AdaptNet for 08 December 2009

1. The Copenhagen Diagnosis – Climate Science Updates

2. Climate Change: Learning from Grassroots Coping Strategies

3. Bangkok Assessment Report on Climate Change

4. Ideas for Shaping New Climate and Energy Politics

5. Climate Change and Social Justice – MUP, Australia

6. Australian Earth Sciences Convention – Canberra, Australia  

The Copenhagen Diagnosis – Climate Science Updates             

The report synthesizes some of the policy-relevant climate science published since the close-off of material for the last IPCC report (AR4). It serves as a handbook of science updates that supplements the AR4 in time for Copenhagen in December 2009, and any national or international climate change policy negotiations that follow.  

The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science, I. Allison et al., Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, November 2009 [3.33 MB, PDF]  

Climate Change: Learning from Grassroots Coping Strategies  

This paper attempts to establish the relations between adaptation, disaster risk reduction and coping strategies for urban areas. It summarizes some of the existing coping strategies of the urban poor in Korail area – the largest informal settlement in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The paper discusses how local planning, adaptation, and governance mechanisms can support the existing coping strategies in urban areas.  

Built-in Resilience: Learning from Grassroots Coping Strategies to Climate Variability, Huraera Jabeen, Adriana Allen and Cassidy Johnson, Fifth Urban Research Symposium, France, 2009 [517 KB, PDF]

Bangkok Assessment Report on Climate Change

The report explains why and how climate change is affecting Bangkok. It raises awareness of actions that can be taken to lessen the impacts of climate change in Bangkok. The report sets out a number of adaptation options for the city, including: improving the local public health infrastructure; establishing early warning systems; and implementing stricter zoning and building codes. 

Bangkok Assessment Report on Climate Change – 2009, Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, Green Leaf Foundation, and the United Nations Environment Programme, 2009 [4.16 MB, PDF]  

Ideas for Shaping New Climate and Energy Politics     

This dossier contributes to ongoing debates about the politics of climate change. It attempts to provide a better understanding of the emerging climate justice movement and create relations between different perspectives and spheres of engagement. The dossier also helps shape a future climate and energy politics that humanity is facing in the 21st century. 

Contours of Climate Justice: Ideas for Shaping New Climate and Energy Politics, Ulrich Brand, Edgardo Lander, Tadzio Mueller and Nicola Bullard (editors), Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, November 2009 [12.3 MB, PDF]  

 Climate Change and Social Justice – MUP, Australia

This edited volume (published by the Melbourne University Press) covers many issues, including: responsibility for climate change; intergenerational equity; health; environmental refugees; adaptation and equity in climate policy. The book helps fill out what has been an underdeveloped area of Australian thinking about the climate change issue. 

Climate Change and Social Justice, Jeremy Moss (editor), MUP Social Justice Series, Melbourne University Press (MUP), Victoria, Australia, 2009 [Climate Change and Social Justice is available as both an e-book (downloadable PDF files) or a d-book (print-on-demand). Both versions are available for online purchase at the MUP e-store]

Australian Earth Sciences Convention – Canberra, Australia  

This event will take place in Canberra from 4-8 July 2010. It will cover many topics, including: specific natural hazard and risk assessment case studies, adaptation of existing investigative techniques to informing communities of hazards as well as the development and use of new tools for studying and identifying natural hazards. Abstracts may be submitted by 15 January 2010.  

Australian Earth Sciences Convention 2010, Geological Society of Australia Canberra, Australia, July 4-8, 2010