Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

This chapter presents a methodological framework to build an index for participatory vulnerability assessment of rainfed agriculture in Ngayokheme rural community, Senegal. Through a participatory approach, the chapter identifies components/resources of rainfed agricultural system, evaluated their exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacities to climatic and non-climatic stressors. A review of the main vulnerability indices developed in the literature highlighted gaps. And based on the weaknesses of the existing indices, a new index combining exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacities is proposed. A tool for vulnerability assessment replicable in different contexts and accessible to all disciplines has been built. The vulnerability of the whole system of rainfed agriculture as well as each of its components was quantified using a participatory approach. The chapter attempts to provide a detailed framework for assessing vulnerability to climate change of the rainfed agriculture, in such a manner that all countries of the region can follow it. Climate change is affecting rainfed agriculture in Senegal. To mitigate impacts of climate change and increase the resilience of the sector, a good vulnerability assessment is required. This is why an index for assessing vulnerability to climate change of the rainfed agriculture has been suggested. This focused on strengthening the vulnerability evidence base to support climate change policy, advancing knowledge and training to understand climate change impacts, and implementing adaptation measures. The framework presented on this chapter could yield substantial benefits for Senegalese and other Sahelian countries.

The chapter aims to estimate the climate change impacts within a probabilistic multi-model framework. The suggested approach attempts to improve the reliability of the climate change impact assessment approach by considering the three main sources of uncertainty.Climate change impacts on the climate variables in Iran’s Zayandeh-Rud River Basin have been evaluated. Multi-model ensemble scenarios are used to deal with the uncertainty in climate change projection for the study period (2015–2044). The probabilistic multi-model ensemble scenarios, which include the 15 GCMs, are used to project the temperature and precipitation for the near future period (2015–2044) under 50 % risk level of climate change.Downscaled climate variables suggest that generally temperature will rise in the Zayandeh-Rud River Basin while the level of temperature increase varies between. The maximum monthly precipitation reduction will occur in winter. This can be of considerable importance for the basin having a semiarid Mediterranean climate in which winter precipitation is the main source of renewable water supply.In the proposed framework, the uncertainties of GCMs, emission scenarios, and climate variability of daily time series are handled by the combination of change factors and a weather generator. Covering the full range of potential climate change, such framework can provide the valuable lessons to policy maker for adapting to climate change.The Zayandeh-Rud River Basin has been constantly facing the water stress problem during the past 60 years. The results of the climate change impacts on the basin’s climate variables can provide the policy insights for regional water managers to address well the water scarcity in the near future.

Community-based adaptation (CBA) is gaining popularity as an approach to supporting vulnerable communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change, but in an environment of competing financial demands, to what extent is CBA economically efficient?Empirical research from NEF Consulting (New Economics Foundation) using an extended social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) of qualitative and quantitative data gathered from four communities compares and contrasts the benefits and investment in CBA initiatives carried out by the Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP), implemented by CARE International in Dakoro, Niger.The results suggest a high return on investment on ALP’s CBA activities in Dakoro and an increase in the economic capital of communities (revenue and savings) as well as social and environmental capitals. Even only taking into account the benefits ALP has generated to date (over 4 years), findings suggest that for every £1 invested in communities, there has been a return of more than £4. In order to capture the future value of community-based adaptation, the evaluative model was extended further to forecast evolutions to 2020 using three core climate scenarios to evaluate the impact on the different forms of communities’ capital under a no intervention scenario, compared to an intervention scenario. Even under a high discount rate, results remain positive and returns are high, proving that CBA is both an economic and socially effective approach to adaptation.

This chapter highlights the benefits of framing adaptation to climate change as an issue of climate risk management and describes a number of methods and approaches that may be applied in the process of developing adaptation strategies. A key consideration when developing adaptation strategies is to have a sound understanding of how a given system functions in response to changes in both climate and non-climate factors, and thus the need for a causal model which represents this understanding. There are a range of methods and tools that may be applied to assist with developing this system understanding in a climate risk assessment, and a number of these are described here. Moreover, given that adaptation planning is to a large degree about forward planning, all adaptation strategies will need to appropriately consider the implications of uncertainty on their likely effectiveness. This chapter provides a discussion of the ways in which adaptation strategies can be developed and decisions made when appraising different adaptation strategies. As such, it provides a basis upon which users can assess how they may approach adaptation as an issue of climate risk management and select and apply suitable methods. It provides a useful accompaniment to any practitioner or organization, as they proceed on their adaptation journey.

This chapter attempts to illustrate the socioeconomic implications of climate change on alpine and cross-country skiing, golf, snowmobiling, and nature parks at a local and regional level. A transdisciplinary approach is used to create a framework for adaptation responses relevant to the Laurentian and the Eastern Townships regions. Participatory Action Research (PAR) process through social analysis tools and techniques www.sas2.net (SAS2) leads to better comprehension of perceived changes and business realities, recognition of climate risks, and identification of actions to manage CC-related risk. This process establishes an environment for dialogue, transparency, and progressive awareness about spatial and temporal repercussions for subsectors and regions. Consequently, growing concerns relate to the need to plan adaptation solutions by combining them to other significant business challenges. Interests now focus on feasible adaptation responses to the current effects and projected climate, along with its interrelated socioeconomic risks. The main aim here is to outline a more personalized approach by encouraging business-driven solutions, in such a manner that it can be used as a model to other tourism regions in the province of Quebec.

This chapter introduces the institutional environment matrix (IEM), a diagnostic and planning framework designed to analyze complex institutional environments and determine the institutional fit of climate change adaptation responses. The framework argues that the institutional environment is comprised of rules, social structures, and organizations. It establishes the vital role of institutional arrangements in characterizing the functions and functional interdependencies of institutions. The IEM framework has a dual layer design that allows complex institutional relationships to be examined across scales. The institutional environment layer is a comprehensive inventory of institutions that outlines institutional complexities. The institutional matrix layer is the system of institutional arrangements that determines the functional interdependencies of institutions. The matrix explores institutional interplay in relation to several general institutional functions: reducing uncertainty, connecting individuals to society, fostering adaptive capacity, and mobilizing resource utilization. By providing a structure to examine complex institutional relationships, the IEM is a significant innovation for assessing the institutional fit of and interplay between existing and planned climate change adaptation responses. This framework may also be used as an analytical tool in adaptation planning and evaluation.

In recent years the population of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) has been confronted with rapid social, economic, demographic, and political changes. In addition, the region is particularly vulnerable to climate change. However, there is a scarcity of cohesive information on the state of the environment and on the socioeconomic situation of the approximately 210 million people who reside in the HKH. Specifically, data on livelihood vulnerability and responsive behavior is lacking. To address this gap the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has developed the Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity Assessment (VACA), a research tool to explore livelihood vulnerability to environmental and socioeconomic change as well as adaptive capacity in the mountain context. As part of the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP), ICIMOD has carried out a representative quantitative survey that interviewed about 6,100 households in three sub-basins in the HKH region: the Upper Indus sub-basin in Pakistan, the Eastern Brahmaputra sub-basin in India, and the Koshi sub-basin in Nepal. The chapter discusses the operationalization of vulnerability in the VACA questionnaires, the research design of the VACA survey, and first findings for the three sub-basins.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain and come to an understanding of the causes of forced migration and climate displacement due to the climate change in the present era of globalization. Environmental crisis along with the increasing impacts of climate change in Bangladesh has become an important cause of cross-border migration to South Asian countries. This chapter attempts to focus on migration and climate displacement in Bangladesh. The research is based upon theoretical sources and empirical data. The consequences of such movement of population in South Asian context will generate a range of destabilizing sociopolitical, economic, and climate change impacts in the future. Bangladesh is commonly recognized as one of the most climate-vulnerable countries on earth and is set to become even more so as a result of climate change. This chapter underlines that climate displacement is not just a phenomenon to be addressed at some point in the future; it is a crisis that is unfolding across Bangladesh now. Sea-level rise and tropical cyclones in coastal areas as well as flooding and riverbank erosion in mainland areas, combined with the socioeconomic situation of the country, are already resulting in the loss of homes, land and property which are common phenomenon in Bangladesh. Among the many causes of vulnerability of people, cross-border migration due to climate change might increase the susceptibility of people to climate change in South Asian countries. This chapter examines the details of legal framework of current and future causes of climate displacement in Bangladesh. It further analyzes existing government policies and programs intended to provide solutions to climate displacement and relief to climate displaced persons and emphasizes that rights-based solutions must be utilized as the basis for solving this crisis.

As the impacts of climate change become more widely acknowledged, federal governments are beginning to address the subject in the national agenda. However, the difficulty in determining the magnitude and impacts of climate change has led to challenges in policy-making. This chapter seeks to create a comprehensive understanding of how Colombia and the federal government have made important advances in implementing a climate change framework with a focus on health.This chapter will provide context on the role and responsibilities of the government before discussing the climatic conditions of Colombia and how climate change is impacting the country, especially on the health sector. Such discussion will justify why climate change is a major current and future priority for the country. The chapter will then examine the existing climate change policy framework and ongoing projects that are targeted toward climate and health. This chapter will show that there is still a need to improve the capacities and interest of the public health research community by improving the evidence and knowledge about climate change impacts, vulnerability, and risk. Understanding Colombia’s national circumstances will allow other countries and decision-makers to potentially use Colombia as an example to define their own health and climate change agendas.

Climate change poses a major threat to sustainable urban development in Africa. Changes in the frequency, intensity, and duration of climate extremes (droughts, floods, and heat waves, among others) will affect the livelihoods of the urban population, particularly the poor and other vulnerable communities who live in slums and marginalized settlements. Extreme changes in weather patterns will increase incidences of natural disasters and impact on all key sectors of the economy, including the urban economy, agriculture and forestry, water resources, coastal areas and settlements, and health. In Africa, where livelihoods are mainly based on climate-dependent resources and environment, the effect of climate change will be disproportionate and severe. Moreover, Africa’s capacity to adapt to and cope with the adverse effects of climate variability is generally weak. This chapter examines the relations between climate change and urban development in Africa and looks at the role and effect of climate change on urban development. It also assesses the available policy options for adaptation and mitigating climate change effects in urban Africa.

Climate change is a relatively new governance area in which policy and practice tend to precede theory or advance simultaneously. Establishing effective legal and institutional frameworks is crucial to its management. This chapter conducts a comparative analysis of the climate change governance frameworks of four developing countries, namely, the Philippines, Mexico, South Africa, and Kenya, all of which have enacted or propose climate change legislations, strategies, and related institutional structures and have decentralized governments. These are contrasted with the UK, the first to globally enact a framework climate change law. The results indicate that despite being time- and resource consuming, enactment of stand-alone framework climate change legislation is preferred over piecemeal amendments to relevant laws. Another key finding is the overwhelming adoption of mainstreaming as an important approach to managing climate change. Moreover, both adaptation and mitigation are considered equally important, mitigation being seen as a function of adaptation. This disabuses the notion that developing countries do not or should not focus much on mitigation. Institutionally, establishment of (often) a new high-level cross-sectoral climate change coordinating institution domiciled in the office of and/or chaired by the head of state is common. Such institutions offer general policy guidance and are supported at lower levels by an advisory panel of experts and a technical administrative secretariat. Procedures to ensure clear coordination between the central and devolved governments are in many instances outlined. Climate finance sources and management strategies are mixed. Sharing of experiences and strong support for national climate change legislations under ongoing post-Kyoto negotiations are recommended.

Concerns have been raised to make coastal physical infrastructure climate resilient for enhancing the resiliency of the coastal community. However, so far little has been done in this regard. This paper has threefold objectives. The first is to identify the nature of projects that have been implemented in the coastal areas that put higher emphasis on adaptive capacity maximization and ignored the issues of exposure minimization. Second is to unveil how donors’ biases toward adaptive capacity building projects have undermined the climate compatible physical infrastructure development projects until recently. Third is to present the recent development as regards climate compatible physical infrastructure development with the support of the government as well as the donors.This study is primarily based on review of data sources presented in the full chapter. It follows a meta-analysis technique for review of published studies on building resilient coastal communities in Bangladesh. Particularly studies and reports have focused on projects for adaptive capacity enhancements and exposure and sensitivity minimization through the establishment of physical measures such as coastal roads and highways, rural growth centers/markets, embankments, polders, sluice gates and cyclone/flood shelters, and afforestation program. While analyzing, the DPSIR (driving forces, pressure, state, impacts, responses) framework was used implicitly.Although coastal infrastructures are in general vulnerable to both intensive risk and extensive risk posed by various hydrometeorological disasters, infrastructures are mostly vulnerable to cyclonic surges due to their higher 44 exposure. Although disrupted infrastructures seriously undermine the people’s efforts toward building a resilient community, yet for decades, donors have neglected the issues of climate compatible infrastructure development; rather, they have pumped millions of dollars for community-wide adaptive capacity enhancement through NGOs. However, lately, it was realized that adaptive capacity enhancement alone can do little to build a resilient coastal community unless adequate attention is given for exposure and sensitivity minimization measures. It has appeared that investing in climate compatible infrastructure development could minimize the exposure and sensitivity of coastal people toward the threats of climatic disasters. Therefore, a new form of investment is underway, which will be discussed in the paper to a greater level of detail.

