In a highly emotional speech delivered last year after a series of strikes, Julia Gillard, the Australian PM, noted that Australia has watched in horror as day after day a new chapter in natural disaster history has been written. And so did the whole world. 2011 went on to become the costliest year in terms of natural hazard losses in the recent history, with the total costs topping 380 billion US dollars. Almost a half of the insured losses were caused by a single event - the Fukushima Dai'ichi nuclear power plant accident triggered by a tsunami that followed an earthquake of MW 6.6 (Richer 9.0) magnitude. In November 2011, the IPCC released the Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) of the report on “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation”. The full report will be scheduled on March 28, 2012. On March 23rd, the European Environment Agency launched CLIMATE-ADAPT platform, an interactive on-line tool on adaptation to climate change, conceived as a support to policy-makers in pointing out the best solutions for citizens’ sake. The seminar will explains the latest state-of-the-art knowledge about the climate trends as well as ways to protect human health, the environment, cultural heritage and economic activity.

Speakers: Sergio Castellari of the Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) and Jaroslav Mysiak of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).