cc: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk, pavel.kabat@wur.nl date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:13:42 +0300 from: Timothy Carter subject: ADAM to: richard.klein@pik-potsdam.de, frans.berkhout@ivm.falw.vu.nl Dear Richard and Frans, I meant to find time to talk with you in Vienna about ADAM, but as you know, we didn't have a lot of opportunity. I indicated an interest in this project some time ago to Mike, and subsequently to several people who I understand are involved (e.g. Pavel Kabat, Karen O'Brien). Pavel kindly let me see some notes about a recent meeting, but I don't have much more information on your plans. As you may be aware, my institute (SYKE) is co-ordinating a project in Finland on climate change adaptation entitled FINADAPT, covering multiple sectors nationally, see: http://www.environment.fi/syke/finadapt This is essentially a scoping exercise to raise awareness of the issue and to identify priority research areas. However, it is very likely to be succeeded by a full blown research programme starting around 2006 (see below). Finland has a fairly strong record on climate change impact assessment, but has paid litle attention so far to adaptation (in common with many other countries in Europe), see: http://www.environment.fi/default.asp?contentid=33039&lan=FI and click the title in English. At the same time (and coincidentally), Finland is currently preparing its new National Climate Strategy. For the first time this includes adaptation. The adaptation strategy, prepared by Finnish ministries, will be released for public debate within the next month and the final version will be presented to parliament early next year. One of its recommendations is likely to be for a new research programme on adaptation. As you can see, we are in the position of policy-making running ahead of the science at the moment! However, I would see our research effort stepping up a gear during the next 2 years. Meanwhile, we already have 11 collaborating institutes working in this area, and would very much like to connect to a wider community researching adaptation in Europe and beyond. If you think there might be a role for a Finnish component to ADAM, please let me know. Best regards, Tim *********************************************************************** Timothy Carter Research Professor Research Programme for Global Change Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) Box 140, Mechelininkatu 34a, FI-00251 Helsinki, FINLAND Tel: +358-9-40300-315; GSM +358-40-740-5403; Fax: +358-9-40300-390 Email: tim.carter@ymparisto.fi ***********************************************************************