Chicago Wilderness, a multistate alliance of more than 300 organizations dedicated to restoring biodiversity, is leading the effort to bridge the gap between climate science and biodiversity adaptation practices in urban natural areas and green spaces. In 2010, Chicago Wilderness completed the Climate Action Plan for Nature (CAPN), which describes potential climate change impacts within the 221,000 ha of protected areas in the region, and actions managers can take to help species and ecosystems adapt to climate change. The CAPN represents the first Climate Action Plan to address issues of biodiversity conservation in the Great Lakes region and is the only known example of place-based adaptation strategies for urban biodiversity. This chapter depicts the creation of the Chicago Wilderness Climate Action Initiative and the ensuing work to implement the CAPN, highlighting the challenges and importance of creating landscape level conservation approaches that integrate climate science information into best management practices. This collaborative effort can serve as a model for use in other urban centers.

Decision-makers on different levels face an information deficit with regard to choosing promising adaptation measures. While the ever present concept of good practice may prove helpful in closing this gap, the term is often poorly defined. Therefore, this article attempts to substantiate the concept of good practice in climate change adaptation by developing a set of key criteria for evaluating adaptation measures. This potentially leads to sounder decision-making and a better transfer of experiences. By way of an extensive literature review, a variety of definitions and criteria for good practice in adaptation is revealed. Using predefined selection rules like non-redundancy, applicability, comprehensibility, completeness, and measurability, the identified criteria are condensed and then ranked by experts. This way, the article identifies six key evaluation criteria that should be considered when deciding whether an adaptation measure can be deemed good practice example or not. These are effectiveness, robustness, sustainability, financial feasibility, positive side effects, and flexibility. Subsequently, the set of criteria is illustrated by evaluating several good practice examples on the local level in Germany. Eventually, limits of the derived good practice criteria are discussed.

This chapter examines the relationship of climate change, health, and gender in the Pacific region; identifies gaps in research, capacity, and support; and proposes a framework illustrating the practical adaptation measures to be applied in strengthening the Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) public health sector capacity and policy. Using literature review as the research method, the study found that although other countries in the pacific are mostly affected by the climate change impacts, PNG remains highly affected by the climate-induced health impacts. Hence, a case study on Papua New Guinea was prepared. The chapter provides a practical understanding and knowledge on emerging health threats, gender issues, and adaptation measures to strengthen the Pacific and PNG’s public health system. The framework presented in this chapter could be highly beneficial not only for PNG but also for the whole Pacific region.

Global climate change will have significant impacts on natural systems and human societies throughout the world. Therefore, climate adaptation strategies need to be developed at multiple scales. The Interreg IVB project “Climate Proof Areas” (CPA) has focused on climate adaptation at a regional scale in twelve pilot areas across four North Sea countries. It showed that the regional scale provides challenging opportunities of cross-sectoral climate adaptation. This paper gives an overview of experiences from the CPA pilot studies and embeds these in a generic approach for regional climate adaptation. Attention is paid to typical issues of coastal regions: water management, coastal protection, freshwater supply, land use, and spatial planning. Based on typical challenges of climate adaptation such as low sense of urgency, high degree of uncertainty regarding future development, and decision-making on a long term, a number of illustrative components are discussed which can contribute to the guidance of regional climate adaptation. These components cover different themes including communication issues, physical solutions, knowledge, and process-oriented approaches and result in a so-called adaptation toolkit. Finally we draw conclusions and derive recommendations about how certain approaches and policies at different levels can contribute to successful regional climate adaptation in coastal areas.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, an increase in the rate of retreat has been observed in Himalayan glaciers since the advent of industrialization. This chapter attempts to present a critical review and understanding of the recent changes in retreat of selected Himalayan glaciers from climate change and implications for adaptation. The chapter is of great significance to local and regional adaptation planners and local decision makers for communities, ecosystem, and sustainable energy planning. The study discusses the different methods of monitoring changes in Himalayan glaciers; explores scientific evidence and analysis of available data from the glaciers in the Himalayas, from a climate change perspective; and suggests an action plan for future freshwater resource needs downstream.The data represent fluctuations and varied responses of glaciers of Indian Himalayas towards changes being encountered globally. The longest data series of mass balance available for Shaune Garang glacier does not indicate any generalized trend of mass balance in the region. The analysis of snout retreat in comparison to area of the glacier does not give any information about any relationship between snout fluctuations and area of a glacier. The snout retreat analyzed on regional basis also lack of showing any clear trend of retreat/advance for a particular region. Thus to understand this kind of interrelationship, the influence of microclimatic parameters is required for which there is a lack of data availability. Future efforts in building the resilience of the local community and the ecosystems should take into account a concerted and integrated approach.

Nowadays no other region on earth is more threatened by natural hazards than coastal areas. However the increasing risk in this area is not just a climate extreme events’ result. Coasts are the places with highest concentration of people and values, thus impacts continue to increase as the values of coastal infrastructures continue to grow. Climate change aggravates chronic social vulnerabilities since social groups may be affected differently both by climate change as well as by risk management actions. Relationships between these groups are often characterized by inequality, with different perceptions, response, or adaptation modes to climate hazards. Misperception of these differences often leads to policies that deepen inequities and increase the vulnerability of the weakest groups. Population affected by climatic extreme events increases dramatically resulting in urgent adaptation intervention. We address the interdependence of risk perception and vulnerability of coastal communities and the relevance of ecosystem services for adaptation. We developed a methodology where risk analysis and communities’ risk perception are linked through key actions at strategic points of risk assessment: (i) initial interviews with qualified local informants to complete an inventory of ecosystem services, (ii) a social valuation of ecosystem services by local people, and (iii) assessment of stakeholders’ social vulnerability. This approach allows a truly socially weighted risk assessment to be validated in three sites: Valle de Itajai (Brazil), Estuary of Lagoa dos Patos (Brazil), and Laguna de Rocha (Uruguay). In this novel approach, risk assessment is forced by social perceptions, thus risk treatment can better contribute to realistic adaptation arrangements to cope with climate forces. Public policies could be improved, recognizing healthy functioning ecosystems as key factor for coastal resilience and well-being.

A growing body of literature came up with suggestion to enhance adaptive capacity of poor and marginalized population to build a resilient society against climatic disasters. Although many earlier qualitative works have indicated the factors that should be addressed to enhance such adaptive capacity, however very scanty of them quantitatively assessed the influences of those factors on various dimensions of people’s adaptive capacity. This chapter assesses quantitatively the influences of various demographic and socioeconomic, past adaptive behavioral, climate/weather information/knowledge products, and physical environmental (spatial/locational) factors on the adaptive capacity of coastal people against the livelihood insecurity that are caused by hydrometeorological events.The empirical part of this research was conducted in three villages of Kalapara Upazila (subdistrict) located close to the shoreline of Bay of Bengal in southwest part of Bangladesh. A total of 285 respondents were randomly interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire in 2009. Respondents were asked to rate their adaptive capacity against 25 impacts that cause their livelihood insecure. The principal component analysis (PCA) technique was employed to identify the major dimensions of livelihood insecurity. Livelihood insecurities are related to (a) severe constraints in agriculture farming and allied activities; (b) severe damage of physical and socioeconomic infrastructures; (c) severe constraints in fishing (mostly offshore) related activities; and (d) severe crisis in freshwater supply and public health risk. How does adaptive capacity against each of these four dimensions of livelihood insecurity differ due to the influence of various factors is assessed by employing multiple analysis of variance (ANOVAs) technique.The ANOVAs show that among the demographic and socioeconomic factors, sex, education, occupation, farmland holding, membership status (of social institution), and social capitals have the strongest influence on differential adaptive capacity in general. Similarly, among the past adaptive behavioral factors, except the freshwater crisis all other variables, namely, adaptation against flood, rainfall, and salinity intrusion have strong influence in making difference in adaptive capacity. Likewise, almost all climate/weather information/knowledge products have statistically significant influence on various dimensions of adaptive capacity. The policy implication is that while launching any program to enhance the adaptive capacity of coastal people against the threats of hydrometeorological disastrous events on their livelihood security, the identified factors need to be accounted.

This chapter illustrates how the two conceptually distinct climate change adaptation (CCA)Climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR)Disaster risk reduction (DRR) are mainstreamed in the development plans of local government units in the Philippines using integrated frameworks for vulnerability analysis and the development of climate-resilient local Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) and Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) prescribed by the national government. The integration of CCA and DRR in the Philippines came after the failure of the passive disaster management, utilized since 1954, to prepare and response to disasters caused by extreme weather events of climate change. Using the case study approach, this chapter narrates how disaster-prone Sorsogon City was able to incorporate CCA and DRR measures and strategies in its CLUP and CDP.

Climate change adaptation governance is characterized by complexity and uncertainty, requiring harmonization across different sectors and scales as well as flexibility to respond to changing realities. International organizations have been increasingly involved in adaptation activities, particularly targeted at vulnerable populations, under established project management routines. However, to be effective, adaptation must be inherently context specific and dynamic to suit the ecological conditions and socioeconomic aspects of any given locale. This poses a dilemma: how can international organizations translate their often broadly defined global mandates, while simultaneously downscaling those mandates to suit the specific adaptation needs of given populations and ecosystems?This research takes a case study approach to investigate the climate change adaptation experience of selected United Nations-led programs, investigating their responses to context-specific needs and highlighting the opportunities and challenges found in these experiences. The case study countries comprised of Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Mauritania, Mozambique, Peru, and Turkey. Through the use of the 5C+ Protocol theoretical framework, the experiences of these country programs were compared to determine which factors were of greatest influence in successful program implementation.The research concludes that the most significant challenges were: early inclusion of stakeholders to enable support and ownership of adaptation activities, meaningful participation by people at all levels in the identification of problems and solutions, and proper coordination of activities across affected sectors and governance levels. Paying specific attention to these challenges will allow for greater program effectiveness. However, incorporating such measures into adaptation must also include deliberate learning processes, to allow flexibility in response to potential nonlinearities of climate change.

Changes in climate during this century will have broad impacts on human activities and ecosystems, and the likely consequences are of such a magnitude that the simultaneous need to adapt to the new climate conditions and to reduce the carbon footprint to prevent even further damage will likely become one of the main driving forces for the global community over the coming decades. We attempt to simultaneously address two main questions related to the climate change challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean. First, what are the key physical impacts and consequences of climate change? Second, what are the likely costs to the regional economies derived from these impacts? Results indicate that conservative annual damages are about US$100 billion by 2050 and the overall investment required to adapt is approximately one-fourth to one-sixth of the costs associated with those impacts. Rapid and decisive adaptation actions are urgent to reduce the magnitude of these effects although some irreversible damages would remain as adaptation measures do not generally result in the full restoration of lost natural and cultural capital.

This chapter explores climate change impacts on defense forces (militaries) and suggests ways for them to respond. It considers general military capacity to become more involved in climate adaptation, proposes some best practices, and articulates a decision framework for action. We have developed a framework for capture and analysis of the military role within broader climate adaptation. The Strategic Military Geography (SMG) Framework is a decision framework that allows collaborative exploration of the relationship between climate change impacts and military activities. SMG employs systemic action research, which integrates systems thinking, participatory action research, and triple-loop learning to address the complex, interlinked issues relating to global change, including climate change. It was found that defense forces can play a significant role in climate adaptation, in armed conflict situations, and in military operations other than war, such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. For example, military personnel are regularly involved as responders to natural disasters and often play a central role in reconstruction. Practical ways that defense forces can build climate adaptiveness include incorporation of projected change and associated uncertainty into preparedness (readiness) planning, improved forecasting, regional and whole-of-government engagement on climate adaptation, and building energy sustainability that reduces carbon emissions. The framework presented supports system-wide long-term planning, fosters greater dialogue between critical stakeholders, and enables transfer of learning between defense forces and other organizations.

