Co-explore and understand the context
Tandem
Co-explore and understand the context
This can include the drivers of vulnerability, adaptation challenges, climate change impacts, policy and governance landscape, current research and practice.
Explore the key questions below using selected resources to help you co-design climate service processes.
The aim of Tandem is to co-explore locally relevant issues to deepen the understanding of what are often complex and interconnected challenges, driven by underlying vulnerabilities and multiplied by climate variability and change, existing stressors and development issues.
Italicised questions are ongoing considerations i.e. it is particularly important to keep revisiting these questions as the transdisciplinary knowledge integration process develops.
Questions – co-exploring perspectives and priorities
- What drivers of vulnerability can be identified and co-explored (both climate and non-climate e.g. physical, social, cultural, economic, political)?
- What adaptation challenges are being experienced that may be undermined by complex nature of this vulnerability?
- If the adaptation issue has many elements, it can help to break these down to co-explore their various drivers, recent trends and the spatial and temporal scales on which to focus. Actual and perceived drivers may emerge, and the issue of attribution i.e. which factors are predominantly driving issues can be discussed.
- How can activities and engagements be designed to co-explore and recognise different perspectives and priorities and address the complexity of system-wide multi-sector issues in a collaborative and simple/accessible way?
- How can a co-exploration process be designed to build and deepen understanding, with the continuity and flexibility that allows for emergent and evolving ideas?
- How can participation and the use of interactive games, the creation of space for informal conversations and the use of humour encourage or aid co-exploration?
- Can site visits or hearing examples from other cities or contexts help to spur discussion, co-exploration and unpacking of the adaptation issues?
- Do all participants understand climate change and the differences between weather and climate and the terms that are used by climate providers? Exploring the basics of climate change and the terminology used in climate change and adaptation can provide a strong foundation for discussing participants’ understanding and experience of weather and climate impacts and agreeing on use of shared language.
- How can activities be designed to communicate to and engage participants on various approaches to climate risk assessment, global climate modelling and projections and downscaling of data? The use of graphics, maps or narratives may assist in communicating medium to long-term climate patterns and change with different stakeholders.
Key resources to help answer these questions
Principles for Co-Producing Climate Services: Practical Insights from FRACTAL
Explore principles for co-producing climate services based on FRACTAL project evidence and experiences through this working paper.
FRACTAL Principles
Throughout the FRACTAL project, the team determined several lessons for research and society, particularly with regard to working towards inclusive, contextual, and proactive climate research and action. Engage with the principles that underpinned the climate resilience work in the project.
FRACTAL Podcast Series – Exploring transdisciplinary approaches to support resilience and adaptation decision making
The STARTcast is a podcast created by START for early- and mid-career scientists. Listen to Season 2 on co-creating climate information with decision-makers for climate-resilient cities in southern Africa as part of the Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands (FRACTAL) project.
Learning from climate change perceptions in southern African cities
This study provides commentary about climate change risk perceptions in an urban southern African context.
Co-designing climate services to integrate traditional ecological knowledge: a case study from Bali, Indonesia
This report discusses efforts to help Indigenous People adapt to climate change by combining their traditional ecological knowledge with scientific and technological sources of information about agriculture and climate change.
Refocusing the climate services lens: Introducing a framework for co-designing “transdisciplinary knowledge integration processes” to build climate resilience
This paper seeks to reconceptualize climate services in light of the prevailing inability of existing climate information to spur needed policy and action. It focusses on the transdisciplinary knowledge co-production process rather than the output of a climate services product.
Questions – building on existing research and co-producing new knowledge
- What existing weather or climate information is available from local providers e.g. meteorological departments, NHMS, private companies or research institutes? Are there any opportunities that can be identified to build on or adapt these existing services to address information needs? In addition to data availability, discussions about data access and sharing are important to uncover to assess opportunities for sharing data more widely or in different, innovative and more accessible ways.
- What local research related to the adaptation issues has been undertaken? E.g. to better understand climate impacts at the local scale or in relevant sectors?
- Can new research outputs be developed in a bottom up, participatory way with participants of the process?
Key resources to help answer these questions
Developing skills for women leadership in climate action – UN CC:e-Learn course
Empower yourself to lead inclusive, equitable climate actions with this course designed to inspire and equip women and girls with the skills needed to tackle the climate crisis.
