The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and local partners hosted an outreach event on ‘Managing the Risks of Climate Extremes and Disasters in Asia – What can we learn from the IPCC Special Report?’ at Le Meridien, New Delhi, India on 2 – 3 May 2012.

The IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (known as ‘SREX’) has been prepared over two years by 220 authors from 62 countries, involving both Working Groups I and II of the IPCC. The full report is available for download along with other information about the SREX report: http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/

This event forms one of a series of outreach events taking place around the world in April and May 2012, which are designed to provide information about the possible impacts of climate extremes and disasters by region, and options for managing the potential risks arising from them, as assessed in the IPCC
Special Report. The event was organised by the IPCC, the Overseas Development Institute, Norway’s Climate and Pollution Agency, Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CDKN.

The event included a presentation of the Special Report by its authors, sessions focused on sharing reflections from national and regional policy and practice, a press conference, and a set of mini-workshops designed to promote dialogue and sharing on the implications of the Special Report’s findings for stakeholders and across scales.

Speakers included:

• Dr R K Pachauri - IPCC Chairman
• Hon'ble M Shashidhar Reddy, Vice Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority, India
• Dr Zafar Iqbal Qadir - Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Pakistan
• Dr Tishyarakshit Chatterjee - Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, India
• Mr Krishna Gyawali - Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Government of Nepal
• Dr Satendra - Director SAARC Disaster Management Centre
• Mr Mohammad Didarul Ahsan - Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Bangladesh

The programme for the event is available here and a recording of the event is available until the end of July 2012.

Presentations included the following:

Apurva Sanghi, World Bank, IPCC SREX, Impacts in South Asia

Clare Goodess, IPCC SREX: Extreme Weather and Climate Events

Mihir Bhatt, IPCC SREX, Preparedness through DRR and DRM

Ritesh Kumar, Partners for Resilience

T Ramasami, Ministry of Science and Technology, India

Dr Satendra, Director, SAARC Disaster Management Centre

Abu Mostafa Kamal Uddin, UNDP Bangladesh

Dr Krishan, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology

Recap of Day 1 Discussion

Summary of National Level of Working Session Discussion

For more information contact Elizabeth Colebourn: elizabeth.colebourn@cdkn.org and read about the event series here.