Climate change is already presenting material risks and opportunities to business and industrial sectors. As extreme weather events appear to become more frequent with climate change, these risks and opportunities have grown in prominence and, for a growing number of companies, have become closely aligned with project performance.Understanding and managing climate risk and adaptation, at a project level, will be central to ensuring business continuity and reducing costs. Key to enhancing the resilience of future economic stability and growth is to ensure that new project developments consider climate risk and incorporate adaptation measures in their design. This is particularly important in relation to utilities, infrastructure, and the extractives sector (i.e., mining and oil and gas activities). Furthermore, building resilience to climate change and incorporating adaptation measures into project design, as well as impact management programs – such as Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) –, is now being mandated by a growing number of financial institutions, as well as national and state governments.Climate change also presents a new dimension to the traditional impact assessment conceptual framework in that it implies a dynamic rather than static baseline from which project impacts occur. This means that climate change, occurring irrespective of the project, may have the effect of altering the overall significance or magnitude of project impacts on the human and natural environment.This chapter outlines these requirements at a high level and discusses integration of climate risk and adaptation into the capital project development life cycle through compliance with lender requirements, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment procedures, and internal risk management processes. It also presents a simple step-by-step approach to streamlining assessment within the project development process.

Adaptation to climate change has risen up the political agenda in recent years, as the realization that we are committed to at least some level of climate change over the next few decades has been acknowledged. It is also the case that a range of different economic sectors, both public and private, increasingly recognize the need for, and importance of, adapting to climate change and the need to manage their climate risks. Adaptation to climate change is a complex issue, and successful adaptation will depend on the intelligent use and combination of a range of different factors, including scientific, organizational, social, and governance structures. This chapter focuses on the role that climate services can play in helping organizations and societies adapt to climate change and variability. It provides an overview of the key components of climate services and details the essential functions which climate services must develop, in order to fully play their role in supporting adaptation decisions and thus, helping society adapt to climate change.

This chapter reviews the place of wetlands in climate change within the overall frame of environmental resource planning. This is against the background of the importance of wetlands as environmental resources which have been described as the kidneys of the landscape as a result of its hydrological and chemical functions and as atmospheric carbon sinks which stabilize the climate. The study reviewed mitigating and adapting measures in literatures that may be adopted in Nigeria in order to enhance the potentials of wetland resources in the country. The chapter asserts that the declining environmental resource base of the country is mainly due to anthropogenic influences because wetlands in Nigeria are largely exploited for economic gains and are basically used for subsistence living or for physical development. Statistical data from the government shows that 60 % of Nigerian population depend solely on the natural resource base and are engaged in farming, cattle rearing, and fishing. This chapter provides measures which include restoration programs, reduction of further disturbance on wetlands, and legislative and policy formulations for protecting wetlands which are considered appropriate and can contribute greatly in mitigating climate change when properly harnessed as a way forward toward climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Climate change poses complex challenges for business not only because of uncertainty associated with the timing and magnitude of projected changes but also because of the interconnectedness between risks and impacts in the modern globalized economy. Drawing on the practical experience with forward-thinking companies in the extractives, chemicals, power, transport, and agriculture sectors, this chapter introduces the concept of systems thinking for managing climate risk and developing adaptation strategies and presents four key steps that businesses can take to (1) understand climate context, (2) assess climate risks and opportunities, (3) develop a business case for managing climate risk and build resilience throughout their value chain, and (4) create a strategy to provide direction and ensure integration within the business. It also presents practical examples of how businesses are addressing these challenges through case studies in a number of business sectors. By providing a means for companies to “see the wood for the trees,” the practical actions required to manage climate risk are demystified, and business leaders are provided with tools to help ensure that their companies are proactive in understanding and managing climate risk and adaptation.

This chapter examines the impacts of climate variability on selected socio-ecological settings in South Asia. A transdisciplinary conceptual framework is presented that blends multilevel interactions in a social-ecological-climate nexus. The overarching objective is to draw on empirical experience to build capacity to make use of climate data for societal needs, i.e., to facilitate climate change adaptation planning. The chapter has two modules. The first module, Climate Change Monitoring (CCM), details the operating structure of real-time climate data and its practical use. The second module, Climate Change Assessment (CCA), examines impacts and adaptation options using a case study approach. Focusing on the analytical process, the authors examine three socio-ecological subsystems, i.e., marine fisheries, a rice agroecosystem, and human migration, using a mixed “tool box” of meteorological data, remote sensing images, primary and secondary socioeconomic information, and a variety of software programs. The results indicate that (1) spatial indicators are useful in explaining a decline in marine ecosystem productivity; (2) local-level temperature variability is closely related to agroecosystem transitions; and (3) climatic variability, especially increased frequency of extreme events, triggers human migration. The case studies highlight the need to employ real-time climate data in the design of adaptation strategies and the requirement for a transdisciplinary approach.

Urbanization has profoundly affected the environment and climate all over the world and has intensified the climate change impacts. The aim of this research is to study of effects of urbanization as the most suspicious factor of climate change in a holistic view applying system dynamics approach. An introduction to urbanization and climate change as an obstacle to sustainable development will be presented in general. Then, in particular, Tehran metropolis is described, since the city is an excellent example of the issue. In this regard, the focus will be on complexity of such dilemma. Then, system dynamics approach (SDA) that can play a key role in solving these kinds of problems will be introduced. Furthermore, the prototypes of the system are recognized. Finally, management practices and solutions of the problem are presented. The effects of urbanization will be reviewed in a new approach which has not been applied in previous studies. The involving mechanisms in this process are recognized. “Fixes that fail,” “success to the successful,” and “tragedy of commons” are the most prevalent prototypes in the system based on which solutions are presented.

Climate changeClimate change is recognized to be the greatest environmental problem facing the whole world due to its adverse impacts especially on the agricultural production, which is expected to vary across the countries. Within the context of Egypt’s dependence on cereal imports to fill its production gap, this chapter shows that the climate change is expected to indirectly affect these cereal imports, namely, wheat and maize, through affecting the cereal production in the major exporting countries.Specifically, the chapter concludes a positive relationship between the Egyptian imports of wheat from the USA and the climate change presented in its impact on wheat production in the USA and on the contrary a neutral and negative relationships for both the Egyptian imports of wheat from Russia and imports of maize from the USA and Argentina.Accordingly, the chapter recommends diversifying the import markets of cereals to EgyptEgypt to prevent the domination of few countries on the importsImports of such strategic commodities as wheat and maize, in addition to the urgency of enhancing the domestic production through applying the suitable adaptation and mitigation methods to face the expected negative impacts of climate change on cereal production in Egypt.

Urbanization and climate change are two current significant trends of the Earth’s history. Both influence one another. Given the increasing disastrous impacts of global warming, it is vital to understand their development and interaction.The concentration of people, infrastructures, and economic activities in urban areas contributes to the global growth of greenhouse gas emissions. But it also makes cities particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Yet many opportunities lie within the powers held by local governments. In fact, through their sectoral policies (land-use planning, transport, buildings, energy use, waste management, etc.), city governments can develop efficient strategies to mitigate and adapt to the effects of global warming. Adaptation strategies are especially important as they allow connecting local needs with global concerns. The governance structure of the city and the capacity of the different stakeholders to collaborate in the definition and implementation of adaptation plans are therefore essential to ensure that local actions are efficient.This chapter presents the implications of climate change in urban environments and the challenges it raises in terms of adaptation policies. It provides illustrations of responses adopted at the city level and points out at the barriers and opportunities faced by local policy-makers.

Adaptation to climate change and extreme climate eventsCertainty of law is an important attribute in a democratic society; however, often certainty is synonymous with inflexible, traditional laws, perhaps no longer appropriate in times of rapid social, geographical, and natural system change. Institutional capacity to adapt to climate change has been shown to be a key determinant of adaptive capacity; law is a foundational institution of socio-environmental regimes. Appropriate provisions are required in law in order to ensure that the institution of law can adapt to future variability and extreme climate events of drought and flood. Law must facilitate adaptive governance and reflect principles of adaptive law.Laws and their mechanisms (regulatory, economic, and suasive instruments) can reduce exposure or vulnerability thereby building capacity to respond to anticipated increasing future variability in extreme climate events. However, there is also the possibility that the opposite impact may occur, and laws impede adaptation. This chapter explores this tension.This chapter focuses on an assessment of laws and legal mechanisms to improve adaptive capacity of rural agricultural producers to respond to climate variability and change. Legal instruments in relation to water, specifically the property interest in water, impact rural agricultural producers. A comparative assessment of three legal water tools (market, common property, and public property) impacting vulnerability in relation to extreme events of drought and flood is conducted, and conclusions are made on their ability to assist adaptation.

Adaptation of climate change (CC) has been defined by many of the world’s leading institutions such as IPCC and UNFCCC in various contexts. Many studies, research, and reports on CC mitigation were reported, but less was done on adaptation. Adaptation is strategically needed to lower the impact of CC that is manifesting coupled with serious challenges and risks for cities such as high temperatures, water availability, floods and droughts, and sea-level rise damage to coastal areas. Adaptation is vital to offset CC impacts on environment challenges such as soils, biodiversity, inland water, and marine environment. By adopting effective measures and early actions for CCA, money and lives can be saved. The EU Climate Action highlighted six areas where adaptation measures should be applied and financed. Strategies for CCA are vital at all levels of government administration whether local, regional, or national to counterbalance CC. Areas with high vulnerability to CC impact and need adaptation actions, policies, and measures; are mainly in Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia-Pacific, North America, and Africa; and have been highlighted. Gaps in the assessment of the full costs of CC compared to that of CC mitigation were discussed. Many researches that have been conducted on CC policy are mainly for mitigation, but less was focusing on the assessment of cost. The EU which allocated 20 % of funding to climate, costs, and benefits of adaptation is recently focusing on the cost inclusion of adaptation in urban policies and projects and the cost of actual adaptation measures. Costs and benefits of adaptation options were reviewed by UNFCCC, mainly methodological issues for estimating the costs and benefits of adaptation options followed by the economics of adaptation in light of the review. Information and guidance for the costing of adaptation options are outlined, including many major methods and techniques for adaptation option appraisal and decision analysis in the climate change adaptation that have been recently reported such as cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), the cost–benefit analysis (CBA), and the multi-criteria analysis (MCA). It also presents a comparison between these costing and benefits and techniques. This chapter reviews and discusses five main folds: (1) why is climate change adaptation necessary; (2) the importance of climate change adaptation (CCA); (3) what are the methods of CCA; (4) the widening gap between CC impacts and required adaptation measures, including the most affected regions and case studies of CCA in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America; and (5) what is the cost of CCA including how costs of CCA are assessed and financed. It also attempts to review the CCA funding mechanisms with focus on cities and urban areas. It is clear that many actions, measures, and funds have been developed, but the gap is still widening in developing poor countries, and the robust machinery to significantly execute the current funding in productive channels is highly required if facilitating adaptation to CC impacts and minimizes risks.

India is currently executing the National Action Plan on Climate Change (GoI. National Action Plan on Climate Change. Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, New Delhi, 2008), and subsequently the states have been asked to formulate the state-specific action plans to integrate the national objectives and to implement specific climate change measures. Several questions arise on the impact of mission-mode adaptation policy interventions on enhancing the capacities of women to cope with climate vulnerabilities. Gender is a crosscutting issue, and it is well established that climate change affects women disproportionately more than men due to inequities in accessing resources and opportunities to enable them to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, as well as due to the roles that they play and the responsibilities that they shoulder. Addressing gender concerns in the context of climate change requires engendering the government-led adaptation strategies, supported by requisite budgetary outlays. So far the gender budgeting framework has not looked into the aspect of climate change impacts on women. In order to fill the research gaps, the paper attempts to bring forth the analytical interlinkage between gender and climate change by analyzing critically the budgets of select states of India – Uttarakhand (UK), Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), and West Bengal (WB). The paper attempts to quantify the public expenditure on adaptation to climate change for the select states and the priority accorded to addressing gender concerns in the various sectors within the overall adaptation framework.

This chapter assesses the prospects for progress toward sustainable urban development in Istanbul/Turkey, as an outcome of interrelated innovative policies for climate change mitigation which reduces carbon emissions from cities/towns and earthquake mitigation-led urban regeneration. It first provides a generic model of planning for low carbon cities which integrates “top-down” and “bottom-up” components. This model structures the subsequent analysis of the experience of planning for eco-settlements in EU countries, with particular reference to the UK. Lessons from this experience then inform an analysis of policy development in Turkey at national/local levels, which focuses on climate change mitigation action and earthquake mitigation-led neighborhood regeneration programs. A case study of Kartal, Istanbul, demonstrates the application of these policies which have the potential for reducing carbon emissions from Turkish cities through the redevelopment of earthquake-vulnerable, poor-quality, carbon-intensive housing areas and replacing them with low carbon neighborhoods. As the housing stock in Turkish cities contributes over a quarter of national carbon emissions, this will make a major contribution to national carbon reduction targets and help make urban areas earthquake resilient. This assessment has implications for earthquake-threatened cities elsewhere in the world.

