Stepping Up Knowledge Exchange between Climate Adaptation Platforms

The KE4CAP project provides a forum for developers and operators of climate education platforms to compare experiences, learn from one another, and work together to address common and emerging challenges. The project aims to stimulate knowledge exchange to advance cooperation and learning, and to inspire the evolution of national and regional adaptation platforms in terms of scope, governance, content coverage, functionality and management.

The Paris Agreement calls for strengthening cooperation and enhancing action on adaptation, and recognition is growing that policymakers need high-quality and relevant information to support decision-making. In response, many countries have established web-based climate adaptation platforms. These platforms provide access to information, evidence and guidance intended to inform the development of adaptation strategies and plans at the local, national, and transnational scales. However, they are all at different stages of development and capabilities, and all face challenges that potentially limit their effectiveness in supporting the required climate action.

The KE4CAP project was created to address these issues. The project builds on discussions with a range of experts at international meetings.

Funding and partners

The project is funded by the European Commission through the Strategic Partnerships for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (SPIPA) programme. KE4CAP focuses on promoting cooperation between EU countries and non-European major economies. The programme is facilitating bilateral discussions between the EU and Canada, Japan and Australia. Targeted collaborations are beginning with Mexico, South Africa, Argentina and India. The work builds on and complements existing European climate policy dialogues and cooperation with many countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the USA. The list of platforms involved is here.

The project team includes Julia Barrott, Knowledge Manager of weADAPT – SEI’s signature adaptation platform and network. Other members of the team include representatives of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, Climate Adaptation Services, Delta Alliance, and Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine at University College Cork.

KE4CAP works with a number of national and regional platforms – among them, Australia’s Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub,  the Canadian Centre for Climate Services (CCCS) portal, Japan’s National Adaptation Platform (A-PLAT), and the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Platform (AP-PLAT). Platform developers or operators not yet involved are encouraged to get in touch.

Specific aims of the project include:

• Developing content as adaptation policies and actions evolve, including how platforms retain their policy relevance.
• Linking climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
• Linking climate change adaptation with the sustainable development goals.
• Embedding technological innovations to increase functionality and user-friendliness.
• Providing examples of good practices related to supporting evolving users’ requirements.
• Supporting a wide range of users with different capacities and decision-making cultures.
• Evaluation, quality assurance and quality control to support the updating of platforms.
• Demonstrating the value of web-based adaptation platforms, including in terms of contributing to monitoring, evaluation and reporting on adaptation at national and international levels.
• Enhancing collaboration and harmonisation of platforms to promote quality and utility from the perspective of users.

Note: This project ran from November 2019 to January 2022.