Guide to Dialogues

The second round of climate stress tests started in 2025. The results of these tests will be discussed in risk dialogues. Under the Delta Plan, along with drawing up a strategy, conducting a risk dialogue constitutes the step between conducting the climate stress test and compiling a climate adaptation implementation programme. But how do you conduct a risk dialogue? This Guide to Dialogues offers tools and inspiration to this end.

What is a risk dialogue?

A risk dialogue is a process that involves multiple discussions, in which the participants together determine which consequences of climate change may impact an area and what needs to be done to protect the community living in that area from such consequences. Internal risk dialogues involve discussions among colleagues within a government body; external risk dialogues involve discussions between a government body and other parties, such as residents, businesses and other government authorities. A risk dialogue serves two purposes:

• It raises awareness of the degree to which your area is vulnerable to climate change. The stakeholders collectively consider which climate risks are acceptable and which are not. Furthermore, they collectively set down the priorities to be addressed and who will bear which responsibilities. The climate stress test is an important tool in this discussion.

• In such a dialogue, specific measures are discussed to reduce your area’s vulnerability. Along the way, you identify (linkage) opportunities and consider the commitment required to implement the measures.

Eventually, a risk dialogue will provide the input for an adaptation strategy and an implementation agenda.

Some government bodies refer to the risk dialogue as, e.g., a climate talk or adaptation dialogue.

How can this guide be used?

The risk dialogue can be divided into three phases: demarcating dialogues, conducting dialogues and setting down choices that have been made. For that reason, this guide comprises three canvases to be downloaded and completed, one for each phase. The canvases provide a visual overview, helping to create structure and focus, thus allowing each phase of the risk dialogue to be properly organised. Each phase comprises various actions to be carried out. For each action, several supporting questions and tools are provided. You are free to choose which actions are relevant to the dialogues you intend to conduct and which questions and tools you will use in the process. The model canvases, finally, provide insight into how the canvases can be used for local, regional and supra-regional risk dialogues.