Climate change action in the Global South will now receive dedicated data focus with the launch of the African Synthesis Centre for Climate Change, Environment and Development (Ascend) at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The centre, which was launched on 1 November, will provide specialist infrastructure for researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to harness and integrate diverse data and knowledge on climate change.
“The 2020s are a critical decade for climate action,” says Ascend director, Dr Christopher Trisos.
“Climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty are interlinked problems that no single discipline can solve. A lack of data and knowledge synthesis limits breakthrough research and decision-making. We often think of sophisticated equipment like a radio telescope or a biotech laboratory as essential for scientific discovery, but in this age of complex social and environmental challenges –such as climate change – another form of research infrastructure is now essential too: synthesis centres,” he adds.
The centre, which will be hosted at UCT’s African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), is the world’s first synthesis centre focusing on climate change and development and will be underpinned by a strong focus on the Global South.
The aim is to generate actionable research that will advance climate-resilient development, the core of which is the well-being of people and ecosystems.
Teams are expected to begin work on the Baobab synthesis project for African research on climate change in 2024. Baobab will fund up to six African-led synthesis teams over the next three years, and each team will have a postdoctoral research fellow based at UCT.
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