ClimatePrep

By Carina Bachofen and Edward Cameron

"Simply recognizing what constitutes good adaptation and how to avoid maladaptive practices can significantly reduce overall costs and go a long way towards ensuring long-term resilience." © Kate Holt

Assessments of the global cost of adaptation have varied drastically, ranging from $4-109 billion per year. The World Bank recently released the summary reports of the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change study, which estimates it will cost between $70-$100 billion each year from now until 2050.

Why do cost estimates vary so widely? First, different methodologies have typically been used to develop these estimates. For example, in some cases, not all of the same sectors have been included in all of the assessments (i.e. ecosystem services, health, tourism) in other cases some sectors have only been partially covered. In addition, many assessments suffer significant shortcomings as they fail to account for sector-wide estimates of adaptation; do not consider climate-proofing current stocks; omit an operational definition of adaptation; underestimate future emission scenarios and resulting climate projections; fail to explicitly treat uncertainty; lack a projected development baseline (which establishes a level of economic development in the absence of climate change); and fail to consider any existing ‘adaptation deficit’.

The EACC study attempts to address these limitations by using the most systematic approach to date to tackle more sectors than prior studies. In addition to developing a global cost estimate, the EACC study also develops national level costs of adaptation for several case countries.

While uncertainty looms over estimates of the cost of adaptation, more is now known about what constitutes good adaptation practice – interventions that transition vulnerable populations to resilience while safeguarding their development pathways. Simply recognizing what constitutes good adaptation and how to avoid maladaptive practices can significantly reduce overall costs and go a long way towards ensuring long-term resilience.

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Jojo Binay

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US

Jojo Binay, the newly elected Vice President of the Philippines, spoke at the close of the Asian Development Bank’s Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) this past week. Apart from being his first major policy speech, his remarks at the energy-focused event are noteworthy in that they focused heavily on adaptation.

“The unique circumstances of the Philippines puts us in a situation of acute vulnerability due to the anticipated impacts of climate change” said Binay early in his address.

The rest of his adaptation-focused remarks illustrates that Binay understands the fundamental link between more traditional environmental stresses, such as overdevelopment and deforestation, and the ever increasing impacts that climate change will have on island nations such as the Philippines.

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By Eliot Levine, WWF-US

A recent UN policy brief discusses why water-related climate change adaptation is critical for achieving sustainable development around the world. As significant water shortages already exist, water is the medium through which climate impacts are going to be felt most immediately and most severely by many people. “Adaptation to climate change is urgent. Water plays a pivotal role in it, but the political world has yet to recognize this notion.” Among other things, this report recommends implementing “no regrets” strategies since they have positive development outcomes that are resilient to climate change.

UNWater.org: “Climate Change Adaptation: The Pivotal Role of Water”

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US

An interesting new brief from WWF and Germanwatch gives us reasons to be optimistic as international climate negotiations continue. In discussing the status of adaptation negotiations under the UNFCCC  as the international community moves toward COP16 at Cancun, the authors argue that “the current negotiating text still bears the opportunity to create a strong, implementation-focused adaptation action framework.” Read the report and get informed about what needs to happen before COP16.

Germanwatch and WWF: “International Action on Adaptation and Climate Change”

Here’s a repost from Nick Sundt’s WWF Climate Blog, recounting the recent Adaptation Summit in Washington, published on Mon, 06/07/2010.

The Administration of President Barack Obama took an important step toward national climate change preparedness when it convened on 25-27 May 2010 a National Climate Adaptation Summit in Washington, DC. The stated purpose of the meeting was to “to provide insight into what is needed for effective climate adaptation and vulnerability assessment and how we should be organized to do that (public and private sectors – federal to local levels).”

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By Eliot Levine, WWF-US

Hammad Naqi Khan, WWF-Pakistan

Hammad Naqi Khan is Director of Programs at WWF – Pakistan and an expert on field-based environmental and water resource management projects. We caught up with Hammad during a recent conference in Washington, where he told us how WWF – Pakistan is working to prepare government and local communities to face the challenges of climate change.

ClimatePrep: WWF-Pakistan has made great progress in incorporating adaptation into its programs. Can you tell us about some of the projects that are currently going on?

HNK: Well, we have two meta-goals – conserving biodiversity, and addressing humanity’s ecological footprint. And we know that part of the way to meet these goals – a very important part – is to help people adapt to the way the world is changing. Whether it’s because of climate change, or anything else.

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By Eliot Levine, WWF-US

Another insightful article from The Climate Desk, this time at Wired.com. While federal level adaptation planning for the U.S. is still in development, states like California have gone ahead and published their own state adaptation strategies.  “By the mid-2000s, when the rest of the country was waking up to the challenge of global warming, California was already pursing an aggressive program to assess the likely damage.”

Wired.com : Plan B: California Braces for Climate Change

Related: Map of U.S. States with Adaptation Plans at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change

This story is part of a series on adaptation in the Danube-Carpathian region.

Flock in flight. Danube River on the Romanian/Bulgarian border © Anton Vorauer/WWF-Canon

Compared to other river systems such as the Ganges river in south Asia, the Danube basin  is not likely to be dramatically affected by climate change. Nevertheless, some parts of the river basin will probably suffer from more droughts. Floods are already increasing in intensity and frequency. So it’s high time for the nineteen countries in the Danube basin to start thinking about climate change adaptation (CCA) and to adjust their policies accordingly!

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By John Matthews, CI

The COP is finally over, and I’ve had about 36 hours to begin to absorb its truths and promises. Written so soon after the negotiations have ended, I have no doubt my reflections will achieve, at best, a facile and tenuous draft of history (or a poor excuse for journalism). But I must write something to describe where climate adaptation, – our efforts to prepare ourselves and other species for the coming climate – is headed since the conclusion of the Copenhagen sessions.

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By Eliot Levine, WWF-US

On 12 December 2009, WWF-US CEO Carter Roberts spoke to a distinguished group in Denmark’s Kronborg Castle at an event organized by TERI and the Yale School of Forestry and sponsored by Coca-Cola. In a session moderated by Rajenda Pachauri, head of the IPCC, Roberts spoke about the importance of water and water security for people and nature and the fundamental need for viewing climate change adaptation practice through the lens of water, ecosystem-based approaches to community adaptation, and sound climate-resilient water management.

Listen to the Language of Climate Change: Carter Roberts on Water and Climate Change from John Matthews on Vimeo.