Climate Adaptation

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Climate Adaptation Adaptation Mainstreaming
Lessons from Variability

• Eileen L. Shea
• East-West Center
• Pacific Islands Training Institute on Climate and
  Extreme Events
• June 2004

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Mainstreaming Climate Information for Adaptation
Sources of Lessons

• 2002 Snowmass Institute on Integrated
  Assessments Special Session on Adaptation
• Symposium on Climate and Extreme Events in
  Asia-Pacific Enhancing Resilience Improving
  Decision Making (Bangkok, March 2003)
• Mobilizing Solutions for Adaptation Enhancing
  Resilience (New Orleans, October 2003)
• Insights and Tools for Adaptation Learning from
  Climate Variability (Washington, D.C., November
  2003)

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Some Definitions

• Vulnerability a combination of sensitivity,
  exposure and resilience (adaptive capacity)
  focus on
• Reducing exposure and/or sensitivity or
• Enhancing resilience
• Adaptation those activities that people,
  individually or in groups such as households,
  villages, companies and various forms of
  government, carry out in order to accommodate,
  cope with or reduce the adverse effects of
  climate variability and change (SPREP, 2000)
  generally two types
• Anticipatory (proactive)
• Reactive

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Lessons Learned from Variability

• Recall some of the Guiding Principles from
  Forecast to Applications session
• Focus on integrated climate-society system
• Interactive, collaborative process with
  stakeholders (science-policy partnerships)
• Problem-focused approach
• Understand place, context, history and decision
  making process
• Useful and usable information
• Near-term decisions and long-term planning
• Learn-by-doing
• Address todays problems and plan for the future
• Facilitate proactive decision making and
  iterative, reflective, flexible and adaptive
  approaches

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Pacific Regional Climate Information System

• Identification of information needs
• Product design and evaluation
• Future needs and opportunities

Continuous Interaction and Information Flow
Providers of Climate Information
Users of Climate Information

• Product development and distribution
• Information interpretation/translation
• Communication/outreach/education

Continuing Process of Shared Learning and Joint
Problem Solving
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A General Approach to Adaptation Mainstreaming
(New Orleans, 2003)

• Adaptation entails the consideration of climatic
  variability and change in ongoing decision-making
  processes, development plans, projects
  initiatives
• Improving societys ability to cope with changes
  in climate across timescales
• Allows for adaptation to both natural and
  anthropogenic changes in climate
• Adaptation requires being proactive regarding the
  full range of future stresses
• Recognize interconnections between socioeconomic,
  environmental and climatic stresses
• Comprehensive risk management where climate is
  one factor in a multi-stress environment

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A General Approach to Adaptation Mainstreaming
(New Orleans, 2003)

• The goal of adaptation is to enhance resilience
  and develop flexible management approaches that
  facilitate adjustments in response to changing
  climate conditions
• Address both climate-related challenges and
  opportunities
• Evolutionary process of minimizing risk, reducing
  vulnerability and enhancing resilience
• Opportunities exist for integrating greenhouse
  gas reduction (mitigation) and adaptation
  concerns, e.g.
• Efficiencies in agriculture and water sectors
• Mangroves as carbon sink and coastal protection

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Methods Mechanisms for Adaptation(New
Orleans, 2003)

• Consider the context in which adaptation must
  take place
• Work with stakeholders to develop
  problem-specific solutions mainstreaming
  climate information to support adaptation a
  demand-driven enterprise
• Understand the decision making processes
• Identify appropriate intervention points
• Emphasize adaptive management
• Support and integrate indigenous adaptations

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Methods Mechanisms for Adaptation(New
Orleans, 2003)

• In the context of natural resources, effective
  adaptation a balance between bottoms-up
  (multiple, individual projects) and top-down
  (imposition of a management structure)
• Use a wide range of networks and partnerships
  (government, social, scientific, private sector
  networks)
• Foster cross-sectoral integration
• Work at multiple levels of governance

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Some Barriers to Adaptation(New Orleans, 2003)

• Systemic and perceptual barriers including
• Difficulties communicating information across
  sectors and among levels of government
• Short-term planning horizons on the part of some
  policy officials and decision makers
• Mechanisms for using market forces to facilitate
  adaptation not well established
• Vulnerable countries have limited capacity and
  in-house expertise
• Approaches for integrating climate information
  into decision making and long-term planning
  efforts not well established
• Reliance on historical data and patterns
• No well-established framework for priorities

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Methods Mechanisms for Adaptation(New
Orleans, 2003)

• Work end-to-end from planning through
  implementation, monitoring, evaluation and
  adjustment
• Start with existing planning efforts
• Set priorities to maximize use of limited
  resources
• Monitor and assess progress often continuously
• Develop indicators of outcomes
• Work in multiple timescales
• Decision makers interested in continuum of
  information from extreme events through seasonal
  outlooks to long-term projections
• Exploring linkages important

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Enhancing ResilienceWater Resources as Example

• Central importance of water resources to survival
  and development make this sector a natural target
  of opportunity
• Water is Gold cascading effects
• Limited (natural) storage capacity
• Dependence on rainfall subject to seasonal and
  year-to-year variations
• Increasing demand population growth and
  economic development
• Infrastructure constraints
• Institutional challenges

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Providing Access to Fresh WaterEnhancing
Resilience

• Improve Infrastructure/Enhance Capacity
• Evaluate Existing Assets and Develop
  Unused/Alternative Sources
• Incentives for Water Conservation and Wastewater
  Recovery and Reuse

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Providing Access to Fresh WaterEnhancing
Resilience

• Encourage Public-Private Partnerships Among
  Large-Scale Users (tourism, agriculture,
  military)
• Pursue Watershed Protection and Restoration
• Emphasize Integrated Water and Land Use
  Management Explore Traditional Practices (e.g.,
  Ahupuaa in Hawaii)

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Providing Access to Fresh WaterEnhancing
Resilience

• Plan for Extremes (particularly droughts)
• Integrate Climate Forecasts into decision making
• Emphasize Self-Sufficiency in Long-Term Planning
• Promote Public Awareness, Education, Dialogue
  Capacity-Building

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Some Closing Thoughts on Adaptation

• Government leadershipat all levels
• Risk management a useful framework for building
  partnerships and guiding climate information
  systems
• Proactive planningclimate risk management in a
  sustainable development context
• Responding to todays variability
• Adaptation to long-term change
• Economic planning community development

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