ARUA Centre of Excellence in Climate & Development

Rationale and Thematic Area: Climate and Development

Africa’s existing socioeconomic development challenges will be greatly compounded under climate change. The fundamental twin challenge is to enable development that is (i) resilient to existing and expected climate risks and impacts, and (ii) low carbon, avoiding substantial African contributions to the amount of global warming in the future: this challenge has been variously termed “climate compatible development” of “climate resilient, low carbon development”

ACDI is the secretariat for a regionally distributed ARUA Centre of Excellence in Climate & Development (ARUA-CD) that will undertake research, training and influencing to substantially contribute to achieving sustainable development goals in the face of climate change. The initial ARUA-CD hub partners are UCT (CoE Secretariat and Southern African regional hub), University of Ghana (West African regional hub) and University of Nairobi (East African regional hub).

All three founding universities have established centres or programmes within which the ARUA CoE in Climate & Development will be hosted.

The African Climate and Development Initiative at UCT
ACDI is an interdisciplinary research and teaching hub that spans all faculties at UCT, and brings together academics, non-government organisations (NGOs), business, government and international partners to co-produce and test new insights, evidence and innovations that will help to solve Africa’s climate and development challenges.

The Institute for Climate Change Adaptation at the University of Nairobi
ICCA was established in December 2010 through support from the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa to help meet the challenges posed by climate change.

The Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies at University of Ghana
The mission of the Institute is: “To meet the nation’s needs for broad-based education, training and research in the science, policy and management of environmental and sanitation processes in the wider African and global context.”

ARUA-CD will build on the underlying strengths and experiences of the hub partners to work collaboratively on three areas of common interest that are critical for African development under climate change:
1. Enhancing knowledge systems for climate resilience
2. Sustainable energy for poverty reduction
3. Next-generation researchers and practitioners

Visit the ARUA-CD website here