IAI Training Institute on urban responses to climate change: politics, strategies and instruments for Latin America and the Caribbean

01–06 November 2010 – Santiago de Chile, Chile

The convergence of the effects of urbanization and climate change are posing both challenges and opportunities for society in the 21st century. The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC) sought to contribute to building local responses to climate change in urban areas of Latin America & Caribbean.

Co-sponsors were the Spanish Government and the project “Urbanization and Global Environment Change” (UGEC) of the International Human Dimensions Program on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). This training workshop was an effort to assist urban planners, decision-makers, and stakeholders to prepare better responses to climate change. Its main objective was to expand the knowledge and understanding of how urban areas are driving but also responded to climate change and integrate those responses with their current and future urban development. These responses are fundamental to guide short and long-term socioeconomic and urban development coherent with the sustainability of the region.

The training institute had three interactive components: lectures, discussion sessions, and exercises. The lectures allowed participants to interact with leading international experts on the topics of the workshop. A discussion session took place at the end of each thematic module. These sessions were designed to assist participants to integrate the different elements presented in the lectures and related that knowledge to the information presented in previous thematic modules. The exercises provided participants with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and information obtained at the training workshop to their daily work and area of expertise.