Indian and Canadian Institutes Talk About Climate Change Adaptation

IISD and TERI hold high-level side event at Montreal Climate Conference

• Where: Ottawa River Room, Palais des Congrès, Montreal, Quebec
• When: Friday, December 9, 2005, 13:00–15:00

Montreal – December 9, 2005 – With the impacts of climate change already being felt around the globe, what sort of government policies are required to help countries and societies adapt to uncertain and changing circumstances? What can countries learn from each other? And what could Canada and India possibly have in common on the subject?

These issues will be on the table as representatives from Canada's International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and India's The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) hold an information session to discuss their collaborative work on adaptive policy-making in Montreal, site of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Specific attention will be paid to water resources management and agricultural issues.

"Like Canada, India is a large country of diverse climate and geography," said Preety Bhandari, Director of the Policy Analysis Division of The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, India. "We therefore have much to learn from each other in terms of developing policies that address adaptation to climate change."

It is becoming increasingly clear at the Montreal conference that adaptation is a primary issue as the world moves through the Kyoto Protocol commitment period and beyond.

"There has been a great deal of policy-making progress at an international level, but we are still not where we need to be at a country level," said IISD Project Manager Stephan Barg. "If TERI and IISD can identify the helpful tools and policies for India and Canada, then I'm certain that our solutions can be applied much more broadly."

The session features speakers from IISD, TERI, the Pelangi Institute (Indonesia), the United Nations Development Program, and project funder, the International Development Research Centre (Canada).