While, generally, climate change affects Africa negatively, indigenous peoples will suffer more, considering their lifestyle which is intricately attached to land. On three grounds, this chapter argues the importance of safeguarding indigenous peoples through “land-sensitive” adaptation policy at the national level in Africa. First, this is based on the evidence of existing forms of “land-sensitive” adaptation practices among indigenous peoples in the face of climate variability over time in Africa. Second, the current emerging range of climatic variation in Africa, however, challenges these “land-sensitive” adaptation practices of indigenous peoples. Finally, although international climate adaptation policy requires the protection of indigenous peoples in its processes, states in Africa hardly comply with this prescription while engaging with these processes at the domestic level. The chapter concludes by suggesting what a “land-sensitive” adaptation policy at national level should embody for indigenous peoples in Africa.

This chapter engages with the current political and academic debate on the governance of “climate migration.” It highlights the difficulties of ascribing a unique cause to migration and questions the relevance of distinguishing “climate migration” from other forms of migration. It then exposes the opportunities and challenges of this concept for international cooperation. Finally, it assesses the potential of different policy options. Despite the difficulties related to the attribution of migration to a unique driver, the concept of “climate migration” appears as a powerful communicative strategy to trigger important international and domestic actions with regard to climate change adaptation and to the protection of the rights of migrants, even though a specific legal regime remains unlikely and perhaps undesirable.

Local municipal governments have a crucial role in helping communities adapt to climate change. Recognizing different levels of climate preparedness, this chapter analyzes what steps communities tend to follow when they move forward on climate adaptation, including prerequisites for planning and the selection of policies. Drawing on content analyses of local climate adaptation plans from the USA and Australia, as well as interviews with municipal planners in both nations, the chapter explores the adaptation policy choices communities are making and explains the range of strategies local governments have used to move forward on a “ladder” of climate adaptation, proceeding from awareness and constituency building activities through formal risk analyses and strategic planning for climate adaptation, through implementation through specific changes to land-use planning and infrastructure investment. Factors found to support or hinder these efforts relate to political will, staff resources, technical information, and training in potential policy responses. Significant barriers include issues of property rights and sunk investment in vulnerable locations (particularly along the coast), as well as shifting community and political views about the reality of climate change. Overall, progress in municipal climate adaptation planning is patchy and affected by wider policy frameworks and access to state- or national-level support. However, this chapter highlights opportunities for municipalities to move forward on climate adaption planning, despite local barriers to action.

Adaptation has become an obligatory part of larger Territorial Climate and Energy Plans, mandatory by law for all communities over 50,000 in France. This chapter first described these TCEPs and then analyzes the elaboration process of two different approaches for an adaptation strategy. The first one is incremental, sector specific in an urban setting, and tightly associated to urban planning in the city of Dijon. The other is holistic, multisectorial, and multi-issue, in a semi-urbanized area that includes agriculture, very high-tech production, valleys, and high mountain areas. We then offer an evaluation of both approaches, with respective strengths, weaknesses, and potentials.

This chapter attempts to have an in-depth understanding of the climate change policy context of Bangladesh with regard to the notion of disaster vulnerability as a policy concern. The chapter reviews the policy from a social vulnerability perspective. With regard to the socioeconomic and environmental context of Bangladesh, it develops an analytical framework to examine the climate change policy. There is a lack of conceptualizing disaster vulnerability in policy formulation that makes it biased towards “physical adaptation” measures to reduce disaster risk. The political economy of climate change initiatives in Bangladesh leaves little scope to address vulnerability of grassroots communities. The chapter argues that in a country like Bangladesh where lack-of-development-led problems are persistent, there is an urgent need to develop context-responsive policies and action plans that should address the causes and dynamic processes of disaster vulnerability and lack-of-development issues in an integrated manner. Existing climate change policies do not address the structural dynamics of disaster vulnerability adequately. To this end, the chapter suggests policy-relevant insights towards the formulation of people-centered policies and strategies for Bangladesh.

Climate change has imposed an extra burden on the social and economic challenges faced by Sri Lanka, due to increasing vulnerability of a majority of its people whose livelihoods are dependent on climate-sensitive natural resources, mainly dealing with agriculture. The National Agriculture Policy (NAP) of 2007, National Livestock Development Policy (NLDP) of 2007, and National Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Policy (NFARP) of 2006 are the key policies that govern Sri Lanka’s crops, livestock (including poultry), and fisheries sectors, respectively, under variable and changing climatic conditions. Sri Lanka has taken measures to adapt to climatic risks in these sectors at various levels. The establishment of Climate Change Secretariat of Sri Lanka is a significant step towards integrating and mainstreaming climate change adaptation activities to the development planning of the country. Sri Lanka, being a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 1994, has made considerable attempts in its policy framework and strategic approaches to address the impacts of climate change in crops, livestock, and fisheries sectors, which are directly related to food production. Adaptation to climate change in these three key sectors of Sri Lankan economy is supported by the National Environmental Policy (NEP) of 2003, National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) of 2012, and National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS) 2011–2016. As discussed in detail in this chapter, Sri Lanka has an enabling policy environment in supporting the adaptive strategies and building resilience to climate change. However, given the inherent complexity in adaptation to climate change, the country is facing a challenging situation especially due to the intricacy brought by the institutional coordinating mechanism in the three sectors. A significant level of capacity constraints exists in the sectoral institutes in meeting their mandates to implement policies and strategies related to climate change in Sri Lanka.

This chapter investigated the role of energy efficiency as a means of meeting energy needs in the developing economies of West Africa (a region suffering from energy poverty), as well as adaptation to global warming, Climate change and its related risks. It draws on a literature survey to buttress the fact that energy efficiency remains the surest pathway to curb energy and resource wastage, and also reduction of the impending consequences of man-made carbon emissions to the ecosystem. The chapter compares energy profiles and climate vulnerabilities of three West African states. The metrics used in this study can be used for the easy assessment of climate risks posed by inefficient also energy usage, deforestation, and negative trends in the transportation sector of countries in the West African region.

We explore effective management of the interplay between the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to enhance the biodiversity co-benefits of adaptation. By using the framework of interplay management in environmental governance, this research analyzes (1) the interactions between the UNFCCC and the CBD via ecosystem-based adaptation discussions, interactions that could reduce negative impacts and enhance positive effects on biodiversity, and (2) the efforts of the relevant actors in these interactions. We show that the CBD is addressing tangible ecosystem-based adaptation issues and that the UNFCCC refers to these efforts. However, there is limited explicit collaboration between the two Conventions because of their different characteristics. The key actors who are especially important in efforts to strengthen linkages between the two agencies with respect to ecosystem-based adaptation are the UNFCCC and CBD secretariats; the Joint Liaison Group (JLG), which links national adaptation programs of action and national biodiversity strategies and action plans; multilateral aid agencies such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that serve as financial mechanisms to UNFCCC and CBD; and national government ministries that address environmental problems in developing countries and can coordinate relevant actors at the national level.

This chapter aims to analyze the laws and public policies in relation to climate change in Brazil, its implementation, and concrete results. Through a review of legislation and state of the art, this chapter gives evidence to the positive and negative interventions of the public policies since the 1950s until the present moment, using some examples, such as the bad initiative of construction of roads that promoted the deforestation and the good work made in Paragominas, Pará, to reduce environmental degradation and deforestation. As results, this chapter proposes a new perspective of the environmental law and reveals its importance in order to cope with the challenges of climate change and environmental issues, in an integrative way. In order to do so, it seeks to integrate society and governments’ efforts to make possible the changes in the present climate situation, as it has been made in some isolated cases, such as Paragominas.

Adaptation assistance is a key element in promoting adaptation measures in developing countries. However, adaptation finance has not fully met the needs of adaptation in developing countries because of its limited amount and ineffective distribution. This chapter provides implications for designing more effective financing for adaptation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, by analyzing the characteristics of two types of existing adaptation financing targeting Asia–Pacific developing countries: (1) multilateral adaptation funds related to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and (2) bilateral official development assistance. The effects of the two financing schemes are compared, focusing on their financing rules and procedures and their targets and effects. The chapter shows that the adaptation finance schemes have strengths and weaknesses. The GEF-related multilateral adaptation finance has the potential to bring together various donors and organizations in implementing adaptation, while it has complex financing procedures and rules. Bilateral official development assistance is able to provide more adaptation finance, while it is more influenced by donors’ interests. To promote adaptation activities effectively in developing countries, there is a need for an international framework for coordinating adaptation financing that enhances the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of both financing systems.

India is among the developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change, while also in need to promote economic growth to alleviate poverty. To promote sustainable, low-carbon, and climate-resilient growth, India will require continuous efforts in mitigation and adaptation through Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions and National and State Adaptation Plans. This chapter analyzes the financial requirements for mitigation and adaptation in India and highlights that multilateral agencies’ support in climate mitigation and adaptation has been higher in the past than the funds received through global funds established through climate change conventions. The chapter recommends that though continuous support of multilateral agencies will be required in the future, efforts to access mitigation and adaptation funds must be made through global climate change negotiations.

This study identifies current gaps and opportunities of existing floodFlood regulatory frameworks and national climate change strategies of BangladeshBangladesh. In so doing, the research develops a framework to reconcile the interest of land, water, and people in order to reduce the vulnerability of extreme flooding and develop strategies for future flood management. The study reveals that the existing flood regulatory framework is only effective for relief and response during times of flooding but has significant gaps and inadequate provisions to increase communities’ adaptive capacity and resilience to deal with future flooding vulnerability under climate change. The flood management system also suffers from a lack of coordination, complex institutional frameworks, and budgetary constraints. The findings of the study also reveal that people’s/communities’ participation is at a very early state in flood-related project formulation and implementation, and they are totally absent at the level of flood management committees. In addition, the study strongly urges introduction of evidence-based flood policy formulation to reconcile the interest of land, water, and people. Working in this way will give people and communities a voice in the decision-making process, ensure the participation of vulnerable people in decision-making around flooding, and take immediate initiatives to fill the existing gaps and weaknesses of flood management system in Bangladesh.

The impact of climate change is disproportionately higher on women, the poor, and socially disadvantaged groups. Yet, existing adaptation approaches and perspectives pay little attention to the special needs of these groups. Based on primary and secondary information collected from Nepal’s Koshi Basin, this paper looks at differences in levels of multidimensional poverty between different social groups and tries to assess how these differences shape their respective capacities to adapt to climate change. It examines some of the challenges and constraints these different groups face in the adaptation process and the strategies they use to cope and adapt. Analysis reveals that women and marginalized social groups, especially Dalits and Muslims, experience deeper levels of multidimensional poverty and that, in turn, constrains their ability to adapt to climate change. Rural women are relatively more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change than men due to the complex socioeconomic, institutional norms and gender roles/relations that determine their access to and control over the physical, economic, human, and social resources required for adaptation. The results suggest that an interdisciplinary approach to climate change adaptation is needed that recognizes and addresses the special needs, roles, and constraints of women and disadvantaged groups. The organizational and policy processes as well as the capacity of women and disadvantaged groups needs to be enhanced to achieve better results or positive impacts of adaptation planning and implementation. A broader governance framework is suggested that would enhance the capacity of women and disadvantaged groups to respond proactively to climate change while at the same time working to change unequal power relations, institutions, and processes that have made these groups more vulnerable.

This chapter attempts to highlight the role that gender plays in the context of climate change adaptation. It uses a discourse analysis approach to comparatively present a review of the role gender plays in climate change adaptation. Currently, two discourse storylines dominate the exploration of gender and climate change. One tells a story about women being disproportionately impacted by climate change and constructs them as ongoing victims. The other storyline explores the role women play in building adaptation and simultaneously presents women as both being more resilient and having more agency in these contexts. Applying a gender lens to governance could include enhancing the role of existing communities of practice. This chapter attempts to provide a detailed review of and means by which to understand and present how climate change and climate change adaptation is driven by gender and the implications of this for ongoing adaptive governance. This chapter adds to gender analyses by considering the role of communities of practice arguing that their deliberate utilization can enable gender to be productively rather than negatively utilized to build robust, socially just, and innovative adaptation regimes.

