Capital

How is adaptation shaping up?

International strategies
Developed countries that are party to the UNFCCC are required to help countries most at risk from the effects of climate change meet the costs of adaptation. A fully conceived, integrated and functioning regime for adaptation, however, has yet to emerge. Progress has been made on identifying vulnerable countries and regions and adaptation options, and there has been some capacity building to prepare for adaptation, but few adaptation measures are in place. In part this is due to limited funds. The costs of adaptation are likely to be high, running at several billion dollars a year for developing countries alone.
Adaptation to climate change needs to be mainstreamed into development policy and practice at international and regional levels. For example, meeting the Millennium Development Goals will become even more difficult as climate change bites. Ensuring that adaptation is a part of international agreements is also important. For example, the ecosystem approach advocated in the Convention on Biological Diversity in many ways demonstrates good adaptation practice. Investment projects from bilateral or multilateral institutions and the private sector need scrutinizing and modifying to ensure they are both “climate proof” and “climate friendly”.

National strategies
Climate risks need to be integrated into national development projects and strategies. In most developing countries this will require greater institutional capacity. With a few exceptions, most national policymakers are largely unaware of potential impacts of climate change in different sectors. As it has seen, the LDCs are currently preparing NAPAs, which alongside other national strategies and plans could help bring knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation into national policy and planning processes.
While mainstreaming climate change risks into development policy (such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Processes) and practice is needed, this demands a more strategic approach. Ensuring a country can adapt well to climate change goes well beyond the need to ensure that individual projects are “climate proof”. Vulnerability can be reduced or increased by the choice of development path, and each country needs its own plans and institutions to ensure adaptation is both mainstreamed into development and factored in at a strategic planning level – both of which demand funding.

Local strategies
Because the poor will suffer most from many adverse climate change impacts, adaptation at the local level is essential. Climate change models at the local (and often national) level are not very accurate. But a community that is vulnerable to current climate variability is likely to be vulnerable to future climate change, so it is not always necessary to wait for more accurate local forecasts to start building adaptive capacity.
Strengthening community institutions to help them provide social safety nets and develop new coping mechanisms is a key way forward.

ADAPTATION TERMS AND CONCEPTS
Adaptation to climate change: Actions to reduce the vulnerability of a system (such as a city) or population (such as a coastal village) to the negative impacts of anticipated human-induced climate change. Adaptation to climate variability involves taking action to reduce vulnerability to short-term climate shocks. Often adaptation to climate variability will also result in adaptation to climate change.
Adaptation activities can be of different types, from the purely technological (such as sea defense construction), through behavioral (such as shifts in choice of food or recreation), managerial (such as changes in farming methods) and policy (such as planning regulations).
Adaptive capacity: Inherent capacity of a system or population to cope with climate impacts or climate change. This can include financial, technological, knowledge or institutional capacity. The poor often have lower adaptive capacities.
General adaptive capacity is dependent on the state of development of a country, system or community, and is boosted along with any progress in development.
Specific adaptive capacity is a function of a country, system or community’s awareness and knowledge of climate change impacts, as well as its coping capability.
Adaptation deficit: Lack of adaptive capacity to deal with climate variability and climate change. A useful starting point in addressing adaptation can be to tackle the adaptation deficit before embarking on new adaptation activities.
Autonomous versus planned adaptation: Autonomous adaptation occurs without any specific planning. Planned adaptation occurs in anticipation of potential climate change.
Climate change risk: Additional risk to investments (such as buildings and infrastructure) and actions from potential climate change impacts.
Climate-proofing: Making additional investment to reduce or eliminate climate change risks. This is often the same as adaptation to climate change.
Limits to adaptation: Adaptation can considerably reduce the adverse impacts of climate change but cannot eliminate them. Hence there are limits to adaptation. Some places may also become permanently beyond adaptation, such as coastal areas inundated by sea level rise.
Maladaptation: Action or investment that enhances vulnerability to climate change impacts rather than reducing them. Removing maladaptations is another good starting point in addressing adaptation.