Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change

Abstract

International efforts to reduce and sequester carbon dioxide and other green-house gases are not yet slowing the rate of global warming.Indeed, the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) anticipates rapid changes in climate even if the greenhouse-gas emissions are reduced quickly,1 and recent findings suggest that these projections are underestimated.2The impacts of climate change will be severe, particularly for the most vulnerable developing countries that have the least capacity to cope.As a result, the need to support adaptation in developing countries is growing in urgency.Adaptation describes adjustments in natural or human systems in response to the impacts of climate change.3Until recently, adaptation was a controversial topic in climate change policy debates, with many arguing that too much atten-tion to adaptation-considered locally focused, inexpensive, and beneficial only in the short term-could detract from more expensive mitigation efforts for the global good.In his 1992 book, Earth in the Balance, Al Gore wrote, "Believing that we can adapt to just abut anything is ultimately a kind of laziness, an arrogant faith in our ability to react in time."4However, the tide is turning.Given slow progress on mitigation coupled with evidence of greater and more rapid impacts of climate change than those previously expected by the IPCC, adapta-tion is firmly on the international policy agenda as a crucial supplement to mitiga-tion.Signaling this change, Gore stated in a recent interview with the Economist, "I used to think adaptation subtracted from our efforts on prevention.But I've changed my mind. . . .Poor countries are vulnerable and need our help."5