What is climate change adaptation?
Our climate is changing and the average temperatures on earth are rising due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This has far-reaching and dramatic consequences such as flooding, wildfires, or droughts. To support vulnerable communities in coping with these consequences, adaptation efforts are needed. Adaption describes all activities aiming to prepare or adjust to current or probable impacts of climate change. Climate adaptation initiatives aim to protect people from experiencing extreme weather events, sea-level rise, loss of biodiversity, or food and water scarcity.
What are common adaptation strategies for climate change?
Adaptation strategies come in different shapes and sizes. Depending on the situation and local needs, they can include financing adaptive infrastructure or supporting activities that promote behaviour change. Those changes can address urban planning, improve public health, educate local communities, or develop policies that support sustainable development. Other adaptation measures include nature-based options, such as building flood protection, planting crop varieties that are resistant to drought, or restoring mangroves for coastal protection. The main goal of adaptation efforts is to support communities in handling climatic changes to manage or reduce risks. They help to keep social and ecological systems alive by reducing the damage from external threats such as droughts or flooding.
Who needs adaptation efforts the most?
Although climate change is a global issue, its effects are mostly felt locally. Communities in developing countries are already experiencing the negative impacts of climate change and are particularly vulnerable. This is partly because of their geographical and climatic conditions, their dependency on natural resources, and their limited financial capacity to adapt to a changing climate. Among these communities, climate change adaptation is especially important for women and children, older populations, ethnic minorities, or Indigenous Peoples since these groups tend to be disproportionately affected by climate change.
Mitigation vs. adaptation. What is the difference?
Mitigation and adaptation are both key strategies in addressing climate change but have different purposes. While adaptation involves social, economic, and environmental changes to adjust to the current and future negative impacts of climate change, mitigation aims to prevent or reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The goal of mitigation, therefore, is to make the impacts of climate change less drastic.
In a nutshell: mitigation addresses the causes of climate change while adaptation focuses on dealing with its effects.
What makes adaptation challenging?
Adaption activities can be challenging because initiatives are often proposed and planned, but not always put into action. This might be due to a lack of resources, prohibitive policies, a lack of urgency due to other public priorities, or uncertainty about future changes. Since adaptation efforts mainly happen locally, they are influenced by many factors. These include the local political context, motivation, power dynamics, and cultural values. Adaption initiatives, therefore, cannot follow the “one size fits all” mentality but must be customised to each community.