The Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) focuses on special issues by constituting Special Interest Sections including one focused on Climate Change (CCSIS). The CCSIS has two key objectives: To build professional capacity to respond to climate change and to develop a commensurate certification scheme. The Learning to Adapt program is the capacity building part which complements the Certified Environmental Practitioner, Climate Change Specialism, the first certification program for climate change practitioners in Australia and New Zealand. Certified practitioners have demonstrated a range climate change related proficiencies underwritten by strong governance arrangements to ensure that the Scheme remains effective and fair.

Since 2014 Learning to Adapt has evolved into an action-learning program being delivered through a collaborative partnership with government, universities, industry groups and NGOs. Learning to Adapt is run over three full days of intensive collaborative learning with opportunities to apply learning with peers and supported by an on-line learning platform. The course participation is acknowledged by universities and through three different of industry schemes. Almost 100 professionals across NSW, Victoria and Queensland have now completed the course. Their feedback indicates a very high level of satisfaction with the course and its learning outcomes. Sixteen organisations have benefitted from adaptation action facilitated by course participants. Learning to Adapt is featured in the Australian Government’s National Climate and Resilience Strategy, which recognises that it has become the most continuous and longest running course relating to climate change in Australia.