Storm warning: water, energy and climate security in a changing world

Background:

The conference seeks to address six sources of significant uncertainty that will affect water, energy and climate security in a changing world. These elements include:

• What is known and what is unknown about fluctuations in water availability and climate since Paleolithic times?
• What can be learned and what cannot be learned from models or forecasts of climate, based on ‘downscaling’ from global to local scales as well as insufficiently articulated feedback loops and other second order effects?
• What can be known about future water security by examining water and climate fluctuations in the context of glacial activity and changes in snow pack and snow cover over time?
• What is known and not known about the real costs of adaptation to extreme climate events?
• How are Asian nations contributing to addressing global water, energy and climate security?
• How can global as well as regional/local governance systems and legal regimes adapt to uncertainty in water availability and climate fluctuations?

Themes

Real Costs of Adaptation

Part 1: Real costs of adaptation including catastrophic events.
Shinji Kaneko, Ph.D, Professor, Chair of the Department of Development Policy and Vice-Dean Graduate School for
International Development and Cooperation (IDEC), Hiroshima University (to be confirmed)

Part 2: Urban Adaptation to Extreme Climate Events
Michael D’Andrea, Director of Water Infrastructure Management with the City of Toronto.
- Climate changes and effects on urban infrastructures.

The desired outcome of this conference is to create leadership amongst the attendees and make recommendations regarding research areas for future funding and policies to address climate change to governments.