A crocodile, an elephant, and a giraffe. You think Africa. So did many of the members of the ACACIA project when they – as an icebreaker – had to create animals out of pieces of paper with both hands behind their back. This might not come as a surprise since ACACIA is an abbreviation for 'Anticipatory Climate Adaptation for Communities in Africa'.
Things got more serious when Alessia Pietrosanti, the European Commission project officer for the ACACIA project, took the floor.
– Competition was tough for this project so make sure to make the best of it, she said in her presentation.
Project officers from the EU rarely take part in kick off events, but Pietrosanti traveled to Bergen to make it clear that the European Union is investing heavily in African climate projects in the years to come.
– Don’t forget the end-users, the ones who really depend on better climate services to enhance resilience against the next floods or tropical cyclones, she urged the researchers.