What is 'climate change adaptation'?

A range of definitions: 

Adaptation has been defined in different ways.

• The UNFCCC defines it as actions taken to help communities and ecosystems cope with changing climate condition.
• The IPCC describes it as adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.
• The UN Development Program calls it a process by which strategies to moderate, cope with and take advantage of the consequences of climatic events are enhanced, developed, and implemented.
• The UK Climate Impacts Program defines it as the process or outcome of a process that leads to a reduction in harm or risk of harm, or realisation of benefits associated with climate variability and climate change.
• NCCARF regards it as consisting of actions undertaken to reduce the adverse consequences of climate change, as well as to harness any beneficial opportunities.
• The Victorian Government says adapting to climate change is about taking deliberate and considered actions to avoid, manage or reduce the consequences of a hotter, drier and more extreme climate and to take advantage of the opportunities that such changes may generate.

VCCCAR's definition:

Climate change adaptation is anticipating or monitoring change and undertaking actions to address the consequences of that change.

Adaptation to climate change generally does not occur in isolation from other changes and is more appropriately integrated into broader sector initiatives, like water resources, energy, infrastructure or land use planning.

The nature and extent of climate change impacts on different regions and parts of the community vary in space and time. Vulnerability to climate change impacts and capacity to adapt to these impacts also varies. There are significant barriers to adaptation that include the inability of natural systems to adapt as well as technological, financial, cognitive, behavioural, social and cultural constraints.

There are varying understandings of the needs, priorities and mechanisms for adaptation in different parts of government, across industry sectors and within the broader community. Adaptation involves understanding how environmental changes affect what societies and individuals value. This is inherently a social issue, requiring an understanding of sense of place and of capacity for change in individuals and society. It requires serious conversations within the community about what is valued and what communities might be prepared to lose.

Addressing these factors requires a multi-disciplinary, systems-oriented perspective that integrates biophysical science with economics, social sciences, engineering and other disciplines.

Adaptation research

Adaptation research can better inform the public and policy makers of potential climate change impacts, identify potential ecological ‘surprises’ associated with climate change, provide early warning signs of major system changes, explore future scenarios and analyse alternative options for adaptation.

Adaptation research should recognise the inter-connectedness of ecological, socio-economic and political systems and build understanding of how changes in one part of the system will impact in other parts of the system in ways that may often be in counterintuitive or unexpected.

Many people sense that adaptation practice (spontaneous or planned) is running ahead of research and policy. Much research focuses on documenting what it is people are already doing rather than helping to anticipate future challenges.

There are also significant intellectual challenges in resolving:

• How climate change adaptation is integrated with responses to other types of change (social, economic or environmental) or environmental challenges that may be more immediate (e.g. air pollution, soil degradation)
• Whether climate change adaptation should be treated as a separate discipline or should be part of the agenda of existing disciplines
• Whether research agendas for climate change mitigation and adaptation should be separate, or whether we should work to build stronger linkages between these two important aspects of climate change.

While it is useful to examine responses to climate change in an integrated way, adaptation research differs considerably from research relating to mitigation. Adaptation research is an emerging field. It requires consideration of adaptation options from multiple disciplinary perspectives and recognition that various research disciplines view the concept of adaptation in different ways.

Research to support adaptation therefore needs new, integrative modes of inquiry that marry social and biophysical knowledge and multiple sources of evidence. Different models or analyses can be used to explore consequences of assumptions, while case studies can be used to test hypotheses. It involves strong participatory interaction, systems thinking, consideration of uncertainty and risk, and new thinking to support the institutional changes required to address climate change challenges.

Adaptation research is an applied activity, generally aimed at solving specific problems and supporting innovation and change in government, industry and the community. Knowledge needs and research questions need to be clearly articulated, end users identified and the appropriate adoption pathways put in place.