UNU and IR3S Consultation conference on Role of higher education in adapting to climate change for Establishing a regional network to develop a postgraduate educational programs on climate change adaptation

<Background>
United Nations University has been holding discussions with a number of partner institutions engaged in research and education on effective ways the higher educational sector could assist societies in adapting to climate change. Capacity development, to assess impacts and design appropriate adaptation strategies, have always emerged as one of the most important contributions we need to make. Towards this end, United Nations University, Institute for Sustainability and Peace, located in the UNU headquarters in Tokyo, with the consortium of universities for Integrated Research Systems for Sustainability Science (IR3S) coordinated by the University of Tokyo, Japan, is organizing a consultation symposium from the 10th to 12th of June, 2009, at the UNU headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

<Aim>
The conference aims to brainstorm discussions on:
Development of a common curriculum with a number of courses covering general overview topics to specialized topics on water and food security
Joint post graduate and student exchange programs
Specialized training programs to share methodologies and tools
Development of joint research programs

The first day of the conference is an open forum to share perspectives on various aspects need to be considered in adapting to climate change and how academia can develop an “adaptation science” to deal with this challenge in an effective manner. The second and third days will be a close workshop where leading universities and research institutes will share current activities and plan for shared programs on climate change adaptation.