Enhancing the design of the Adaptation Futures conference for a more distributed participation in the context of limited international mobility

Adaptation Futures, convened under the auspices of the United Nations, is the world’s premier gathering of the climate change adaptation research community. IDRC support and engagement have been critical in broadening the participation of researchers from the Global South. Canada was selected to host the seventh edition of Adaptation Futures to be held in Montreal in 2023, a key year that will also see the beginning of a new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment cycle and the first global stock-taking under the Paris Agreement.

As the world begins to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, this project will redesign Adaptation Futures to enable more meaningful engagement from the Global South, to better replicate the capacity-strengthening and professional-networking benefits of in-person gatherings, and to reduce the carbon footprint of such gatherings. Combining features of virtual and distributed formats offers the potential for more equitable participation by both women and men, as well as people without the means for international travel.