Work being conducted by SEI in many regions of the world is testing new ways to improve responses to the global challenge of adapting to climate change.
A man carries a basket of freshly harvested coffee beans in Colombia, where rainfall has become more erratic as the result of climate change. Photo: Modoc Stories / Getty Images.
In the Campoalegre River basin in Colombia, climate change is leading to more variability in rainfall. At the same time, pressure on water resources is increasing, along with the growing number of coffee farms, livestock producers, and tourists exploring the region’s coffee landscapes and national parks. The area now finds itself searching for ways to adapt to erratic rainfall and to meet rising demand.
New work by SEI in Colombia and in many different areas of the world is helping to improve efforts to adapt to climate change. Work by the SEI Climate Services Initiative is beginning to use a new, collaborative framework that emphasizes involving all stakeholders throughout every step of the process in planning for and adaptating to climate change.
SEI’s work – now underway in Colombia, Indonesia, Namibia, Sweden and Zambia – is testing new ways to foster wider and better use of climate science in policy-making. The ultimate goal is to improve responses to the global challenge of adapting to climate change.
Though integrating climate science into decision-making offers tremendous potential, climate services are often poorly designed and underused. Responding to this gap between science and policy, SEI is introducing and refining a new framework to guide the process.
As its name implies, the “Tandem” framework emphasizes collaboration. On a tandem bicycle, people with different skills, styles, and fitness levels need to overcome these differences to pedal in harmony to move forward to reach a given destination. The same philosophy underpins the tandem approach to climate services. Those designing climate services and providing scientific information work in tandem with users throughout the process. Scientists learn more about what users need. Users learn more about what climate science can tell them about changes affecting their region. This approach increases the likelihood of generating information and responses specifically tailored to the needs of end users. It also confronts the reality of making informed decisions about how to adapt to climate change: effective adaptation rarely takes place in isolation.
SEI researchers are exploring the tandem concept in case studies that involve many climate change adaptation needs in different contexts throughout the world:
Tania Santos, SEI Research Associate, presents information about the Climate Services Initiative project to the Climate Change Node, which is composed of institutions and organizations involved in climate change-related work in Colombia.
In Colombia, stakeholder workshops, beginning in April and continuing through July, will be conducted by SEI Latin America and two Colombian environmental agencies, CORPOCALDAS (Corporacion Autonoma Regional de Caldas) and CARDER (Corporacion Autonoma Regional de Risaralda). The work will include many stakeholders, among them, the Campoalegre Watershed Management Committee, which includes representatives of municipalities, NGOs, universities, farmers, industries and indigenous groups.
These and other sessions will inform SEI research on adaptation issues, and will help to refine the tandem concept for wider use.