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Synergies and trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation and development

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Abstract

To succeed in meeting carbon emissions reduction targets to limit projected climate change impacts, it is imperative that improved synergies be developed between mitigation and adaptation strategies. This is especially important in development policy among remote indigenous communities, where demands for development have often not been accompanied by commensurate efforts to respond to future climate change impacts. Here we explore how mitigation and adaptation pathways can be combined to transform rural indigenous communities toward sustainability. Case studies from communities in Alaska and Nepal are introduced to illustrate current and potential synergies and trade-offs and how these might be harnessed to maximize beneficial outcomes. The adaptation pathways approach and a framework for transformational adaptation are proposed to unpack these issues and develop understanding of how positive transformational change can be supported.

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Notes

  1. Adaptation is defined here as the ability for human groups to successfully adjust to actual or expected environmental changes (especially climate change impacts) and their effects; whether it be incremental or transformational. Further, adaptation can be autonomous or planned, and the scale of the stimulus is likely to affect both autonomous responses and recommended adaptation measures (Smith et al. 2000). Resilience is defined as a social-ecological system’s ability to absorb, reorganize to cope with or benefit from disturbances, while retaining its basic structure, function and feedbacks (Folke et al. 2005; IPCC 2007a).

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Acknowledgments

We thank the indigenous communities of Humla and Alaska who contributed to this study. The research in Humla was supported by University of Oxford Fell Fund and Environmental Change Institute research grants, and the Alaska research by US National Science Foundation award # 0715431, for which we are grateful.

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Correspondence to Thomas F. Thornton.

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This article is part of a Special Issue on “Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation with Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples” edited by Kirsty Galloway McLean, Ameyali Ramos Castillo, Edwin Castellanos, and Aqqaluk Lynge.

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Thornton, T.F., Comberti, C. Synergies and trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation and development. Climatic Change 140, 5–18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0884-3

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