United Nations University
Institute for Sustainability and Peace

Course I (2 credits)

Science, Impacts and Vulnerability

1. Introduction to the Programme

• Welcome and introductions
• Programme overview and philosophy
• Context of the UNFCCC and IPCC
• Structure, expectations and assessment
• Group allocation and discussion of major research project

2. Weather, Climate and Atmospheric Processes

• Fundamental concepts
• Weather and climate mechanisms
• Structure and composition of the atmosphere
• General circulation of the atmosphere

3. Climate Change (UNFCCC, WMO)

• Introduction to climate change
• Greenhouse gases and aerosols
• Carbon cycle
• Fundamental principles of climate change
• The oceans and climate change
• Climate variability and change

4. Observed Climate Change and Impacts

• Observation networks
• Overview of climate change responses
• Global and regional scale responses
• Extreme events
• Consequences of observed changes and extreme events

5. Scenarios for Future Impact Assessments

• Introduction to scenario principles
• IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES)
• Introduction to Global Climate Models (GCMs)
• GCM projections for impact assessments
• Introduction to Regional Climate Models (RCMs)
• RCM projections for regional and local impact assessments
• Next-generation IPCC scenarios (5th Assessment Report)

6. Climate Projections & Uncertainty

• Major sources of uncertainty in climate change projections
• Concepts and practical examples: evaluating, quantifying and reducing uncertainty in climate projections
• Issue of uncertainty in the wider context of natural variability

7. Selecting Appropriate Future Climate Predictions

• Differences in model predictions
• Multi-model ensembles
• Bias correction
• Weather generators from climate forecasts

8. Climate Change Impacts: Ecosystems

• Concept of ecosystems services
• Social, ecological and economic impacts of climate change and their interactions
• Payment for ecosystem services and biodiversity

9. Climate Change Impacts: Water Sector

• Climate change impacts on the water cycle
• Flood discharge modification from climate change
• Cost-benefit analysis of flood risk reduction measures
• Conventional flood-control design and its alteration due to climate change

10. Climate Change Impacts: Food Security

• Climate change impacts on food production
• Quantifying food production changes due to weather changes
• Adaptation measures for climate change impacts on food production
• Cost-benefit analysis of adaptation measures

11. Climate Change Impacts: Extreme Events

• Extreme events
• Catastrophic disasters
• Climate change modifications to extreme events and challenges
• Reducing extreme even losses through adaptive practices

12. Assessing Climate Change Impacts: National and Regional Scales

• Macro modelling of regional climate change impacts
• Integrated models for climate change impact assessment
• Assessing adaptation costs at national and regional scales

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Course II (2 credits)

Approaches to Adaptation

1. Basic Understanding of Key Concepts

• Welcome and introductions
• Programme overview and philosophy
• Context of the UNFCCC and IPCC
• Structure, expectations and assessment
• Group allocation and discussion of major research project

2.  Global and National Challenges

• Security issues
• Capacity and awareness issues
• Policy processes and challenges
• Problems at national and local levels
• Local institutions
• Local-level climate change adaptation

3.  Mitigation and Adaptation Practices and Resilience (Urban Areas)

• Introduction: drivers of urban growth
• Framing the problem in urban areas: social, cultural and economic aspects
• Mitigation and adaptation options
• Key constraints and measures
• Case studies

4.  Mitigation and Adaptation Practices and Resilience  (Rural Areas)

• Introduction
• Mitigation options: engineering (hard) vs. ecological (soft) approaches, and socio-economic approaches
• Adaptation options in various sectors
• Adaptation strategies and re-adjustments
• Local wisdom and indigenous technologies
• Case studies

5. Adaptation in Practice (International Donors Context): Flood Disaster Risk Management

• Introduction
• What is happening in Japan
• Flood risk management under a changing climate
• Case studies

6. Adaptation in Practice: National Target Programme Development

• Climate change observations
• Greenhouse gas emission scenarios
• Methods used for scenario development (GCM, dynamic downscaling, statistical downscaling, others)
• Climate change scenarios and impact assessments
• Institutional, budgetary and implementation challenges

7. Community Adaptation

• Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA)
• CVCA process and analysis
• Participatory tools
• Policy analysis

8. Community Engagement Practices

• Steps in the adaptation process
• Methodologies and principles of engaging communities
• Participatory policy-making
• Individual and collective participation and responsibilities
• The ‘Yomenkaigi’ method for achieving consensus and strategic programmes for public participation

9.  Economics of Climate Change: Cost and Benefits Analysis

• Basic economic principles
• Putting a price on carbon
• Uncertainties and assumptions
• Market-based solutions: carbon markets (ETS) and carbon taxes

10. Economic Assessment of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Measures

• Climate change parameters and potentially vulnerable system assets (flood and food production)
• Integrated assessment of economic costs of climate change impacts and adaptation policies
• Introduction to economic models used for assessing the impacts of climate change: e.g. Stern Review, AIM
• Critical review of the framework, assumptions and value judgments of economic models

11. Global and National Policies on Financing Adaptation Strategies

• International adaptation policy framework and financing
• Role and impact of the Global Environment Facility
• Assessment of past and existing adaptation projects
• Co-benefits of adaptation and development
• Mainstreaming adaptation into development planning

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Applied Training

Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for environmental problem-solving

This training provides a basic understanding of the theory and application of use of RS and GIS as  tools for environmental problem-solving. Through practical hands-on experience with current environmental issues, students can obtain basic skills in spatial analysis and webmapping application development. GIS software will be used in this training.

 

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