CASTT Adaptation Academy

UNFCCC Climate Action and Support Transparency Training (CASTT)

CASTT is an official initiative of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) designed to provide capacity building and training to all levels of competencies within national climate governance and implementation. Under the broader CASTT banner, the Adaptation Academy program began in 2021, providing in-depth training courses for national climate focal points and ministerial representatives — particularly those from developing countries.

The Adaptation Academy is operated by the UNFCCC in a collaborative partnership with academic and research institutions across the globe. Partners include the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Korea Environment Institute (KEI), and Oregon State University.

Adaptation Academy: Advanced Training in Climate Adaptation and Reporting

The training aims to enhance the ability of participants, especially from developing countries to conduct vulnerability and adaptation assessments, prepare and report, in timely manner, information resulting from such assessments and the implementation of national adaptation actions, including their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), for their national communications, biennial update reports, and biennial transparency reports under the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) arrangements of the Convention and the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement. The goal is to enable a systematic, generational stepchange in capacity to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement, its associated NDCs, and other climate commitments.

The 3-week training program focuses on imparting technical knowledge in the key components of the MRV and ETF frameworks, the exchange of views, lessons learned and experiences, and internalizing and mainstreaming climate change activities. Other major topics are anticipated to include planning, policy frameworks, coordination across ministries and governance levels, working with the private sector, finance and cost-benefit analyses, vulnerability and risk assessments, ecosystems, infrastructure, transboundary considerations, and social, gender, and cultural equity issues. Specific topics will also explore aspects relating to agriculture, DRR, energy, cities, coastal regions, and mountainous and high-elevation areas. In addition, the training will include components specifically tailored to regional climatic challenges of each node’s participants to put the broader lessons into more usable and practical contexts.

The Target Audience

The primary target will be individuals from developing countries who are involved in providing technical and substantive input for the preparation of their country’s MRV arrangements and the transparency framework, with a specific focus on adaptation reporting.

Upcoming Opportunities

LAC Regional Course (dates tbd). Plans are already underway for an LAC Regional short course under the Adaptation Academy umbrella, likely for the first half of 2025.

Additional In-Person Courses. We are aiming for more multi-week courses organized with Adaptation Academy partners to draw a new cohort of global participants in 2025. Updates will be posted on this page as plans are confirmed.

Previous Trainings

Asia Regional Course (Sept.-Oct. 2024). The CASTT Adaptation Academy for the Asia region took place from 30 September to 4 October 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand. The training was hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea, with support of the UNFCCC secretariat, co-organised by the Korea Environment Institute (KEI)-Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change (KACCC), Asian Institute for Technology (AIT), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN), UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP CCC), and RCC Asia-Pacific (RCC AP).

2024 Southern Africa Regional Course . From 23-26 April 2024, the Adaptation Academy organized a short-course under the theme "Enhancing Transparency, including National Climate Adaptation Policies and Financing through the Broadened Water-Energy-Food (WEF+) Nexus." Organized by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), IHE-Delft, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Global Water Partnership and other partners in collaboration with the UNFCCC secretariat, the workshop convened fifteen national experts from eleven countries in the SADC region. The aim was to build and enhance their technical capacity and understanding of the enhanced transparency framework (ETF) and the modalities, procedures, and guidelines (MPGs), facilitating their preparation of biennial transparency reports (BTRs).

2022 Global Course. The 2022 Adaptation Academy short-course was held from 10-28 October, with attendance in-person at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands. Altogether, 25 participants from across the globe converged for the three-week course. Visit the UNFCCC’s Adaptation Academy webpage or IHE Delft course page for more information.

2021 Regional Courses. In 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three condensed training courses took place online via Zoom in September and October. Drawing from over 400 applicants, participants from more than 70 countries took part in the one-week courses. Adaptation Academy partners led three separate trainings, each with a regional focus tailored to the participant pool.

Funders

AGWA’s involvement in the CASTT Adaptation Academy is made possible by financial support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.