CSAG is a leading international climate research centre based in Africa with broad research skills and competency in both physical and social dimensions of climate, a strong experience in engaging with society, and an excellent track record in capacity development. We prioritize societally relevant research to support responses to climate variability and change.
Supporting transformative climate adaptation: community-level capacity building and knowledge co-creation in South Africa. Calls for transformative adaptation to climate change require attention to the type of capacity building that can support it. Community-level capacity building can help to ensure ownership and legitimacy of longer-term interventions. Given that marginalized communities are highly vulnerable to climate risk,… Read more »
The Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG), based at the University of Cape Town, will be running its annual course on Navigating Climate Risk (formerly Winter School) This in-person, one-week (5 to 9 September 2022) intensive course has been developed specifically for participants from developing countries and aims to take participants through the full spectrum of climate… Read more »
Defining metrics for monitoring and evaluating the impact of co-production in climate services. Despite increased commitment to co-production as a route to developing decision-relevant climate services, there has been less focus on the metrics or criteria for determining their success and impact. Drawing from literature and recent experiences from both operational- and research-focused climate resilience-building… Read more »
“Elephants in the room” refers to those big issues that dwarf all the little nuts and bolts of research. They’re the issues that are so difficult that they tend to get avoided, or only weakly addressed. Everyone knows they’re there, but not much traction is being gained in dealing with them. In 2023 the World… Read more »
Using a Climate Change Risk Perceptions Framing to Identify Gaps in Climate Services Given the rise in climate services for decision-making, it is important to understand whether these services are meeting the context-specific needs of decision-makers, including identifying any gaps in current climate services. This study sets out to investigate the efficacy of current climate… Read more »
The April 2021 fire will be difficult to forget any time soon. One year later, what have we learnt about this fire and the risk of another big one?
The role of indigenous knowledge and local knowledge in water sector adaptation to climate change in Africa: a structured assessment Evidence is increasing of human responses to the impacts of climate change in Africa. However, understanding of the effectiveness of these responses for adaptation to climate change across the diversity of African contexts is still… Read more »
Power dynamics in transdisciplinary research for sustainable urban transitions Transdisciplinary Research (TDR) fosters collaboration amongst stakeholders from different academic disciplines and sectors of society, to jointly search for solutions to complex challenges including rapid urbanization. In order to enhance collaboration and ensure reciprocity of expertize amongst stakeholders, flattening the hierarchy of power is critical for… Read more »
The Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It also reviews vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change. CSAG researchers Chris Lennard (lead… Read more »