Successfully improving the capacities and communication on climate adaptation in water resources in Paraguay requires enhanced acceptance and understanding of both climate change and variability adaptation (CCA and CVA respectively). This is firstly to realize that the country has some intrinsic vulnerability being already impacted by climate threats on specific geographic and time scales. Climatic trends, cycles, and extremes impact the rich agropastoral basis of the economy, e.g., GDP and exports. The current deficit of CVA implies some lack of CCA to future scenarios. Secondly, we suggest focusing on building capacity on climate science and management through the (i) reinforcement of science-driven knowledge, e.g., future climate projections and scenarios; (ii) enhancing the communication of climate services within the Rio de la Plata basin (RPB) to make them more user-friendly; and (iii) training of climate science managers (CSM) capable of understanding and communicating climate-related issues, as well as to plan management policies. Thirdly, the coproduction of knowledge by natural and social scientists, engineers, managers, and users is necessary in order for them to be better informed and to produce flexible scenarios and plans. Journalists should participate to be acquainted with climatic events and time scales. Some of these activities have already been done or are being developed: (i) the reinforcement of science-driven knowledge, i.e., a dynamic climate downscaling was carried out with PRECIS tool; (ii) a master’s degree in global change was created; (iii) regional climate services are improving; and (iv) the understanding of the impacts of CCA and CVA is increasing. A climate forum can provide the required platform to build capacity and communication awareness and the coproduction of knowledge with elected authorities, stakeholders, and journalists, further allowing for a consensual climate adaptation process.

This chapter attempts to illustrate the influence of international policy and legislation on national ones and their implementation in practice of environmental protection. Comparative analysis norms of Russian and Belarusian legislation in climate change with international policy are used. The practical results of realization of these norms are considered. The comparison of environmental legislations of Russia and Belarus with international ones shows the concurrence and the difference of the laws. Consequently, there is the need to develop new laws and improve the existing ones. This chapter considers possible ways to improve the national legislations in climate change and presents a good practice in Russia and Belarus in environmental protection which shows social responsibility of leading enterprises. Climate change impact on economic development is considered. Russia and Belarus are the countries where the quantity of greenhouse gases is below the limit. Nevertheless, a great work has been done in these countries to limit emissions. The national policies are not always concurrent with international, which tend to remove these countries from the world process of sustainable development.

This study explores the relations between agricultural productivityAgricultural productivityAfrica improvement and mitigation potentiality in Africa mainly in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Zambia characterized by different agricultural production system and agroecological zones.Firstly it used Decomposition of Productivity Number Index approach to evaluate the country’s agricultural productivity during their pre- and post-economic market openness. Secondly, the country’s agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) emission is assessed, while the last part uses robust regression to determine their impact on country’s agricultural productivity.It is found that agricultural productivity is improved relatively during the country’s post-economy liberalization. Annual agriculture emission is higher in Kenya with relative annual changes, while changes in forest land emission are considerably in Rwanda. The regression analysis showed that an increase in agricultural emission contributes to a relative decrease in, respectively, Ghana, Rwanda, and Zambia agricultural performance. This means a decrease in their agricultural productivity. However, agricultural emission is contributing to improvement of Kenya agricultural performance. This means an increase in Kenya’s agricultural productivity. Furthermore, forest land sink has positive implication of agricultural productivity in Rwanda. Forest land therefore is contributing to an improvement of Rwanda agriculture production performance. In addition, there is no significant impact of land use change emission on the selected countries’ agricultural performance.Finally, this chapter found that under the selected country’s production system, their goal of improving their agricultural sector performance by 6 % toward 2015 will reduce Ghana agriculture emission intensity, transform Zambia in agriculture carbon neutral country, increase Rwanda forestry sink potentiality, and increase Kenya agriculture net emission intensity.This chapter highlights on the need to investigate the linkage on case-by-case basis due to the difference in the country’s agricultural system and agroecological zones, while the cost of mitigation will constitute an important indicator in decision making.

Purpose – This chapter discusses and compares the climate change policies of Argentina and Canada at the international, national, and local level. Starting with a discussion of both Argentina and Canada’s positions in the UNFCCC, the chapter then explains the positions and policies that have been implemented in the national and then local level of each country.Methodology/approach – This chapter is an analysis and comparison of laws, policies, and practices through not only a discursive analysis of their official positive legal meaning but also through an analysis of their actual applied impact. A multilevel institutional analysis is utilized such that the climate change policies of Argentina and Canada are analyzed at the international, national, and local level.Findings – At the international level, a discourse surrounds Argentina and Canada in terms of developing and developed country and global justice. At the national level, each country has different official laws and discourses surrounding climate change; however, at the regional level in both countries, many similarities exist in respect of climate change mitigation and adaptation in both positivistic legal meaning and actual applied reality. This chapter hypothesizes that a problematic gap exists between the climate change institutional framework and the “real” climate change being experienced by local people.Practical implications – The similarities in the actual applied experience of climate change mitigation and adaptation in Argentina (a developing country) and Canada (a developed country) at the regional level, contrasted with the different characteristics at the national and international level, offer insights into the challenge of effective implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation.Originality/value – The multilevel institutional analysis and comparison of Argentina and Canada in respect of climate change mitigation and adaptation reveal significant structural governance challenges for the effective implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation goals of the UNFCCC. Overcoming these challenges may facilitate implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation goals.

National governments have a crucial role to play in facilitating preparations for the effects of climate change. This chapter provides an overview of adaptation planning and implementation at the national level in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It compares different approaches and discusses emerging lessons learnt and challenges faced based on a survey of OECD countries’ National Communications to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and discussions at a workshop with adaptation policy-makers from 25 developed countries, held by the OECD in 2012.Finland was the first OECD country to publish its strategy in 2005 and, since then, a further 17 OECD countries have published national strategies to coordinate and communicate their approach to climate change adaptation. Of the remaining OECD countries, eight have plans or strategies under development. The OECD workshop revealed three emerging challenges faced by countries as they move from planning to implementation: addressing capacity constraints, securing adequate financing, and measuring the success of adaptation interventions. Addressing these challenges will be essential to ensure that progress in planning translates into being better prepared for the effects of climate change.

This chapter supports the argument that social science research should focus on adaptation to climate change as a social and political process, by analyzing the politics and interests of actors in climate change adaptation arenas and by acknowledging the active role of those people who are expected to adapt. Most conventional climate research depoliticizes vulnerability and adaptation by removing dominant global economic and policy conditions from the discussion. Social science disciplines, if given appropriate weight in multidisciplinary projects, contribute important analyses by relying on established concepts from political science, human geography, and social anthropology. This chapter explains relevant disciplinary concepts (climate change adaptation arena, governance, politics, perception, mental models, culture, weather discourses, risk, blame, traveling ideas) and relates them to each other to facilitate the use of a common terminology and conceptual framework for research in a developmental context.

Ever since climate change became a collective concern, governments have diversified incentives encouraging firms to mitigate climate change by investing in new technology development. However, many decision makers still question their value and wonder what determines climate change adaptation (CCA) at the firm level. This chapter deals with two questions: What makes some firms more committed to CCA than others? To what extent do R&D-active firms invest in new technologies required by CCA? Data were gathered using a 2012–2013 online survey conducted among 255 R&D-active firms in Canada (Quebec). Our dependent variable measures firm investment in technology acquisition, and independent variables are related to firms’ CCA effort and to their context. Our results suggest that CCA-active firms are (i) highly innovative, (ii) intensive in R&D, (iii) investors in physical capital, and (iv) open to external knowledge. The model developed suggests that firms invest, on average, $5,358 a year to acquire new technologies related to climate change adaptation for each level of impact on CCA (10 levels used in our research). Our results are groundbreaking in terms of pricing the specific R&D impacts on CCA at the firm level. They indicate that the activities of research centers like technology transfer organizations make a difference in terms of CCA, especially to enable actions in the private sector. Our findings also help the public sector to improve its actions targeting CCA (e.g., tax credit or grants for firms acting in CCA).

International emissions trading schemes include the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. This chapter documents the main principles behind the functioning of such permits markets, which represent popular environmental regulation tools. Among other design issues, this chapter discusses the various allocation mechanisms available to the regulator. Besides, this chapter underlines the role played by intertemporal flexibility mechanisms (e.g., banking and borrowing) which allow reducing overall compliance costs. Overall, the goal of this chapter is to present in standard textbook reference terms the construction of an emissions trading program, be it at the regional, national, or international level. The interested reader can gain valuable insights by referring to this core text, which contains a descriptive analysis of the main provisions that need to be taken care of when creating such an environmental market.

Nigeria is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa vulnerable to current and future climate variability and change. The effects of climatic changes in Nigeria would vary significantly and set to occur in several regions of the country and all sectors of the economy. Climate change is a great challenge to the sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nigeria. The main purpose of this chapter is to highlight the challenges associated with the current and projected impacts of climate change on the human environment in Nigeria, to review and explore the potentials of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and to propose its use in making informed decisions relevant to the implementation of the newly established adaptation programs in the country. Current measures on how Nigeria is responding to recent impacts of climate change are presented. It is imperative that an appropriate environmental assessment tool such as SEA be employed in making rational decisions regarding adaptation options. SEA offers a structured and proactive environmental tool for integration of climate change adaptation into formulating policies, plans, and programs (PPPs) across relevant sectors.

For decades, the leverage of transnational actors has skyrocketed, while still an international regime is crucial in managing climate change. Acknowledging this point, this chapter aims to find how to analyze the structure of climate change regimes, why international cooperation is hardly maintained in the regimes, and how to sustain it. To narrow the gap between theory and reality, this chapter integrates the game theory and the network theory. Game theory is used to analyze the negotiations in the regime, and network theory is widely applied to discuss the structure and interactions among diverse actors. The author verifies that the system inside the regime is still international, whereas outside the regime is similar to the network shape. Furthermore, the structure of the regime analyzed proves to be disadvantageous for sustaining cooperation. Thus, the author proposes practicable solution to sustaining cooperation by finding the actor who could fill the structural holes created in the regime. This chapter is one of the first to implement an interdisciplinary study merging game theory and network theory to deal with climate change regimes. This chapter might be helpful to the policy makers and scholars devising methods to improve the efficacy of regimes on managing climate change.

From the mid-1980s and onwards, a number of public institutions in Western democracies were subject to New Public Management (NPM) reforms, applying management tools from the private sector, oriented towards outcomes and efficiency. The chapter identifies organizational factors that influence adaptive capacity to climate change and finds that the NPM reforms have changed the sectors, significantly reducing adaptive capacity to climate change. In urban planning project planning has been moved to private actors, undermining formal responsibility for adaptation. In addition, an increased focus on efficiency and short-term market orientation has reduced adaptive capacity. For the electricity sector, the revolutionary change with the reform in 1991 led to an abrupt undermining of adaptive capacity. The radical change in incentive structures, from encouraging security of supply to an extreme focus on economic efficiency, downplayed robustness and adaptation. The change in formal structure is followed by a corresponding professional demographic change which further undermines adaptive capacity. Whereas both sectors were previously dominated by engineers focusing on robustness of constructions and maintenance, many economists focusing on cost reduction and economic efficiency were employed as a result of NPM reforms.The chapter shows that adaptive capacity to climate change is influenced by a wide set of organizational factors beyond the traditional discussions, which have important practical implications for public administration.

Significant investments are needed to support the global transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. Unlocking private capital at scale is essential to fill the current financing gap and achieve transformational impacts, but there are several barriers to overcome for this to happen.This study sought to analyze the role that national development banks (NDBs) could play to bridge the financing gap by scaling up private investment. Their knowledge and long-standing relationship with the local private sector places them in a privileged position to understand local barriers to investment as well as risks and opportunities.Drawing empirical evidence from NDBs’NDBSee National Development Banks experiences within the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region, the study finds that while many NDBs are already piloting an array of financial and nonfinancial instruments to promote and leverage private low-carbon investments, these institutions are at diverse stages of “readiness” to fully promote climate-related programs. Several NDBs still need to build and/or strengthen capacity and acquire experience in the structuring, risk assessment, and monitoring of climate-relevant projects in order to take a more central role in the international climate finance landscape.

Adaptation to climate change has received increased attention in recent years in the academic and development discourse. Effective adaptation to climate change requires the efficient use of land, water, energy, and other vital resources, together with coordinated efforts to minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies. The concept of water, energy, and food nexus is considered to be an effective mechanism for enhancing resource use efficiency, minimizing trade-offs, and maximizing synergies in resource use. However, as in many developing countries, the policy process in the countries of South Asia generally follows a sectoral approach that does not take into account the interconnections and interdependence among the three sectors. In designing effective adaptation strategies, it is critical to understand the linkages between the nexus perspective and adaptation to climate change. This paper seeks to increase understanding of the interlinkages in the water, energy, and food nexus, explains why it is important to consider this nexus in the context of adaptation responses, and argues that focusing on trade-offs and synergies using a nexus approach could facilitate greater climate change adaptation and help ensure food, water, and energy security by enhancing resource use efficiency and encouraging greater policy coherence. The paper provides a conceptual framework for considering the nexus approach in relation to climate change adaptation, discusses the potential synergies, and finally offers a broader framework and reform measures for making adaptation responses more effective and sustainable.

