New Directions In Climate Change Vulnerability Impacts And Adaptation Assessment

With effective climate change mitigation policies still under development, and with even the most aggressive proposals unable to halt climate change immediately, many decision makers are focusing unprecedented attention on the need for strategies to adapt to climate changes that are now unavoidable. The effects of climate change will touch every corner of the world's economies and societies; adaptation is inevitable. The remaining question is to what extent humans will anticipate and reduce undesired consequences of climate change, or postpone response until after climate change impacts have altered ecological and socioeconomic systems so significantly that opportunities for adaptation become limited. This book summarizes a National Research Council workshop at which presentations and discussion identified specific needs associated with this gap between the demand and supply of scientific information about climate change adaptation.

With effective climate change mitigation policies still under development, and with even the most aggressive proposals unable to halt climate change immediately, many decision makers are focusing unprecedented attention on the need for strategies to adapt to climate changes that are now unavoidable. The effects of climate change will touch every corner of the world's economies and societies; adaptation is inevitable. The remaining question is to what extent humans will anticipate and reduce undesired consequences of climate change, or postpone response until after climate change impacts have altered ecological and socioeconomic systems so significantly that opportunities for adaptation become limited. This book summarizes a National Research Council workshop at which presentations and discussion identified specific needs associated with this gap between the demand and supply of scientific information about climate change adaptation.

The possible impacts of global climate change on different countries has led to the development and ratification of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and has a strong bearing on the future sustainable development of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The preparation of analytical methodologies and tools for carrying out assessments of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change is therefore of prime importance to these countries. Such assessments are needed to both fulfill the reporting requirements of the countries under the FCCC as well as to prepare their own climate change adaptation and mitigation plans. The vulnerability and adaptation assessment guidelines prepared by the U.S. Country Studies Program bring together all the latest knowledge and experience from around the world on both vulnerability analysis as well as adaptation methodologies. It is currently being applied successfully by scientists in over fifty countries from all the regions of the globe. This guidance is being published to share it with the wider scientific community interested in global climate change issues. This guidance document has two primary purposes: • To assist countries in making decisions about the scope and methods for their vulnerability and adaptation assessments, • To provide countries with guidance and step-by-step instructions on each of the basic elements of vulnerability and adaptation assessments.

Provides a framework for considering the full range of approaches to vulnerability, impacts and adaptation assessment due to climate change. It aims to help professionals such as researchers, policymakers, sectoral planners and consultants to select the appropriate methods and tools for their particular context and adaptation situation.

To assist developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet this obligation, the U.S. Country Studies Program is providing technical and financial support for the development of climate change studies in 55 countries. This document presents preliminary results from the vulnerability and adaptation assessment research of 13 of the countries that were ready to share their results. The countries contributing to this document are from the African, Asian-Pacific, Eastern European, and Latin American regions, and their assessments address impacts in the agriculture, grasslands, forest, water resources, and coastal resources sectors. This document includes results from many countries for which there was no prior research on the potential impacts of climate change, or for which the research has not previously been widely available. This work will not only fill gaps in the understanding of the potential impacts of climate change and the effectiveness of adaptation strategies, it will also help develop a consensus on appropriate methodologies and needs for refinement to currently available methodologies.

Assessing the vulnerability of human populations to global environmental change, particularly climate change, is now the main imperative of research and international action. However, much of the research into vulnerability is not designed to feed directly into decision making and policy, creating a gap between the knowledge created by researchers and what is required by decision makers. This book seeks to rectify this problem and bridge the gap. It discusses vulnerability as the central theme and brings together many different applications from disaster studies, climate change impact studies and several other fields and provides the most comprehensive synthesis of definitions, theories, formalization and applications to date, illustrated with examples from different disciplines, regions and periods, and from local through to regional, national and international levels. Case study topics cover sea level rise, vulnerability to changes in ecosystem services, assessing the vulnerability of human health and 'double exposure' to climate change and trade liberalization amongst other issues. Research outcomes stress that science-policy dialogues must be transparent to be effective and concentrate on a mutual understanding of the concepts used. A key research finding is that the most useful information for decision makers is that which shows the separate causes and drivers of vulnerability, rather than presenting vulnerability in an aggregated form. The book concludes with a unifying framework for analysing integrated methodologies of vulnerability assessment and guiding how research and policy can be linked to reduce vulnerability.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of climate change adaptation (CCA) poses an assortment of thorny methodological challenges. Individually, none are unique to CCA, but together they represent a very distinctive conundrum facing practitioners and policy makers. Adding to this complexity further, climate change may be global in nature but its impacts, and how we respond to them through adaptation efforts, cut across scales, sectors, and levels of intervention. As investments in climate adaptation increase, organizations are seeking to measure, assess and understand an array of adaptation initiatives, and derive learnings to inform policy and praxis. This issue presents findings from many of the most important contemporary CCA program evaluation research initiatives. The chapters represent the most coherent and current collection of CCA M&E research in this emerging and important field, written by many of its leading experts. Filled with examples and insights in formulating coherent responses to methodological challenges, it will be of interest to M&E scholars and practitioners globally. This is the 147th issue in the New Directions for Evaluation series from Jossey-Bass. It is an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.