A Centre of Excellence aimed at collecting global knowledge on climate adaptation and using it to accelerate work in this field is to open in the Netherlands.

By signing the Paris Agreement in December 2015, countries made climate adaptation a top priority. A warming planet is already increasing the frequency of natural disasters and causing economic disruption.

The new Centre - to be established thanks to a joint initiative between the Netherlands, Japan and UN Environment - will therefore bring together knowledge from a wide range of stakeholders. It will assess what works and what doesn’t to support countries, communities and companies as they include adaptation into their investment decisions. The aim is for every new road, construction and crop field to be made more resilient.

“Many people are looking for good practices and guidance with regard to climate change adaptation. I am convinced the Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation can help address these challenges,” said the Netherlands’ Environment Minister Sharon Dijksma.

The Centre “is a welcome step, but other countries need to follow this example and urgently invest in climate adaptation,” stressed UN Environment Deputy Chief Ibrahim Thiaw.

For more information please click here or write to rie.tsutsumi@unep.org