CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS AND ADAPTATION

Perspectives on Climate Change Adaptation

Adaptation can be understood from several perspectives, including "Limits to Adaptation", "Maladaptation", "Adaptation that Uses Climate Change Impacts", "Ecosystem-based Adaptation" and "Nature-based Solutions", and the relationship between the "Adaptation and SDGs."

Limits to adaptation

Climate change is already underway, and its impacts are being observed, making adaptation necessary.

Adaptation measures can reduce climate change impacts, but if we fail to curb greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation) and climate change progresses further, reducing impacts sufficiently may become technically or economically unfeasible. This is called “limits to adaptation.”

The IPCC, the global body of climate scientists, has reported that if average temperature rise exceeds 1.5℃ above 1850-1900 levels, impacts will increase in severity to a point where many human and natural systems will reach their limits to adaptation.

As such, adaptation needs to be pursued alongside mitigation.

Maladaptation

Many adaptation measures are already being implemented around the world, but unfortunately, cases of maladaptation (i.e., unsuitable adaptation, also known as “adaptation failure”) are on the rise. Maladaptation refers to measures that inadvertently increase the risk of adverse climate change impacts, raise vulnerability, or have a detrimental effect on welfare. Such measures may lack flexibility in the face of change, be excessively costly, lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions, or exacerbate existing inequalities. Avoiding maladaptation requires careful consideration of measures from a long-term perspective, and selection and implementation of measures that are suited to local circumstances and, where possible, have co-benefits for multiple sectors. Measures that can be quickly implemented may not be the wisest choice; cost-effectiveness and lead times are among the other factors that should be considered when selecting the most appropriate measures.

Harnessing Beneficial Opportunities from Climate Change

In addition to adaptation measures to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change, measures that make use of beneficial climate change impacts can also count as adaptation.

For example, initiatives are underway to cultivate tropical fruits such as mangoes and blood oranges in regions where they were not previously grown due to cooler climates, as well as to expand the range of grape varieties suitable for wine production and increase their cultivation.

Ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions

Adaptation measures that make use of ecosystems are attracting increasing attention. Known as ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR), or nature-based solutions (NbS), such initiatives make use of nature and ecosystems (green infrastructure) or provide co-benefits.

One such example is flood control that utilizes farmland or green spaces instead of relying solely on concrete levees, reservoirs, and other such “grey” infrastructure, the idea being to create spaces where plants and soil can temporarily store rainwater, preventing it from flowing all at once into rivers. Such initiatives help to conserve ecosystems as well as contributing to flood control.

SDGs and adaptation

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in the same year as the Paris Agreement, include Goal 13: “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts,” which calls for countries to strengthen their adaptation capacity alongside mitigation. Climate action can have both synergies and trade-offs with many other SDGs, and the appropriate implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation is indispensable for tackling issues such as poverty, inequality, and ecosystem degradation and for achieving the SDGs’ vision to “leave no one behind.”

Adaptation Alternatives

Although several adaptation measures have been introduced above, a wide variety of adaptation actions have been identified over time. These adaptation options include many different types of measures and can generally be classified into three broad categories: "Structural/Physical," "Social," and "Institutional."