Universities/Colleges

The brief discusses the key messages that transpired during the Conference on Scaling held on 29─30 November 2018 at the Melia Hotel in Hanoi, hosted by CCAFS SEA, co-hosted by ACIAR and GIZ, and funded by a CCAFS Small Grant Cross-CRP Networking. The conference main points include: scaling up agricultural innovations takes place in complex systems of agricultural transformation, and sustainable scaling should build into “sustainable change at scale”.

This booklet presents a collection of previously unpublished or ongoing research and interventions related to climate-smart agriculture (CSA), with emphasis on experiences in Eastern and Southern Africa. The visual material contained herein offers researchers, development workers and policy-makers teaser insights into new tools, methodologies and data to support CSA scaling efforts. The 35 contributions in this booklet answer to five key questions that currently obstruct the efficient and effective implementation of CSA agendas.

Impact story

In an effort to serve as a 'one stop shop' for climate-related information, data, and tools, the World Bank created the Climate Change Knowledge Portal (or CCKP). The Portal provides an online tool for access to comprehensive global, regional, and country data related to climate change and development.

Deficiency in vitamin A is one of the most prevalent problems in Sub-Saharan African countries including Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. The consequences of deficiency of vitamin A is high fatality rate (60%) but even sub-clinical deficiency is associated with a 23% increase in preschooler mortality in areas with endemic Vitamin A deficiency”. An array of solutions have been proposed to combat Vitamin A deficiency. These have included Vitamin A capsule administration campaigns in pre-schools and primary schools unfortunately this has left behind others.

This brochure describes the new CCARDESA ICKM System.

The topics assessed in this chapter were last assessed by the IPCC in 2007, principally in WGII AR4 Chapters 3 (Kundzewicz et al., 2007) and 4 (Fischlin et al., 2007), but also in WGII AR4 Sections 1.3.4 and 1.3.5 (Rosenzweig et al., 2007). The WGII AR4 SPM stated “Observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases,” though they noted that documentation of observed changes in tropical regions and the Southern Hemisphere was sparse (Rosenzweig et al., 2007). Fischlin et al. (2007) found that 20 to 30% of the plant and animal species that had been assessed to that time were considered to be at increased risk of extinction if the global average temperature increase exceeds 2°C to 3°C above the preindustrial level with medium confidence, and that substantial changes in structure and functioning of terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems are very likely under that degree of warming and associated atmospheric CO2 concentration. No time scale was associated with these findings. The carbon stocks in terrestrial ecosystems were considered to be at high risk from climate change and land use change. The report warned that the capacity of ecosystems to adapt naturally to the combined effect of climate change and other stressors is likely to be exceeded if greenhouse gas (GHG) emission continued at or above the then-current rate.

Changes in the hydrological cycle due to climate change can lead to diverse impacts and risks, and they are conditioned by and interact with non-climatic drivers of change and water management responses (Figure 3-1). Water is the agent that delivers many of the impacts of climate change to society, for example, to the energy, agriculture, and transport sectors. Even though water moves through the hydrological cycle, it is a locally variable resource, and vulnerabilities to water-related hazards such as floods and droughts differ between regions. Anthropogenic climate change is one of many stressors of water resources. Nonclimatic drivers such as population increase, economic development, urbanization, and land use or natural geomorphic changes also challenge the sustainability of resources by decreasing water supply or increasing demand. In this context, adaptation to climate change in the water sector can contribute to improving the availability of water.

This chapter addresses the foundations of decision making with respect to climate impact, adaptation, and vulnerability (CIAV). The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) summarized methods for assessing CIAV (Carter et al., 2007), which we build on by surveying the broader literature relevant for decision making.

This chapter describes the information basis for the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of IPCC Working Group II (WGII) and the rationale for its structure. As the starting point of WGII AR5, the chapter begins with an analysis of how the literature for the assessment has developed through time and proceeds with an overview of how the framing and content of the WGII reports have changed since the first IPCC report was published in 1990. The future climate scenarios used in AR5 are a marked change from those used in the Third (TAR, 2001) and Fourth (AR4, 2007) Assessment Reports; this shift is described here, along with the new AR5 guidance for communicating scientific uncertainty. The chapter provides a summary of the most relevant key findings from the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (IPCC, 2011), the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (IPCC, 2012), and the AR5 Working Group I (The Physical Science Basis) and AR5 Working Group III (Mitigation of Climate Change). Collectively these recent reports, new scenarios, and other advancements in climate change science set the stage for an assessment of impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability that could potentially overcome many of the limitations identified in the IPCC WGII AR4, particularly with respect to the human dimensions of climate change.