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Knowledge and Societies: Facing the Challenges of Adaptation
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When
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From Tuesday October 6, 2026 to Wednesday October 7, 2026
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Schedule
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9:00 AM – 6:00 PM CET
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Where
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Mistral Auditorium - 3, place Louis Armand PARIS 75012, France
In-person event with live streaming
Join us for the 17th AFD International Research Conference on Development.
Registration
Organized by AFD Group as part of the French Presidency of the G7, this high-level international conference will bring together researchers, public decision-makers, development practitioners, and civil society actors to address the challenges of climate change adaptation.
The conference will bring together a wide range of leading researchers, including several authors of and contributors to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), alongside public policymakers, development practitioners and representatives of international institutions.
As climate impacts intensify, how can we design adaptation strategies that are fairer, more effective and better rooted in local realities? How can we connect research, public policy, and field experience to accelerate the implementation of concrete responses?
Over two days, discussions will focus in particular on: cities facing the challenges of adaptation; Locally Led Adaptation (LLA); measuring the progress of adaptation; the limits of adaptation; envisioning adaptation; new frontiers in adaptation; and the adaptation as a macro-fiscal challenge.
Each session will bring together research findings, lessons from the field and public policy perspectives to better understand how knowledge on adaptation can be translated into concrete decisions, practices, and forms of cooperation.
The sessions will also foster dialogue between experiences from AFD's partner countries, international research, and the challenges faced in France and elsewhere in Europe, encouraging cross-learning between territories experiencing the impacts of climate change.
At a time when climate impacts are intensifying, this conference aims to contribute to the renewal of the knowledge, practices, and forms of cooperation needed to strengthen societies' capacity to adapt.
Watch the live stream (coming soon)
Coming soon.
Agenda and speakers
See the program for Day 1.
Welcome and introduction.
Opening discussion to frame the conference and its main challenges.
A special surprise awaits attendees on the day.
Effectiveness; scaling up through public development banks; opportunities for transformational adaptation and social innovation; and linkages between Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) and cities across different urban contexts.
Lunch break for in-person participants; live stream resumes at 1:30 PM.
Effectiveness, scaling-up with Public Development Banks, opportunities for transformational adaptation, and social innovations.
Coffee break for in-person participants. Live stream resumes at 3:30 PM.
Operationalizing the Belém indicators; complementary qualitative approaches, including structured expert judgment and adaptation narratives; and the meaning and politics of measurement.
Closing remarks and preview of the second day's program.
See the program for Day 2.
Opening address to set out the day's key challenges.
Which conceptual and methodological approaches can best be used today to analyze the limits of adaptation in the face of systemic and transboundary climate risks? How can these limits be linked to emerging debates on loss and damage and on transformational adaptation? What are the relationships between barriers/limits and levers (mutability)? To what extent can artificial intelligence tools help us better understand these dynamics and inform adaptation strategies, while also raising new scientific and ethical challenges?
Isn’t the greatest limitation that researchers and practitioners have faced over the past 30 years, in fact, the difficulty of imagining a resilient and desirable future? To what extent are the arts, combined with the sciences, becoming an essential pathway for the co-creation of adaptation strategies?
Lunch break for in-person participants. Live stream resumes at 1:30 PM.
Connecting the past, present, and long-term future. Taking transboundary climate risks into account. Is transformational adaptation operational in practice? To what extent can 15 years of experience with Dynamic Adaptive Pathways help translate complex concepts into operational approaches?
The challenges adaptation poses for ministries of finance: budget trade-offs, resilient investments, debt costs, and uncertainty. What new economic tools are needed to mobilize adaptation finance at the national level?
Political issues related to adaptation.