Adaptation to Climate Changes is a major topic of climate negotiations, as reflected in article 7 of the Paris Agreement, and constitutes, together with mitigation, one of the two pillars of the United Nations’ strategy to fight global warming.

For developing countries, and particularly the most vulnerable ones, the issue is to adapt to a new world climate situation to which they hardly contributed, by look-ing for ways to thwart its impacts, whereas developed countries are more focused on mitigating these effects, through the transition to a low-carbon or even decarbon-ized economy. Mitigation projects get the highest share of climate finance support, because they quickly pay for themselves and because a universal way of counting progress exists, expressed in tons of carbon equivalent…

The fi rst conference on Adaptation metrics included specifi c focus on i) resilience, ii) sectorial and iii) Sustainable Development Goals perspectives.

The second focus, based on a sectoral approach, proved to provide concrete indicators, the only limitation being that they are sector specifi c. On one hand, the opportunity for in-depth discussions about sectoral metrics is there, on the other hand Water and Agriculture are the top two adaptation priorities expressed in NDCs, according to a UNFCCC survey.

This second conference will thus focus on Adaptation metrics for Water and for Agriculture, each one separately, even though there are obvious bridges between both sectors.

The conference will take place over two days around a series of focused technical panels to discuss specific matters related to the sectors of Water and Agriculture.

After an opening session on the first day to set the scene, each day will consist in two panels of one hour each, followed by corresponding break-out sessions in the afternoon. An optional local field visit will be offered to participants who do not wish to attend the break-out sessions.

The panels will include four to five presentations (from project holders, development agencies, international experts, NGOs or academics) sharing experiences of measuring adaptation, with challenges being considered as much important as are successes..

The conference will be hosted at the brand new facilities of University Mohammed VI Polytechnic

(UM6P) in Ben Guerir, 50 kilometers North of Marrakech. This Green, Knowledge Based, & Impact University has been recently inaugurated by His Majesty King Mohamed VI in January 2017. This young university as a world class academic educational and research system, and a promising R&D and Innovation prospects leading to technological solutions, is addressing the African continent’s issues and challenges especially those associated the nexus water energy agriculture for food security, taking into account climate changes within the framework of sustainable development..