Introduction to adaptation

A quick guide through the key issues.

People have always adapted to variations in their climate, by making preparations based on their resources and their knowledge accumulated through experience of past weather patterns. Periodically, they have also been forced to react to and recover from climate extremes and surprises, such as floods, droughts and hurricanes. The majority of the world's scientists agree that the earth's climate is changing . This means communities' past experience alone can no longer provide a reliable guide to the future. Accordingly, securing economic and social well-being of vulnerable people will increasingly require communities, scientists and policy-makers to work together to consider the implications of a changing climate.

"Addressing current and future climate vulnerabilities into development is an urgent task"

Development efforts, focused on poverty reduction and securing sustainable livelihoods, have provided an important means to reduce vulnerability, but have tended to neglect the impact of climate extremes and surprises. In these situations, where coping capacities have been exceeded, humanitarian aid has been the dominant response. Because the magnitude of current variability and additional climate risks on development is so large and pervasive, addressing current and future climate vulnerabilities into development is an urgent task.

In the early 1990s, scientific studies highlighting the threat of global warming led countries to sign the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) . The Convention contains provisions mandating all countries to take action to prepare for and respond to the potential impacts of climate change. This is termed adaptation to climate change.

How can communities adapt to climate change?

The ability of communities to adapt to climate change is determined by their level of development, their access to resources and their scientific and technical capacity. The impacts of climate variability create challenges for the world's poorest communities as their livelihoods are likely to be more sensitive to climate change. These impacts may be related to more intense and frequent extreme events, like hurricanes or floods, and more long-term stresses, such as water scarcity and increased recurrence of drought.

Adaptation can adopt a variety of forms, such better education, training and awareness of climate change and more technical measures, such as drought-resistant seeds and better coastal protection. For many communities, the direction of climate change remains uncertain, so focus is also placed on increasing their adaptive capacity in relation to key sectors, such as agriculture and health. To lessen the impact of climate change on a country's development, people are working to integrate adaptation into mainstream development policies.