The New Nation - Internet Edition

Roger Pielke

This paper, written when adaptation was just emerging as an issue, outlines the reasons that increasing the role that adaptation can and should play in climate change policy. Author Pielke argues that, as mitigation cannot stop climate change instantaneously, adaptation is necessary as a complementary response option.

After outlining what he calls "mitigation logic" and demonstrating that mitigation is not sufficient as a response to climate change, Pielke suggests three principles that could guide an increased role for adaptation. First, he sees adaptation as a response portfolio rather than a single response. Second, he argues that adaptation is a shared responsibility that requires a framework of shared governance. Third, adaptation links the needs of today with the expected problems of tomorrow, because it considers those vulnerable to global change today and aims to change existing policies to reduce vulnerability in the future.

Following this seminal article, adaptation gained international attention and importance, for example in the negotiations over the Kyoto Protocol. It is useful for anyone interested in the beginnings of adaptation as a response measure, and the context in which the issue was initially raised.

Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) | 2001, is one component of the Third Assessment Report published by the IPCC after a multi-year international effort to assess the science of climate change. This part is concerned with the impacts climate change may have on the globe, and considers factors that influence vulnerability, as well as ways in which countries can adapt to climate change.

The report describes different types of adaptation, including 'autonomous' and 'planned' adaptation, sketches out concepts of response capacity, and then outlines the impacts associated with scenarios of climate change. Chapter 18 is concerned with adaptation in the context of sustainable development, and considers adaptation processes, future adaptation, adaptive capacity, and policy responses.

Written by a collection of researchers, this volume serves as an authoritative and in-depth reference guide to adaptation from an international perspective. It provides an assessment of adaptation as a response to climate change, largely based on scenarios of future change, but also taking current vulnerability into account.

Mainstreaming adaptation to climate change in least developed countries. Given their low levels of capital, human and technological development, the world's least developed countries (LDCs) are particularly vulnerable to climate change. At the same time they are highly likely to be severely affected by natural disasters. This report provides an introduction to the specific difficulties that LDCs face in a climate change context, with particular attention to climate impacts and vulnerability.

The report includes chapters on climate change and LDCs, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change. Particularly comprehensive are the sections on the definition of adaptation, and the role of adaptation in the Framework Convention on Climate Change and its subsequent negotiations.

There are also two case studies that shed light on the details of adaptation in Bangladesh and Mali, highlighting impact studies and projected changes, as well as sectoral responses. The last chapter on 'lessons learned' is essential reading for anyone interested in bringing adaptation into the mainstream of development policy, and its potential future role in climate policy.

Methods and tools to assess climate change impacts and adaptation options. This resource, compiled by the UN Climate Change Secretariat, provides an overview of the international negotiations concerned with adaptation to climate change and the latest developments under the Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. It is part of a larger section of the UNFCCC's website on the core negotiating issues discussed at the Conferences of the Parties to the Convention.

Focusing exclusively on the policy debates of UN-level negotiations, the section provides a background to these negotiations regarding adaptation, and outlines developments that have taken place at each Conference of the Parties. It is updated with recent developments, and includes a comprehensive list of links to adaptation-related UN documents.

While the language is somewhat technical, this policy-orientated site is useful to anyone already somewhat familiar with climate change, who now wishes to become familiar with the UN process. The site also features a 'compendium' of decision tools to evaluate strategies for adaptation, to which individuals can contribute via an online form.

Handbook on methods for climate change impact assessment and adaptation strategies. This handbook is part of UNEP's contribution to the development of guidelines and handbooks for country-based climate change studies, and includes a detailed methodology for impact assessments around adaptation to climate change.

Starting with details of climate change scenarios, socio-economic scenarios and their integration, subsequent chapters are concerned with sectoral analysis of climate change impacts. Chapter 5 provides an overview of the early conceptualisation of adaptation as a response option to climate change, primarily based on impacts scenarios.

This handbook is designed to provide newcomers to the field of climate impact and adaptation assessment with a guide of the available research methods. While it reflects the change in attitude towards adaptation that started in the late 1990s, the handbook is part of an older generation of adaptation thinking that was heavily based on impact scenarios.

Users guidebook for the adaptation policy framework. Most developing countries are in need of guidelines and technical support on developing policy-relevant adaptation options. This guidebook, together with nine technical papers, is designed to provide such an 'adaptation policy framework'. This final draft (which is open for comments until the end of December 2003) is the result of two years of consultation on climate adaptation policy and capacity development.

The policy framework offers a flexible approach to adaptation policy that allows tailoring to the specific needs of a country while aligning policy to sustainable development priorities. New here is that adaptation is orientated towards current climate variability and extremes, rather than future scenarios, and incorporates a methodology for developing adaptation baselines.

This guide outlines how adaptation strategies can be developed step by step, describing various approaches and the tasks involved for each. It offers practical advice on how to incorporate adaptation concerns into national, sectoral, and local development planning, and is useful as a hands-on tool for anyone involved in adaptation policy.

Justice and adaptation to climate change by Jouni Paavola and Neil Adger, Tyndall Centre. The majority of human-induced climate change is the result of activities in developed countries. But it is the developing countries that are burdened - disproportionately - with the negative impacts of climate change. This research paper explores the the concept of 'justice' and how it applies in the context of adapting to climate change.

The authors review different theories of justice, and propose that increased attention to both distributive justice (how impacts are distributed across groups of people) and procedural justice (how and why particular choices of adaptation are made) is required to understand its implications on adaptation. Of particular interest is the section outlining elements relevant to justice within international climate law.

While demanding in language, this paper underscores the importance of justice issues in the climate change debate - an issue that has so far been neglected in the context of adaptation. It offers insights into the complexity of justice and adaptation, highlighting that adaptation presents fundamentally different implications for justice than mitigation of greenhouse gases.

The Bonn Agreement on Climate Change. This background note - prepared by the European Union's climate change website - clearly and comprehensively summarises the agreement adopted at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Bonn in 2001.

This agreement covers core elements for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and funding for developing countries - many of which relate to adaptation - as required by the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, agreed by Parties in November 1998.

The article covers the flexible Kyoto mechanisms, carbon sinks (land-use, land-use change and forestry), funding for developing countries, and the compliance system associated with the Kyoto Protocol.

Adapting to climate change in developing countries, UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

This short article discusses the vulnerability of developing countries to climate change and examines potential mitigation and adaptation strategies, drawing on a series of case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The article points out that climate change is expected to have a disproportionate effect on poor people living in developing nations because poverty exacerbates, and is exacerbated by, environmental change. These communities' livelihoods are also often dependent on climate-sensitive resources.

Adapting to climate change in these circumstances requires strengthening traditional coping mechanisms with new technology, increasing awareness and education of the potential impacts on everyday lives, improving communication and knowledge transfer between countries, and international support.

Developing countries will also have to consider risk assessment, migration, and security issues, says the article.