Successful economies, and sustainable communities, are adapted to the historical mean state of the climate of the region and, to a large extent, to the historical interannual and seasonal variability, with which there is much experience. This adaptation involves familiar strategies, for example, irrigation, and the corresponding policies, programs, and best practices. There is less experience, however, and therefore fewer adaptation options, in dealing with decadal to multi-decadal modes of climate variability and with unprecedented climate extremes. This scale of variability and extreme events requires a different suite of adaptations that generally are not supported by existing policy and programming. This asymmetry in historical and planned adaptation is illustrated with a case study from Canada’s western interior, which has a climate characterized by differences in temperature and precipitation between seasons and years that are among the largest on earth. This chapter examines the interannual to multi-decadal variability of the past millennium, extremes of the past 100 years, and projections of climate change. Municipalities and industry must recognize these multiple modes of variability as they pursue adaptation planning to minimize the impacts of climate change, including unprecedented drought and excess moisture.

This chapter addresses the biophysical dimension of adaptation. A framework is developed and applied to evaluate options for adaptation in different and relevant Italian agricultural cropping systems. Adaptation options rely on the identification of alternate cultivars optimally adapted to expected climate conditions, building on crops’ intraspecific biodiversity. The aim is to remove or at least reduce the vulnerability of current production systems by identifying alternate cultivars optimally adapted to expected climate conditions, without altering the pattern of current species and production systems.A new approach is proposed to (i) evaluate indicators of expected thermal and hydrologic conditions within a specific landscape and production system, (ii) identify the cultivar-specific thermal and hydrologic requirements for the optimal growth of a set of cultivars, and (iii) identify as options for adaptation the cultivars for which expected climate conditions match the climatic requirements. A robust methodology is provided to assess adaptive capacity, relying on mechanistic simulation models and on the identification of cultivar-specific climatic conditions required for optimal development and yield.The approach is demonstrated through three case studies on (a) rainfed agriculture, (b) irrigated herbaceous crops, and (c) irrigated fruit crops. For rainfed agriculture, we have identified cultivars adapted to climate predicted for the period 2021–2050. For irrigated crops, we have evaluated adaptability for irrigation schedules ranging from optimal to severely reduced water depths. Options for adaptations of herbaceous and fruit crops have been identified as a combination of cultivars and irrigation schedules.

This paper analyzes the food security situation in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region (availability, access, utilization, and stability) and new challenges, emerging from climate and socioeconomic change. It addresses the challenge, particularly for policy makers, which of the various adaptations presented by science to choose and implement. All dimensions of food security will be affected by climate change impacts. Currently many different autonomous and planned adaptations are happening independently in the region and are not assessed or supported in a coordinated way. Prioritization is needed to effectively prepare the farm and food systems for changes to come.The list of identified priorities contains, first, planned adaptations for short-term improvements in disaster preparedness (early warning systems, natural protection, and insurance schemes) and, second, adaptations that with a long-term perspective test and upscale options for local water storage and maintenance. The third priority is diversification of agriculture with a focus on localized climate- and nutrition-sensitive farming (crop diversity and climate-resistant crops with good nutritional performance). The fourth priority is to enable rainwater harvesting on household level through dissemination of knowledge on simple technologies and quality management. The fifth priority is to enable autonomous adaptation in the form of making better use of remittances and nonagricultural income sources to increase livelihood security.

Both climatic and non-climatic factors’ induced salinity in coastal plains has posed a formidable challenge for livelihood security of natural resource-dependent coastal population in Bangladesh. This chapter is aimed to identify the broad adaptation strategies that are more likely to be employed by coastal people against salinity to secure their livelihood.This study heavily draws on quantitative inquiry. Field data and information were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire from 225 respondents selected randomly from salinity-affected three coastal villages located around swampy mangrove forests – Sundarbans in Bangladesh. For data analysis various statistical tools, especially multinomial logistic regression (M-Logit) model, were used.Subsistence agriculture, fisheries, open water fishing, and extraction of both timber and non-timber forest products from Sundarbans have appeared as the dominant sources of livelihood which are seriously impacted by salinity intrusion. Against the impacts of salinity, respondents have adopted almost a dozen of specific strategies and a couple of more they might adopt in the future as well. However, broadly there are three strategies they might eventually employ. M-Logit models have predicted that whether respondents would prefer crop agriculture and allied jobs over saline shrimp farming or intensification of resource extraction from Sundarbans would be significantly determined (LR chi-square = 308.17, pseudo R2 = 0.86, p < .001) by factors such as socio-demographic (education [p = .001], occupation [p = .02], NGO’s membership [p = .00], power in local polity [p = .03]), economic (farm size [p = .002], disaster recovery period [p = .00]), adaptive behavioral (seasonal migration [p = .00], shrimp-harvest failure [p = .05]), and spatial/locational (attachment to the locality [p = .049], tidal inundation of cropland [p = .005], land suitability for cropping [p = .08]) aspects. In line with these findings, suggestions are provided.The policy implication of the study is if measures were taken in line with findings, it would help the poor and marginalized coastal population to better adapt with the impacts of salinity on their natural resource-based livelihood.

The study assessed adaptation strategies to climate change effects among rural women in savannah and forest zones of Oyo State, Nigeria. A total of 117 rural women were randomly selected from the two randomly selected LGAs in the state. Data were collected through a structured interview schedule. A higher percentage in the savannah (88.2 %) than the forest (67.8 %) was in their active years (20–50 years). About 41 % (savannah) and 32 % (forest) had no formal education. Awareness of climate change was high (78.7 % and 69.6 %, respectively), while farming-related activities were the main livelihood. Also, 93 % admitted that climate change had a severe influence on their livelihoods through reduction in the amount of rainfall on their farmland. Respondents adopted different strategies such as multiple cropping, crop rotation, changing planting periods, storage of water for future use, and diversifying into other areas of livelihood to adapt to climate change effects. However, there was also a significant difference in the influence of climate change (t = 4.605, p = 0.000) and adaptation strategies (t = 6.637, p = 0.000) between the women in the two ecological zones. Adequate funding and locality-specific climate change-related information on adaptation strategies are recommended to be made available across the two ecological zones of the state.

Adapting to climate change is the most serious challenge facing our species. The scale is global, trajectory of onset uncertain and impacts potentially catastrophic (IPCC 2013). As further evidence emerges and as the scramble to adapt to the ‘new normal’ intensifies, persistent problems, past failures and new challenges have the potential to converge in a perfect storm. In response, extension and advisory service (EAS) providers have a key role to play as a critical link between farming populations and sources of new information and tools, so that practices can be appropriately adapted. This chapter outlines the challenge of adapting to climate change, identifies past and present points of EAS engagement, and proposes future responses, with a focus on the constraints and conditions of smallholder farmers in the tropics, and the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends.

The agriculture of Southeast Asia and the Middle East is under threat due to vagaries of abiotic stress including climate change and water-related factors. With a particular focus on the challenges facing non-industrialized and developing countries, this paper attempts to create a framework for policy makers and planning commissions as well as increasing national and regional water stress awareness. The study elaborates the agriculture eminence, water provision, conventional water usage, and adverse consequences of water status under the changing climatic conditions and urban or industrial development. The study addresses the nature of problems, regional issues, current barriers, farmer’s perceptions, and concrete efforts to save regional agriculture for sustainable food security. The consequences of climate change, water stress, and salinity have affected huge areas of developing countries from an economic and resource security perspective that leads to disaster and unstable law and order issues. Long-term planning over timescales beyond the human lifespan and anticipation of threats and opportunities is required. Consequently, an emergency plan is also needed for international, national, and regional footprints including procedures for climate change mitigation and to implement inclusive plans to combat prevailing poverty, social changes, and allied anticipated risks. It elaborates the attempts to provide a framework for policy makers and political understanding to check the hidden but viable issues relating risks of climate change in local and global scenario. It is concluded that a viable charter of climate proofing and domestication is the way to success from on-farm-to-lab and lab-to-field outreach to mitigate declining food issues. The regional and international collaborative efforts are focused to modernizing crop genetics, agronomy, field-to-fork scrutiny, and adaptation training to increase quantity and quality of food with sustainable use of water.

In the context of developing countries, climate change and variability poses a serious threat to the coastal rural communities due to their poor adaptive capacities, weak implementation of developmental activities, and lack of technological solutions needed to address this challenge. In order to address the current vulnerabilities of these coastal communities where development initiatives are itself lacking, adaptation measures will play a crucial role in streamlining and collaborating with development initiatives. Literature review in Indian context suggests that there are no estimates available of impact of climate change on coastal agriculture and fisheries and therefore on agricultural, pastoral, and fishing communities. This research addresses the aforementioned research gap with a case study from Western India focusing on livelihood security and human well-being while integrating development plans to climate change adaptation. Based on vulnerabilities identified for the study areas, adaptation plan consisting of goals with several measures were created which were linked to existing national development schemes along with their co-benefits and barriers to implementation. Development choices made today will influence the adaptive capacity of people in the future. Thus, there is an urgent need to undertake development activities and decision making with climate lens, and this research will be the first step in the process.

Climate and rural farmers’ resource allocation behavior are primary determinants of agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Hence, knowledge of the rural farmers about climate change is important in order to offer adaptation practices that mitigate its adverse effects. This study thus investigated the effects of climate change at the grassroots by considering the determinants of the communities’ adaptation to changes in climate in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study utilized primary data collected from 150 arable crop farmers selected across Ogun State through a multistage sampling technique. The data were obtained through administration of questionnaire designed to elicit information on socioeconomic characteristics and adaptation behaviors of the respondents to climate change. The multinomial logit regression model was used to capture choice probabilities across the various options of climate change adaptation strategies. Most (81.08 %) of the arable crop farmers were males with an average farming experience of 24 years. Some (22.97 %) respondents did not take up any climate change adaptation strategy, 45.95 % targeted rains to plant, 12.16 % used multiple strategies, 10.81 % adopted good soil conservation techniques, while 8.11 % adopted wetland farming. The significant factors explaining the choice of climate change adaptation strategies taken up by the respondents were household size (p < 0.05), gender (p < 0.10), years of residence in a community (p < 0.05), educational level (p < 0.10), frequency of extension contact (p < 0.01), access to agricultural credit, and income from secondary occupation (p < 0.05). This paper provides interesting information on natural adaptation practices and these indigenous approaches would be useful to researchers and policy makers worldwide.

This chapter assesses the role of community-based/participatory natural resource management (CB/PNRM)Participatory natural resource management (PNRM)Community-based resource management (CBRM) in supporting adaptation to current and potential future climate change impacts among pastoral communities in Ethiopia. Such communities are expected to experience significant changes in the natural environments on which their livelihoods rely. Climate impacts are set to exacerbate and intensify an existing dynamic risk landscape characterized by persistent poverty, social and political marginalization, land degradation, and conflict largely due to policy and governance failures undermining dryland productivity. Present pastoralist coping capacities are not sufficient to cope with existing recurrent drought periods and other climate variability impacts, with climate change risk factors likely rendering traditional coping strategies unsustainable. In response, this chapter focuses on selected CB/PNRM initiatives undertaken by Save the Children to show the value of CB/PNRM as an adaptation strategy that builds climate resilience and delivers adaptation benefits for targeted pastoralists/agropastoralists. While climate change was not a specific focus of development investment design, important contributions to strengthening local adaptive capacity through the implementation of transformative processes and practice have been made. This suggests that newer fields of study such as community-based adaptation can learn from older disciplines such as CB/PNRM, with the potential role that development actors can play in the context of building climate resilience meriting further attention among governments and policymakers. Drawing on the development of bespoke methodology for monitoring and evaluating effective adaptation, this chapter also contributes to adaptation evaluation knowledge.

Rainfall scarcity is a constraint to productivity in arid and semiarid regions of Kenya. This chapter identifies the common rainwater harvesting technologies used in Makueni County, a semiarid region, both for domestic and agriculture production as a way of adapting to climate change and variability. Household interviews were held for 134 households from five villages in addition to collection of secondary data from the area. The results revealed that 30 % of farmers have water tanks in their home, 90 % are members of communal sand dams and ponds, while 70 % use road water harvesting to supplement rain-fed agriculture. The constraints for adoption included lack of labor and skills. Different coping strategies applied by small-scale farmers who practice rain-fed agricultural production in this region include soil moisture retention practices such as terracing and use of sand dams as well as storage of water for domestic use in tanks. This valuable information will provide best home-grown practices and reveal gaps on rainwater harvesting which can be implemented by extension officers and local stakeholders. The adoption of these important technologies can be a basis of curbing related problems under similar conditions.