Workshop: Cultivating co-design for thriving climate-resilient communities
Date and time January 16, 2025, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM (Pacific Time) – online event Details Are you ready…
Event: 16/01/2025 – 16:30 (UTC -07:00) – 18:00 (UTC -07:00)
International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation – official launch event
The International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025 will be kicked off with an official launch event on 21 January 2025, Tuesday.
Enabling adaptation: Sustainable fiscal policies for climate resilient development and infrastructure
Join UNEP and the University of Oxford as they launch a new report on Enabling Adaptation: Sustainable Fiscal Policies for Climate Resilient Development and Infrastructure.
Event: 30/01/2025 – 14:00 (UTC +01:00) – 15:00 (UTC +01:00)
Adaptation at Altitude: enhancing resilience from glaciers to seas
Join the A@A Knowledge Network’s event to celebrate the launch of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.
Event: 21/01/2025 – 16:30 (UTC +01:00) – 17:30 (UTC +01:00)
Faith in ecology: how one group of Indigenous people in the Philippines are advancing agrobiodiversity
Duncan Macqueen reflects on a recent visit to partners in the Philippines, explaining how they’re building resilience to natural disasters by advancing agrobiodiversity in the farming systems.
Questions – institutional analysis
- What institutions have responsibility or mandates for the issues being discussed and for data production and sharing? How can discussions be designed to co-explore the agreement or uncertainties around mandates and responsibilities and institutional capacity strengths and gaps that exist in organisations with mandates for planning, action and data production and sharing?
- In the policy, planning and implementation landscape, what plans, projects and policies are in place or in the pipeline? Are these considered sufficient or is further work required to strengthen or broaden policies, projects or implementation?
- What current responses are already in place or planned to address the adaptation issue(s) and climate impacts? Are they sufficient or can they be adapted or enhanced?
- How have such responses been funded and what opportunities exist for funding of future projects? Is there a business case for action?
Developing skills for women leadership in climate action – UN CC:e-Learn course
Empower yourself to lead inclusive, equitable climate actions with this course designed to inspire and equip women and girls with the skills needed to tackle the climate crisis.
Harnessing Nature-based Solutions for economic recovery
This study reviews the role of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in economic recovery, highlighting their potential to generate income, create diverse employment opportunities, and enhance community resilience while addressing biodiversity and climate challenges.
Unlocking NGO potential for effective weather, water and climate services
This report explores how NGOs can strengthen weather, water, and climate services (WWCS) to enhance disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, offering practical recommendations, case studies, and tools to bridge gaps between scientific data and vulnerable communities for resilient development.
UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2024: Come hell and high water
The Adaptation Gap Report (AGR) 2024 provides its annual assessment on progress in adaptation planning, implementation and finance. It shows that, while inching forward on adaptation planning, collectively developing countries are falling behind on implementation because of the enormous gap between adaptation finance needs and flows.
Harnessing Ecosystem-based Adaptation to drive progress on implementing the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
This report offers consolidated evidence, guidance and case studies on ecosystem-based adaptation to support the uptake of EbA across national strategies and plans for all three Rio Conventions, and to inform the development of revised national biodiversity and climate commitments.
Good practices in accessing and delivering adaptation finance to support Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries
The article outlines strategies and innovative practices to enhance access to and delivery of adaptation finance for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), emphasizing the importance of equitable, country-led mechanisms and innovative financing approaches to address climate vulnerabilities effectively.
Questions – time and spatial scales
How can activities and discussions be designed to drill down and co-explore decision-making? i.e. what time and spatial scales are decisions made upon, what information currently informs these decisions, how and by whom can decisions be informed e.g. by informal processes or actors?
Key resources to help answer these questions
Mainstreaming climate information into sector development plans: the case of Rwanda’s tea and coffee sectors
This report demonstrates the use of climate information in assessing adaptation needs and adaptation interventions. It also outlines changes in thinking as adaptation moves from theory to practice.
Tandem
Co-explore and understand the context
This can include the drivers of vulnerability, adaptation challenges, climate change impacts, policy and governance landscape, current research and practice.
Explore the key questions below using selected resources to help you co-design climate service processes.