenario Planning
- Adaptation Strategy Valuation
- Nature-based Solutions
- Resilient Public-Private Partnerships
The workshops provide intensive engagements with experts Participants have the opportunity to engage before, during, and after Workshops with these authoritative resources.
Note that these workshops are interactive, including pre- and post-workshop activities as well as interactive components during the event. Attendees should expect to do exercises, quizzes, role-playing, and/or case study reviews. These are working sessions which require response.
Prerequisites: Adaptation 101 and Adaptation Metrics are fundamental introductory courses that connect the basics to a specific client’s adaptation/resilience challenge. Adaptation Metrics assumes some basic adaptation understanding, as do Nature-based Solutions and Foresight and Scenario Planning. Resilient Public Private Partnerships focuses on how to pay for implementing adaptation tactics on the local level.
Who will benefit: Businesses and NGOs, communities, financial managers, insurers, policymakers, natural resource managers, and all types of organizations exposed to climate change and involved in reducing climate impacts on their assets.
current workshops
Adaptation 101 mini-course
Description:
How and why we must adapt to the accelerating threats of climate change. Learn the difference between climate mitigation and adaptation and how they intersect.
LISA GRANQUIST, PHD
ADAPTATION METRICS
Description:
“What gets measured gets done.” The world isn’t preparing for future climate changes well enough and a part of the reason is there is insufficient mobilization of resources to support climate adaptation. This workshop offers a comprehensive overview of the issues, challenges, and approaches to more effectively selecting and deploying appropriate metrics.
kARL SCHULTZ
Foresight and Scenario Planning
Description:
Climate adaptation is or ought to consider future demands and needs, not just considerations of climate scenarios, but also political, social and economic environments. For professionals and organizations grappling with the challenges of climate change, and with the climate adaptation policy, planning and investment landscape constantly changing, as is the world around us – being future focused helps you anticipate opportunities and stay one step ahead. By building your future informed insights (foresight) you will generate new business possibilities and manage risks. Adaptation finance has doubled year-on-year. Climate-related disasters are more frequent and extreme than ever in modern history. What matters is the future – not just of the climate, but the social, political, and economic landscape that enables (and constrains) decisions that organizations and professionals dealing with adaptation can take.
Bill Russell
Adaptation Strategy Valuation
Description:
Companies leave money on the table when they ignore physical climate risk and its impact on corporate valuation. Governments miss out on providing appropriate public services, and investors avoid optimizing their portfolios. This workshop helps managers and planners of all types of organizations an opportunity to learn how a process called “adaptation strategy valuation” (ASV) can serve as a guide for understanding how to optimize value.
rOLAND MADER
Resilient Public-Private Partnerships
Description:
Using next generation People First PPP strategies to proactively mobilize adaptation planning of projects to make them more resilient. We believe that PPPs which are contractually agreed to between the public and private sector can only be resilient if risks are appropriately shared and private sector innovation is embraced. The leveraging of both partners resources if combined with adaptive objectives and goals will result in projects that are future proofed and resilient. This can only be achieved through strong partnerships and a focus on value for money, value for people, and value for the future PPPs are about sharing risks appropriately, this includes adverse climate effects and natural events commonly referred to as force majeure events.
DAVID BAXTER
NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS
Description:
Organizational leaders face a complex challenge in developing solutions for adaptation to climate change. Extreme weather, water scarcity, and other factors associated with climate change are severely disrupting business as usual, but these changes also create opportunities for innovative approaches based on natural systems and processes. Conventional approaches like engineered or “gray” infrastructure may not be as effective going forward as they have in the past.