In this chapter, the regional dynamics of climate change and the subsequent agricultural challenges and responses are discussed by referring to the Kaliningrad region of the Baltic coast and some neighboring areas. The impacts of temperature and fluctuations in precipitation are discussed in relation to grain-crop harvesting and yields and other green crop productions. Furthermore, we observe the connection between pests and diseases and climate change, which affects livestock breeding, arable farming, and human living conditions. Some forms of adaptation to climate-related events (flooding, soil erosion, selection of appropriate crops) are also presented. In the past, during the Soviet era, new uncertainties and consequently deplorable ecological changes for the investigation area were caused by excessive use of pesticides, deforestation, and expansion of monoculture. Mathematical modeling and system approaches are thus becoming important tools for the creation of forecasting procedures and solution strategies and measures for feasible future development of agriculture. Special attention is given to a decreasing number of pollinators (domestic and wild). Finally, new forms of agricultural management (landscape planning, balanced and environmentally friendly agriculture practices) are stressed.

The chapter elaborates the adaptation initiatives undertaken by farmers in South Asia, and advocates the need for strong policies to support agricultural adaptation. It elicits the farmers’ perceptions and adaptation measures toward climate change and extent of adaptation through computing an index and supports strong extension and policy initiatives to enhance agricultural adaptation for combating food insecurity. It has identified the fact that rises in temperatures, decreases in rainfall, and frequent incidences of pests and diseases are the common perceptions of farmers toward climate change, both for drought and floods. Adaptation measures practiced by farmers’ for drought are buying insurance, change in planting dates and planting times, work as labor, and construct water harvesting structures. For floods, early sowings, saltwater spray for harvested paddy stalks, strengthening of riverbanks, and improved drainage are the adaptation measures.

This chapter explores the implications of climate change for agriculture in dry areas in the context of decreasing quantity and diminishing quality of water. It proposes adaptation strategies for planning national and regional responses to climate change. This chapter analyzes the impacts of climate changeClimate change on agriculture in dry areas taking into consideration different adaptation efforts underway and the bottlenecks faced. On the basis of this analysis, it presents certain guidelines for responses to climate change in dryland agriculture. The findings of this chapter include an elucidation of the impacts of climate change on agriculture in dry areas and the factors which contribute to these impacts. In addition certain adaptation guidelines are proposed. Agriculture is the most important sector of life affected by climate change. The findings of this chapter will be useful for all the stakeholders including policy makers, agricultural managers, and the farmers. Agriculture in general and in drylands in particular is vulnerable to climate change. However, the impacts of climate change on agriculture and the possible adaptations are not studied extensively. Therefore, the present chapter is expected to provide original information on the subject of climate change and agriculture in dry areas.

This chapter starts with presenting an overview of the current situation in MesopotamiaMesopotamiaClimate change in terms of both water resources and increasing impacts of climate change over water resources. The existing literature on potential problems of climate change in EuphratesEuphrates-TigrisTigris region will also be discussed. Then the chapter turns to the question of how countries of the region may come together around the theme of water and increase their adaptive capacities in the face of climate-related threats.

Water quality is deteriorating and its availability is decreasing with time. This chapter presents the implications of climate change for water in agriculture and environment in dry areas. Further adaptation strategies for sustainable use of water resources under changing climatic conditions is proposed.This chapter analyzes the impacts of climate change on water availability and its quality. It considers the ongoing adaptation efforts and the problems faced in implementing these strategies. Certain guidelines and recommendations for addressing climate change in the water sector are also proposed.This chapter elucidates the impacts of climate change on water quality and availability. Factors that govern these impacts are highlighted and certain adaptation guidelines are proposed.Water is a nonrenewable resource directly affected by climate change. All stakeholders, including policy makers, water managers, and water users will benefit from this chapter.Climate change has significant impact on water quality and availability. However, not many studies have been devoted to exploring the impacts of climate change and the possible measures to mitigate these impacts on water resources. Thus, the management of original and valuable work on the subject is presented.

This chapter presents the recent vulnerability assessment project on a rice paddy production and climate change in Indonesia and attempts to demonstrate a practical framework and methodology for a vulnerability and adaptation assessment in the agricultural sector. This chapter applies the outcome vulnerability framework, which is defined by the IPCC. The framework is applied into a practical methodology using multidisciplinary approaches such as statistical modeling, GIS and remote sensing, as well as participatory research, focus group discussion, and policy assessment. The chapter produces vulnerability maps illustrating how climate change affects rice paddy production in Indonesia especially Bali island. In Bali island, the suitability for rice paddy production has been decreased 20 % in the last 20 years because of changes in climate, and climate change will continue in the future. On the other hand, the chapter suggests that actual damages will be based on rice paddy location and the adaptive capacity of farmers. The chapter demonstrates the impacts of climate change on rice paddy production, which is a staple food for many developing countries including Indonesia. It is important to understand the impacts of climate change in agriculture sector that is the most vulnerable to adverse changes in climate. The chapter successfully demonstrates a multidisciplinary approach, which can be applied in other agricultural products in different countries.

Climate is one of the main determinants of agricultural productivity in Sri Lanka. Of the major climatic parameters, temperature, rainfall, and humidity are of special significance, as these cause a substantial impact on the agricultural productivity of the country. Consequently, farming systems and agronomic practices in most agricultural regions of Sri Lanka have evolved in close harmony with the prevailing climatic conditions of respective climatic regions of the island. The overwhelming scientific research has provided evidence of two general trends in Sri Lankan climate, i.e., increasing ambient temperatures resulting in more heat stress, and more frequent and severe occurrence of extreme rainfall anomalies such as droughts and floods. Both of these conditions strongly affect the crop and animal production and thus the food security in the country. The National Climate Change Policy of Sri Lanka, which was adopted in 2012, clearly endorses the need of appropriate adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts on crop and animal production so as to ensure national-level food security. While some of the strategies and actions have already been implemented as an effort to address the emerging negative impacts of climate change, scope still exists for new entry points for adaptation with a view to reduce the climate vulnerability of the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka while increasing the resilience of the entire community. One example of these actions is the development of seasonal climate forecasts that could assist farmers, business across the value chain, and the policy makers to develop improved climate risk management strategies leading to ensuring food security. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the climate and climate-related risks faced by the agriculture sector of Sri Lanka and highlights the need to strengthen adaptation options to ensure national-level food security.

Climate change is unequivocal and these changes have increased over the past few years. The recent vulnerability and prospect of climate variability and change impact, thus, warrants measures now to reduce the adverse impacts. This is especially important in relation to smallholder farmers whose activities provide large proportion of the food consumed in the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. A qualitative approach was used to collect data on the perceptions of smallholder farmers from three communities in the Akuapem North District in Ghana. The perceptions of the farmers about rainfall changes were compared with the empirical daily rainfall total data from the Ghana Meteorological Agency to corroborate changes in rainfall. By comparing the perceived changes in the rainfall of the district with the empirical data, it was identified that shifts in the rainfall regime was the main cause of crop failures in the study area but not decline in the annual rainfall total. Farmers being aware of changes in the rainfall have employed new stresses to improve their productivity. However, it was observed that non-climatic stresses such as low capital and absence of institutional support in the district have increased smallholder farmers’ vulnerability.

The chapter investigates the observed and perceived trends and effects of rainfall on food production and identifies options that are adopted by farmers in dealing with the impacts in the Nigerian savannah. Data were sourced via community engagement, key informant interviews, and a survey of 191 farming households from 11 farm settlements in the region. Arithmetic monthly means of rainfall and temperature data from six meteorological stations within the ecological zones were used to generate the past and long-term trends of local climate. The study shows no significant variation of monthly mean rainfall across three decades of the observed data. However, there were similarities between the observed long-term averages of the station data and local perception that the amount of annual rainfall is decreasing, with delay in the onset of rain and increased trend of temperature. The variability impacts land-related livelihoods activities which are substantially tied to rain feeding. Annual planting seasons for cereals is changing from double to single, while harvest of tubers and nuts are gradually reducing. There are no organized adaptation frameworks, but when impacts are perceived by the farmers, coping ensued in the form of crop switch as on-farm modification and charcoal production as a form of off-farm livelihoods diversification. Available coping mechanisms are not adequate because they are leading to the ecosystem degradation. Local capacities need to be enhanced for improved food security and protection of ecosystems in the study area.

Water vulnerability is one of the major challenges facing people in the Himalayan river basins and is expected to increase with climate and other change. In order to develop appropriate and effective adaptation strategies, it is necessary to understand the level and spatial distribution of water vulnerability and the underlying factors contributing to it, both biophysical and socioeconomic. The development and application of a water vulnerability assessment model at district level, and its use in adaptation planning, is described using the transboundary Koshi River basin as an example. The whole basin showed a relatively high degree of water vulnerability, with mountain districts the most vulnerable followed by the mid-hills and the plains. The mountain and mid-hill areas were more vulnerable in terms of resource stress and ecological security, whereas the plains areas were more vulnerable in terms of development pressure; all parts of the basin were vulnerable in terms of management capacity. Significant correlation among the four components indicated that improvements in resource availability, ecological security, and management capacity would reduce development pressure and overall vulnerability. Adaptation plans need to be based on district-specific vulnerability characteristics; some suggestions and recommendations for adaptation plans are made.

Developing country agriculture makes a significant contribution to climate change, and the sector offers considerable potential for exploring synergies and trade-offs between mitigation, food security, and poverty reduction. But few developing countries will adopt unfunded measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if they compromise development and growth. Nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) have been mooted as a means to develop possible funding modalities either within the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), from aid donors, or other parties seeking to fund emissions offsets in low-income countries. This chapter explores the identification of climate-smart practices that might be included under the definition of agricultural NAMAs. It outlines elements relevant to the development of triple-win agricultural NAMAs in the smallholder dairy sector in Malawi and offers survey evidence identifying pro-poor mitigation practices, technologies, and policies for the dairy sector by assessing the current baseline and analyzing barriers to growth.Mitigation

In response to global climatic change and variability, adaptation to climate change has become a widespread global policy goal. It is currently seen as a solution to the likely negative effects of climate change, especially in developing countries. However, adaptation to climate change largely depends on the socioeconomic system’s adaptive capacity. In the urgency to achieve adaptation to climate change, this question has hardly been adequately explored. This chapter fills this gap by examining the prospects and challenges of community adaptation to climate change in developing countries through the case study of Malawi. The study findings demonstrate that community adaptation to climate change has the potential to stimulate and build productive local livelihood systems. However, its success is currently hampered by two things. First, there is lack of clear climate adaptation policy framework to guide community adaptation initiatives. Secondly, the existence of rampant household poverty and low institutional capacity makes it difficult to support community adaptation initiatives. This situation is exacerbated by unstable donor funding toward climate change adaptations. This chapter, therefore, argues that sustainable community adaptation to climate change in developing countries requires improving their social, economic, and institutional capacities.

Climate change is one of the biggest humanitarian challenges in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, low-income developing countries in the Global South will be the major victims, even though they are not the major driver of this global environmental change. It is not very uncommon that the people, community, and the country in the Global South are putting efforts to develop their own resiliency strategies to confront this challenge. With a regional focus on southwest Bangladesh, which is one of the major climate hot spots in the world, this chapter tries to explain climate resilient efforts particularly in agriculture sector with a lens of ecological modernization theory. The findings of this chapter highlight the importance of understanding ecological modernization as well as required process and mechanisms for climate resilient agriculture practice. Even though the findings are theoretically grounded, the focus is on how the theory can be translated with further modifications, if necessary, into local communities. It is expected that this chapter will have larger implications by generating further theoretical and empirical discourse focusing on low-income developing countries in the Global South.

This study focused on the implication of climate change between cattle rearers and farmers in the desert-prone line in northern Nigeria which led to unavoidable crisis and insecurity in Nigeria and Africa in general. The consequence of climate change has untold security implications on the life of Nigerians; attacks in the country have been traced to the doorsteps of two strange groups that are forced to live together as a result of unfavorable climatic conditions in the Northern part of the country. The conflict between Fulani and farming communities linked to disputes over grazing land has become frequent in parts of central and northern Nigeria in recent years. The method of purposive random sampling was employed to select the local government and communities where data was collected for this study. The measures for selecting the communities include the following: community with a sizable number of cattle rearers with at least ten (10) heads of cattle and above, community with more than one communal clash which involves the farmers and the Fulani, community with both permanent cattle rearers’ settlement and transit Fulani that are always on the move, and agricultural economy-based community. Interviews were also conducted, and 60 respondents were purposively selected: fifteen (15) Fulani, six (6) traditional rulers, and 39 farmers. A qualitative method of data collection was used to gather information, and in-depth interviews were chosen as an appropriate data collection tool; the interview was drafted in Fulfulde language and was later translated into English and the Hausa language was translated into English as well. Multiple data were collected from February to April 2010 and July to September 2010. The study revealed population increase also takes over grazing land as a result of development, paths of animals (Burtali) in the past are now taken over by farmers, desert encroachment has taken over vast farmland, and the quest for a greener pasture usually brings the Fulani crisis among others. These researches also join others before it to call for more research on climate change and insecurity in Africa generally. Finally, this paper recommended ways on how to address immense challenges of adaptation, through educating farmers and the Fulani on the implication of climate change, and reduce human activities which further aggravate and cause climate change – planting of Jatropha plants to prevent animals from going into farms to destroy crops and creating grazing land.

