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april 200712-04-2007NL: Adaptation programme Space & Climate leads to national strategy Last year, The Netherlands have initiated the National Programme Space and Climate (ARK). With this, 4 ministries have co-operated with the umbrella organisations of the provinces, municipalities and the waterboards. All parties have underlined the urgency that spatial adaptation to the effects of climate change is necessary and has recently led to a national strategy. Goal of this strategy is to make the Netherlands 'climate-proof' for the next hundred years, and to make climate change adaptation 'mainstream' in all policies from 2015. Inter-ministerial and inter-governmental agreements will be underlined in a pending 'national adaptation agenda'. Although in Dutch, download the national strategy here. Find a background document in English, a 'qualitative assessment of climate adaptation options' here Read more here  06-04-2007 IPCC Working Group II releases report The Working Group II "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" contribution to the "Climate Change 2007" Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been presented to the press in Brussels today. Additional press briefings focusing on specific impacts at the regional level will follow in various locations around the world starting from 10 April. The report assesses the latest scientific, environmental and socio-economic literature on "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability". It provides a comprehensive analysis of how climate change is affecting natural and human systems, what the impacts will be in the future and how far adaptation and mitigation can reduce these impacts. The report also contains chapters on specific systems, sectors and regions. Key findings of the report include: • 75-250 million people across Africa could face water shortages by 2020 • Crop yields increase could increase by 20% in East and Southeast Asia, but decrease by up to 30% in Central and South Asia • Agriculture fed by rainfall could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020 • 20-30% of all plant and animal species at increased risk of extinction if temperatures rise between 1.5-2.5C • Glaciers and snow cover expected to decline, reducing water availability in countries supplied by melt water  The report states that the observed increase in the global average temperature was "very likely" due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The scientific work reviewed by IPCC scientists includes more than 29,000 pieces of data on observed changes in physical and biological aspects of the natural world. Eighty-nine percent of these, it believes, are consistent with a warming world. Read more here. Download the summary for policy makers here. |