6. Climate adaptation

6

Climate adaptation

The IPCC defines climate change adaptation as:

The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects.66

We have already changed the climate. While we strive to mitigate this problem, to avoid the worst possible impacts, adaptation is essential. We need to navigate the change and improve the resilience of natural systems, infrastructure and human communities to disruption. Adaptation is both place-based and context-specific, encompassing disaster preparedness, natural resource management and agriculture innovations.

Exploring maladaptation to climate change in international development, Dr Lisa Schipper from the Environmental Change

Institute at the University of Oxford, considers the case of a farmer in an increasingly dry region. The farmer has a range of options: • Ignore the trend and take no action, which will lead to increased vulnerability • Adopt short-term ‘coping’ strategies, based on the assumption that things will eventually get back to normal – the farmer will not become more vulnerable, nor more resilient, and the status quo could be costly to maintain • Learn and adapt, even if this involves starting with coping strategies – leading to incremental improvements in resilience and positive adaptation • Adopt strategies, with the aim of adapting or coping, that go wrong, leading to maladaptation and increased vulnerability.67