Communities residing in Himalayan mountain environment are particularly at risk to climate changes externalities owing to their high dependence on natural resources, relatively high contact to severe climatic events, and prevalent economic and infrastructural marginalization. The present article tries to explore the nature of local society-environment interactions, particularly the role of social institutions and social capital in adaptive capacity to possible climate change impacts in Miyar watershed situated in the northeastern part of Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The first part of the article deals with climate change perception among local communities and the following part deals with identification and evaluation of adaptive capacities and prevailing institutional mechanisms.Study findings indicate that local community in Miyar valley, over the time, has developed variety of efficient resource (natural and human) management strategies and institutions (like Jowari system and Kuhl Committee, etc.) formed as a result of social cohesiveness (social capital), collective action, and common motivation to deal with both environmental and nonenvironmental changes. These aspects of local institutions and social capital are directly related to resource management and community development, but it also provides a buffer zone for the communities to adapt against any future changes (climatic variability, social or economic, etc.) up to some extent.

The focus of this paper is on a small water harvesting system that collects excess water runoff during the rainy season, and stores it for agricultural purposes during dry periods. Technical and institutional options and case studies are presented as strategic information for climate change adaptation in drought-prone rainfed areas. The paper provides a technical as well as an institutional analysis of small water harvesting system as strategic adaptation measure for climate change in drought-prone community watersheds. Through modeling studies of weather and runoff, information on the annual water yield for small water harvesting projects was estimated. To assess socioeconomic impact, ten (10) water harvesting systems were surveyed in drought-prone communities. Harvestable water from a small catchment was determined including the amount of soil erosion under various farm management practice and rainfall patterns. Case studies of ten (10) small water harvesting systems show positive results of socioeconomic impacts. Water harvesting for agricultural purposes in this era of climate change is a crucial adaptive strategy to ensure food security and alleviate poverty in the rural areas. Climate change has the most immediate impacts to be felt by rainfed agriculture.

This chapter presents the contribution of “chakra,” a traditional agroforestry system, to climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation in Ecuador’s Amazonian communities. IPCC’s methodology was used for the estimation of carbon sequestration in soil, biomass, and cacao plantations. Carbon levels in multiple systems of land use were measured through temporary plots. Chakra is efficient to adapt to climate change due to higher levels of carbon sequestration and tree diversity in comparison to other forms of land use. Chakra allows for sustainable use of forests by combining cultivation of the Ecuadorian finest aromatic cacao, controlled timber extraction, production of staple food, and conservation of medicinal plants. Chakra enables Amazonian communities to contribute to both food security and well-being and conservation of the region’s high biodiversity. The chapter informs policy makers and communities about the importance of strengthening traditional agroforestry to achieve environmental and social sustainability. The Amazon region is a vulnerable ecosystem, where adaptation to climate change depends on the extent to which the options for land use are compatible with the conservation of biodiversity and the provision of the ecosystem services that sustain local communities’ livelihoods. The chapter provides solid evidence that this might be possible through traditional agroforestry.

Global population increases steadily and the majority are moving into cities. In the meantime, fast-growing cities are suffering with intensified hydroclimatic hazards. In this chapter, the authors propose to transform cities to sponge eco-cities so as to enhance their capacity on flood prevention, water resources replenishment, heat-island mitigation, biodiversity development, and air and water quality improvement. The strategy proposed is to replace all urban pavements with load-bearing, permeable, breathable, and sustainable pavements, so that rainwater will be stored underneath on raining days and water vapor will be released on sunny days. With water and air reaching soil underneath, underground ecosystem will flourish to enrich urban biodiversity. The JW eco-technology meets the seven criteria specified in this chapter to construct desired pavements. JW refers to the initials of the first name of the inventor, Jui-Wen Chen. These criteria are load-bearing capability, permeability, water storage capacity, breathability, underground ecosystem enrichability, affordability, and sustainability. In Taiwan, this JW eco-technology has been tested successfully for 10 years and is recommended by the official agency responsible for the green building certification. Certainly, it is not a trivial task to replace all man-made pavements of any city within a short period of time. A “Build Sponge Taiwan Initiative” has been launched by environmental groups in Taiwan to promote the idea to the general public and to hopefully build sponge eco-communities island-wide in the nearest future.

The southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh has faced thirty large- and moderate-scale natural disasters since the last two decades. Aila, the extreme disaster event, has unveiled major shortfall in the approach of conventional disaster preparedness. Gap between planned intervention and the way coastal inhabitants respond to climatic exposures has widened due to lack of understanding of the grassroots risk perception and effectiveness of associated responses from them. The research examines locally adopted measures taken for disaster risk mitigation in the coastal settlements of Gabura, Bangladesh, and recommends future directions for climate change adaptation. As grassroots responses, firstly, the age-old spontaneous coping mechanisms of the individual households with particular emphasis on their baseline vulnerability were explored. Secondly, the nonphysical and physical responses before, during, and after disaster were categorized. Finally, with a strength and weakness matrix, the effectiveness and limitations of grassroots responses related to typical exposures and extremes were pinpointed. The study concludes that grassroots responses are mostly effective as adaptive measures during typical hazards; however, they have limitations in extreme events. Most importantly, adequate recognition of grassroots responses will not only inform better adaptation but also contribute to broader regional development planning and climate change policy context.

By outlining the central role of water in the global warming process, the necessity of international collaboration in terms of tertiary education in hydraulics and hydrology is being derived. In this chapter an integrated approach of knowledge exchange in the framework of a descriptive education concept and applied university research projects is being elaborated. The focus is placed on descriptive teaching of fundamental flow physics, the application of a sophisticated but open-source software tool for the prediction of flood areas, and a small hydropower project plant which was designed to enhance the living quality of indigenous people in the middle of Ecuador’s rainforest. These projects were mutually realized with committed and open-minded local partners.

Climate change in West Africa has important impacts due to the low resilience capacity of the majority of the population in these territories. However, on the contrary, in most regions of the world, data and informations on climate change and particularly adaptation are sparse and sometimes difficult to obtain. Nonetheless, scientific state of the arts, policies, as well as tools and funding opportunities and agenda on climate change initiatives are a great challenge for West African stakeholders.To fill the gap, in November 2012, CILSS/AGRHYMET launched their climate change and sustainable land management platform to allow for easy access to informations targeted at West Africa.The goal of this chapter is to propose an overview of existing platforms, analyzing assets and differences, and to present CILSS/AGRHYMET platform in this context. Details are given on the platform structure, the “opportunity,” “agenda,” and “news” parts. A rapid focus on CILSS past and present projects is also presented. Thematic articles concerning essentially agriculture and water, the heart of AGRHYMET’s actions, are presented then in the resources part: documents, tolls (to challenge vulnerability), and database (AGRHYMET master’s students, institutional and individuals, etc.). A presentation of different tools available for download or access on the Web, adapted to a West African use to study vulnerability to climate change and other aspects like mitigation, is made.

Excess water and energy consumption, unplanned urbanization, and consumption patterns may form the key indicators of future climate mitigation. Entrepreneurship-based ventures in energy and agribusiness with strong community focus coupled with traditional knowledge processes can go a long way in strengthening community systems. The chapter proposes an approach to enhance the coping capacity of the community, and vulnerability reduction is proposed through use of technologies and local knowledge systems. Combining traditional knowledge systems with new research ideas and development of innovative technologies can provide a suitable adaptation response in the face of adverse climate impacts. The use of innovative technologies like geographical information systems, software-based weather systems, low-cost and decentralized technologies, as well as industrial symbiosis as a concept is therefore proposed. The chapter proposes a paradigm shift in the way government programs are conceptualized and implemented through innovative technology diffusion and industry action. The solutions suggested in the chapter have significant benefits for rural communities and ecosystem-dependent stakeholders with a focus on integration of natural resource base and socioeconomic concerns of local communities.

An industrial sector of any developed and underdeveloped nation plays a crucial role in the overall economic development by way of providing employment opportunities, alleviating poverty, and refining quality of life. Rapid industrial growth in developing economies in the last two to three decades has taken its toll by causing environmental pollution. Enterprises of small- to medium-scale (SMEs) in South Asian regions are one such highly polluting sector. Toxic and hazardous wastes emanated from this sector have the potential to cause negative and irreversible impact on human health and ecology. It is, therefore, necessary to take appropriate environmental management contemplations to deal with these wastes. Since the problems associated with physicochemical management practices are a manifold, the use of biomass (biological)-mediated mitigation measures seems to be a promising step, and many ideas, concepts, and research are floating around it across the world. The authors in this present chapter discuss two biomass-based case studies from their previous research work and glide over an emerging management thought/concept for green practices in South Asia for a sustainable tomorrow.

Comparison between the EU’s 2020 energy efficiency targets and the forecasted energy savings clearly indicates a gap for expected energy savings in 2020. One of the reasons lies in the lack of specific policies for low-income households, which represent about 40 % of Mediterranean households and are considered as far to reach through traditional public policies. Due to their complexity, low-income households require innovative financial approaches for implementation of energy efficiency measures. Smart metering has been identified as one of the climate change adaptation technologies which can be used to encourage people in low-income households to become more aware of their energy consumption and stimulate them to change their energy-related behavior. Activities presented in this paper have been evaluated within the EU-funded project ELIH-Med with the objective to identify innovative energy efficiency measures and financial instruments for low-income households in the Mediterranean area. Also, this paper evaluates the impact of customized and adaptive consumption feedback on energy behavior patterns and energy savings in low-income households. Energy and cost saving prediction and verification flowchart are outlined to yield different combinations of suggested smart metering services, which would enable the minimization of households’ environmental impacts.

Various environmental challenges pose a lot of threats to sustainable development, among which are global warming, air pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Many of the causes of these challenges are rooted in unsustainable human behaviors and thus can be managed by changing the relevant behavior so as to reduce its ecological and detrimental impacts. This chapter explores the potential for discouraging behavior that contributes to greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere. It also suggests alternatives to fossil fuel-dependent pathways, giving attention to the behavioral and social drivers of change in Nigeria. The chapter further prescribes behavioral and social changes into the roles played by households, business sector, and government policies. Strategic framework and initiatives for energy saving and adoption of low-carbon pathways in the medium- to long-term were suggested. The chapter concludes that to move toward a low-carbon economy in Nigeria, there is the need to institutionalize appropriate behavioral and social changes in the society as well as developing technological capabilities in the area of clean technologies.

Adaptation to climate change is increasingly supported through international financing. In contrast to mitigation, where the effectiveness of policy action can be measured through the metric “tonnes of CO₂ equivalent reduced,” no universally accepted metric for assessment of adaptation effectiveness exists. Without such a metric, adaptation finance vehicles such as the Adaptation Fund or the Green Climate Fund encounter challenges when trying to compare the adaptive effect of projects in order to achieve an efficient allocation of their funds. First experiences with adaptation funding show a tendency to avoid final impact metrics. This might lead to a backlash against adaptation funding by electorates in industrialized countries if adaptation funding cannot show clear results. This report assesses two possible candidates for generic adaptation effectiveness metrics: (1) wealth saved from climate change impacts and (2) disability-adjusted life years saved (DALYs), which are widely used in public health policy analysis. Apart it is proposed to use no-harm assessments to evaluate environmental and cultural impacts of adaptation projects. The authors discuss uncertainties encountered in applying these metrics, including the uncertain link between commonly reported intermediate indicators and our metrics and ideas to handle such, e.g., the use of regularly updated methodologies and agreed climate and economic models.

This chapter explores the state of the art in existing climate change risk, vulnerability, and adaptation assessment tools, with a focus on web-based tools. It then details the development and application of two online decision support tools created for climate change adaptation planning in cities – a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tool and Surface Temperature and Runoff (STAR) Tools. Both are freely available web-GIS tools that can be used to inform policy, strategy, and development. The Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tool, developed through a collaborative and iterative process, follows the principles of an online public participation GIS. The Assessment Tool delivers GIS data and analysis functions online, widening the possibilities for participation in climate change adaptation planning. The STAR Tools enable assessment of the impacts of climate change on temperature and runoff in a specified urban area and evaluate the potential of green infrastructure as a climate change adaptation response. The STAR Tools can be used to develop “what if” scenarios, to illustrate how changes resulting from different land surface cover and climate change scenarios can impact upon local surface temperatures and runoff. The chapter presents the lessons learned from the development and application of these tools in municipalities across Europe and discusses key challenges for developing such tools to aid effective climate change adaptation planning in cities.