MoU with UNFCCC establishes Adaptation Academy

IHE Delft and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have signed a collaboration agreement to establish the Adaptation Academy, a network of organisations to support Professional short-term training on the Enhanced Transparency Framework of the Paris Agreement.

Find more information on the MoU signing here

All signatories to the Paris Agreement have agreed that to facilitate effective universal participation of all Parties in the enhanced transparency framework, climate change reporting, support which includes enhancement expertise and capacity-building of national experts should be provided to developing countries.

In particular, the Adaptation Academy aims to enhance the ability of developing countries to conduct vulnerability and adaptation assessments, and then prepare and report the information resulting from such assessments and the implementation of national adaptation actions for national communications, biennial update reports, and biennial transparency reports under the formal measurement, reporting and verification arrangements of the Paris Agreement.

Partners in the Adaptation Academy are UNFCCC, IHE Delft, Asia Institute of Technology (AIT) and Oregon State University (OSU) with the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) playing a facilitation role.

The aim of the academy is to first develop and then offer a face-to-face 3-4 week training programme focused on imparting technical knowledge of the key components of the measurement, reporting and verification system of the Paris Agreement, and allow for the exchange of views, sharing of lessons learned and experiences, and internalizing and mainstreaming climate change activities. The initiative will initially last five years. IHE Delft will host the course for participants from Africa and Europe in Delft and will also contribute to the courses planned at AIT (SE Asia) and OSU.

Next steps include the development of the course curriculum and thereafter the content of the modules. This is planned to be a collaborative effort across IHE Delft, making use of the wide range of experience across the Institute.