Adaptation involves adjustments to reduce vulnerability to climate stresses and is not fundamentally different from development. Adaptation can vary in timing, scope, purposefulness, and adapting agent. While there is overlap between adaptation and development, explicit adaptation activities are also needed to address climate change impacts directly, such as measures to reduce exposure to risks from glacial lake outburst floods and glacier retreat. Adaptation requires both bottom-up and top-down approaches across multiple scales with consideration of institutional setting, financing, and measuring efficiency.

1. Adaptation is not
fundamentally
different from
development activities
aiming at reducing
vulnerability of people
to current stresses
(CIFOR 2009)

2. Adaptation reduces the impacts of climate stresses
on human and natural systems and consists of a
multitude of behavioural, structural and
technological adjustments.
Adaptation measures can vary in:
 Timing (anticipatory vs. reactive; ex ante vs. ex post)
 Scope (short-term vs. long-term; localised vs. regional)
 Purposefulness (autonomous vs. planned; passive vs. active)
 Adapting agent (private vs. public; societies vs. natural systems)

3. The need to adapt to changing environmental and
climatic conditions is not a new one.
Societies throughout history have had to adapt to
variations or changes in their climate through a
variety of strategies and by using knowledge
accumulated through experience of past climatic
events.
Is past experience with adaptation
sufficient for dealing with the impacts
of climate change?

4. Overlaps do exist between “business-as-usual”
development strategies and adaptation.
Decisions taken as part of development
activities can have considerable bearing on
the vulnerability of societies to the potential
impacts of climate change.
Better developed societies possess more
adaptive capacity than less developed
societies and therefore have lower
vulnerability to climate change.

5. While there are overlaps between adaptation and
development, activities with an explicit focus on adaptation
and climate change will also be required…
Example:
In the Nepal Himalayas,
infrastructure and livelihoods could
be catastrophically affected by
glacial lake outburst floods and
glacier retreat resulting from rising
temperatures (Agrawala et al.,
2004).
In this case, adaptation would require more direct measures to
reduce exposure to such risks, going beyond baseline poverty
reduction and economic development !!!

6. Business-as-usual development does
not include activities that specifically
aim to address climate change and
reduce its impacts or take advantage of
any new opportunities. For such
action, explicit adaptation activities
need to be developed.
(OECD 2009)

8. DEVELOPMENT
Bottom-up/process-oriented and
top-down/outcome-oriented
approaches
Scales: National,
regional, local
Institutional setting
Financing mechanisms
Measuring efficiency
ADAPTATION

9. Process-based rather than static view of adaptive capacity !!!
Socio-institutional process rather than the outcome of scenarios of
vulnerability with some anticipated adjustment.