AdaptNet for 17 May 2011

1. Rethinking Adaptation for a 4°C World

2. Managing Uncertain Climate Risks – Developing Countries

3. Drawing Up and Implementing Adaptation Measures

4. IFM – A Tool for Integrated Flood Management

5. Climate Change and Health in Cities

6. Essay Contest – Women and Climate Change 

Rethinking Adaptation for a 4°C World                

The paper advances understanding of adaptation decisions with a long lifetime (sum of lead time and consequence time), and contrasts them with other, simpler, adaptation decisions. It presents an initial classification of decision types that is aimed at helping decision-makers to arrive at better adaptation solutions. The paper synthesizes a number of issues previously raised in the literature to link the categories of interactions to a variety of risk-management strategies and tactics.

Rethinking Adaptation for a 4°C World, Mark Stafford Smith et al., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol. 369, pp. 196-216, 2011 [497 KB, PDF]

Managing Uncertain Climate Risks – Developing Countries     

This paper sets out principles that aim to reduce the impact of uncertainty on decision-making. It draws out some interconnected messages for decision-makers, including: (1) it is crucial to integrate adaptation planning within the existing priorities; and (2) adaptation strengthens the case for pushing ‘faster and harder’ on development priorities. The paper argues that adaptation and development are not opposing priorities that must be weighed up against each other. 

How Can Decision-Makers in Developing Countries Incorporate Uncertainty about Future Climate Risks into Existing Planning and Policymaking Processes? Nicola Ranger and Su-Lin Garbett-Shiels, Policy Paper, The Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP), The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and The World Resources Report, March 2011 [422 KB, PDF]

Drawing Up and Implementing Adaptation Measures         

The paper addresses the issues involved in defining a climate change adaptation policy from three different angles, using a comparative analysis of national policies in five European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom). It examines the role of research and the way in which adaptation policies are structured to guide the public decision-making process. 

Drawing up a National Climate Change Adaptation Policy: Feedback from Five European Case Studies, Gaspard Dumollard and Alexia Leseur, Climate Report No. 27, CDC Climat, France, March 2011 [955 KB, PDF]

IFM – A Tool for Integrated Flood Management     

This tool provides information covering different approaches that countries adopted in their quest to address adaptation to climate change related to floods and associated hazards including sediment disasters, storm surges and sea-level rise. It extracts nine case studies from the following countries and a regional organization, namely US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, China, South Korea, and EU.

IFM as an Adaptation Tool for Climate Change: Case Studies, Associated Programme on Flood Management, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP), February 2011 [3.33 MB, PDF]     

Climate Change and Health in Cities     

This review reports on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in cities and assesses their potential to improve urban health. It summarises epidemiological studies primarily from 2005 to 2010 on mortality and morbidity related to two climate hazards in cities: increasing temperatures and the modifying influence of air pollution. 

Climate Change and Health in Cities: Impacts of Heat and Air Pollution and Potential Co-Benefits from Mitigation and Adaptation, Sharon L Harlan and Darren M Ruddell, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, volume 3, issue 3, May 2011, Pages 126-134, 2011 [subscription required]

Essay Contest – Women and Climate Change

Since mainstreaming the gender perspective on climate change is not only a sensible choice for our societies, but also a better, more efficient way to tackle climate change, the Greens/EFA Group is opening an essay contest on the topic. The essay contest aims to raise awareness of the existing problems and create a better understanding of their causes and possible solutions. Papers may be submitted before 1 June 2011.     

Essay Contest – Women and Climate Change, Call for Papers, the Greens/EFA Group and Green Foundations, Deadline: 1^st June 2011 [140 KB, PDF]

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Professor Darryn McEvoy, Program Leader, RMIT University Climate Change Adaptation Programme

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Saleem Janjua, editor AdaptNet.