The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) was founded on 18 September 2018.[1] Hosted by the Netherlands, GCA engages in policy activities, research, communications, and technical assistance to government and the private sector, policy development, research, advocacy, communications, and partnerships.[2] GCA's floating headquarters is hosted by the Netherlands in Rotterdam,[3] with regional offices in Africa,[2] South Asia,[4] and Asia Pacific.[5]
African leaders including the African Union and Climate Vulnerable Forum presidencies, and the leadership of the African Development Bank, gathered at the Global Center on Adaptation headquarters in Rotterdam on 5 September 2022 for the Africa Adaptation Summit.
GCA's flagship program, co-designed in partnership with the African Development Bank Group and endorsed by the African Union, is the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP).[6] President Uhuru Kenyatta was inaugurated as Global Champion for the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program on 7 July 2022.[7] On 5 September 2022, GCA hosted the Africa Adaptation Summit to ramp up solutions and funding for climate adaptation in the African continent.[8] The summit was attended by global leaders including Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, among others.[9]
GCA Floating Office Rotterdam
GCA's headquarters is in the largest floating office in the world, moored in the Rijnhaven in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.[10][11][12] The office is off-grid, carbon neutral, self-sufficient, and an example of existing adaptation to climate change impacts such as rising sea levels.[13][14] The floating office was inaugurated on 6 September 2021 by His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.[15]
Global Commission on Adaptation
The Global Commission on Adaptation was launched in The Hague on 16 October 2018.[16][17] Established by Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and the leaders of 22 other convening countries, the Commission launched. The Commission was co-managed by GCA and the World Resources Institute.[18] In 2019, at the UN Climate Action Summit, the Commission launched a Year of Action to implement the recommendations from Adapt Now and accelerate the necessary transitions for change. The Commissioners oversaw the development of the flagship report and guided the Year of Action. In January 2021, the Global Commission on Adaptation formally concluded at the Climate Adaptation Summit, hosted by the Dutch government. GCA is taking forward the work of the Commission through its Programs.[19]
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, with co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, led the group of global leaders from political, business, multilateral, and scientific worlds.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Canada
The leaders of the convening countries committed to catalyzing a global adaptation movement and work together to support the work of the Global Commission.
The Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation became the Global Center on Adaptation on 18 September 2018.[1]
Controversies
In october of 2025 the Global Center on Adaptation was the subject of a major controversy involving fabricated and exaggerated results. Over a period of six months, NOS investigated the Global Center on Adaptation, speaking with more than seventy individuals involved both domestically and internationally. In addition, hundreds of documents were reviewed, finding and concluding that the GCA was taking credit for other people’s work.[32] Not only did the GCA exaggerate its own contributions to projects, with GCA claiming to have initiated $25 billion in investments, which supposedly benefited more than 82.5 million people and created jobs for 900,000 people — all while operating on an annual budget of just €23 million, but it also claimed to be part of at least 18 World Bank projects — which it was not.[32]The NOS spoke with more than twenty former employees of the GCA, revealing that CEO Patrick Verkooijen personally exerted pressure to exaggerate results in order to secure donor funding.[32] Verkooijen also claimed that Norway and Denmark would be increasing their support for the GCA in the near future, despite both countries denying this.[32]
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