Developing Higher Educational Programs on Adaptation: Some Insights

Mainstreaming adaptation at various levels is important to realize an adaptive society. Integrating adaptation principles in education is an essential first step. Different aspect of ‘climate’, ‘change’, and ‘adaptation’ are being taught to different students in different universities. However, there is no single unified course that integrates all these three components together. Hence, higher education that is aimed at preparing professionals to different competent fields required to incorporate aspects related to adaptation to climate change. Priority sectors could include agriculture, water resources, infrastructure, engineering, rural development, environmental risk management etc. There is a lack of successful model that demonstrates how to mainstream adaptation principles in higher education. This presentation, while brining all the above issues into a perspective, presents various principles, derived from the climate change adaptation and environmental education work carried out at IGES, to be observed while developing higher educational programs on climate change adaptation. It also provides a four-stage process of developing and implementing higher education programs on climate change adaptation and identifies suitable subjects to be targeted on priority basis.

Remarks:

Contact the author for more details.