Climate change is one of all encompassing global environmental changes likely to have deleterious effects on natural and human systems, economies and infrastructure. The risks associated with it call for a broad spectrum of policy responses and strategies at the local, regional, national and global level. The response strategies include both mitigation and adaptation. Where mitigation seeks to limit climate change by reducing the emissions of GHG (greenhouse gases), adaptation aims at alleviating the adverse impacts through a wide range of system-specific actions.
Albeit both mitigation and adaptation measures must be pursued to tackle the climate change problem and to create an effective and inclusive international climate change regime. It’s noted how more attention has been devoted to mitigation in the past, both in scientific research and policy debate than on Adaptation.
Good enough, sensitivity of adaptation is growing following the last couple of years, particularly after the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) TAR ( Third Assessment Report). Adaptation has now emerged as an urgent policy priority, prompting action both within and outside the climate change negotiations.
The truth is in the beginning the conventional approaches to adaptation were limited to identifying and quantifying the potential long-term climate impacts on different ecosystems and economic sectors. While it was very useful in depicting trends and dynamic interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, land, oceans and ice. This top-down science driven approach failed to address the regional and local impacts of climate change and local abilities to adapt to climate induced changes. If we shift to an impact-driven approach it gives way to a new generation of scholarship, which utilizes bottom-up or vulnerability driven approaches that should assess past and present current vulnerability, existing adaptation strategies, and how these might be modified with climate change.
Vulnerability can be defined as the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, the adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes, for example the recent heat wave that swept across the African continent. Adaptation as such refers to adjustments in ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected stimuli and their effects and impacts. In other words we could change the processes, practices and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change.
The African community is continuing to grapple with the socio-economic and environmental impacts resulting from climate change. We acknowledge, adaptation to climate change is a new process for both developed and developing nations, and concrete experience in applying an integrated approach to adaptation is limited. This reflects there is an escalating need for the international community to prepare for and adapt to climate change and to legitimately recognise the issue of adaptation. In conclusion Adaptation to climate variability must be more fully integrated into national and international development strategies and practices to provide sustainable interventions required to increase resilience to climate change and further development objectives. Besides building resilience of regions, It calls for natural resource management, buttressing food security, development of social and human capital and strengthening institutional systems across the globe.
