Stepping up knowledge exchange between climate adaptation platforms: synthesis report from the KE4CAP project

Global recognition of the need to enhance climate change adaptation is growing. The increasingly evident ramifications of climate change – severe floods, prolonged droughts, and the spread of wildfires, for example – have made the need for effective adaptation evident to policymakers and the general public.

In the face of this, climate adaptation platforms (CAPs) have a vital role to play. Such platforms provide access to relevant, high-quality information that is essential for policymakers and practitioners to identify and implement actions to adapt to changes that are here and those changes that are on the horizon. These platforms can and do support the development of national and transnational plans and strategies. They promote informed decision-making and meaningful climate action.

Against this backdrop, the Knowledge Exchange between Climate Adaptation Platforms (KE4CAP) project aimed to explore ways to enhance these critical platforms. The project sought to build capacity, to share lessons learned, and to explore challenges and various approaches that hold promise for such platforms so they could play a more effective role in the adaptation agenda.

The project initiated and facilitated a series of knowledge-exchange activities between 30 platforms from around the world and at various stages of development. KE4CAP for the first time brought together a cadre of over 200 international adaptation  platform developers, operators and specialists from Europe and from other parts of the world. The aim was to provide those working on such platforms with mutual support – along with insights, ideas, and know-how to help meet current and emerging challenges, and to deliver the best support possible for their users.

This report synthesizes the undertakings and outcomes of the KE4CAP project. It provides a brief introduction to the project’s mission, an overview of role of CAPs in supporting policy and practice, and information about the approaches that KE4CAP took through its events, activities and discussions. The document provides insights into the current state of development of such platforms and into the depth of relevant experience and innovation among them. It incorporates participants’ key messages on current practices, selected innovations, and shared challenges.