Adaptation
According to the IPCC's 2001 Assessment Report, no matter how much effort is put into mitigating climate change, some amount of climate change cannot be avoided. The report shared that adaptation should complement mitigation efforts.
Adaptation is the approach that focuses on alleviating current problems brought about by global warming and climate change. It is the attempt to live with the changes in the environment and the economy that global warming has generated and will continue to generate. In short, it involves taking action to deal with the problems brought about by global warming and climate change. Examples include building better flood defences and avoiding the building of residential areas near low-lying, flood-prone areas.
In contrast, mitigation focuses on steps taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is the set of preventative measures taken to curb global warming and climate change. Examples would be investing in clean fuel and using renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
Although national governments and local authorities are taking stringent mitigation measures, the need for adaptation is in the interest of dealing with climate change because carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for decades and is trapped in oceans for centuries, thereby resulting in a change in ocean chemistry and may adversely affect ocean life. No matter how much humanity cuts greenhouse gas emissions now, the emissions released now will have an impact for decades. Therefore, adaptation is crucial for cities looking towards strengthening their resistance against the climate impact that past emissions have caused – to deal with the problems caused by greenhouse gas emissions pumped out years ago.
The determinants of adaptive capacity include the availability of financial resources, technology, specialised institutions and human resources, as well as access to information and existence of laws (both social and organisational) – attributes and resources that are usually scarce in developing countries and in small cities. In cities with a proven vulnerability to climate change, investment is likely to require the strengthening of urban infrastructure, including storm drain systems, water supply and treatment plants, and protection or relocation of solid waste management and power generation facilities.
Coastal regions are likely to need large investment in physical infrastructure projects, specifically projects related to the effects of rising sea levels. Projects such as the construction of protective barriers against rising sea levels, the building of dams to retain and manage water, the redesign and development of port facilities and the improvement of the defence systems at coastal areas should be carried out.
Another measure of adaptation is the construction of new cities on higher ground, withdrawing the population away from vulnerable floodplains. This withdrawal would probably be managed over time, and may require a public-private partnership consisting of a combination of market incentives such as the differential cost of insurance and re-insurance, and investment planning.
Internalising the limitations of climate change requires proper planning for land use and the adherence to building codes. Planning for land use should channel new residential developments and productive investment towards less vulnerable areas. The inhabitants of slums and informal housing should receive assistance to regularise their properties, enabling low-income groups such as themselves to buy, build or rent homes in secure locations.
As a basis for planning, local authorities need a reliable and well-informed assessment of the risks faced by urban cities. The dissemination of such information, and establishing early warning systems and evacuation plans including warning systems for emergencies, disaster response and improved urban environmental management is crucial for adapting to the dangers of climate change.
Read more about this topic: Adaptation To Global Warming In Australia
Famous quotes containing the word adaptation:
“Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring, through obeying the blind urge.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“In youth the human body drew me and was the object of my secret and natural dreams. But body after body has taken away from me that sensual phosphorescence which my youth delighted in. Within me is no disturbing interplay now, but only the steady currents of adaptation and of sympathy.”
—Haniel Long (1888–1956)
“The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave.”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)