CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATIONS

A BASIC IDEA OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATIONS

What is Climate Change?

Climate change refers to major changes in temperature, rainfall, snow or wind patterns lasting for decades or longer. It may result from natural factors, such as changes in the sun’s energy, or natural processes within the climate system such as changes in ocean circulation.

Climate change Adaptation means anticipating the adverse effects of climate change and taking appropriate action to prevent or minimize the damage they can cause, or taking advantage of opportunities that may arise. It has been shown that well planned, early adaptation action saves money and lives later.

Examples of adaptation measures include: using scarce water resources more efficiently; adapting building codes to future climate conditions and extreme weather events; building flood defend and raising the levels of dykes; developing drought-tolerant crops; choosing tree species and forestry practices less vulnerable to storms and fires; and setting aside land corridors to help species migrate.

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is highly dynamic, with many socioeconomic and environmental drivers of change at play, including climate change. The impacts of these changes challenge the resilience of natural and human capacities and the environment. The increased incidence of extreme weather events and magnitude of associated natural disasters, believed to be related to climate change, are exacting high economic and social costs.The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region extends 3500 km over all or part of eight countries, ranging from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east. The total estimated population of the region is 210 million. The 10 river basins, including the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra which have their source in the HKH region, provide water to 1.3 billion people, a fifth of the world’s population. Rural to urban migration is one of the most widespread global demographic trends, and this is also predominant in the HKH region.

Science and Assessments

Science and knowledge are critically important to enable society to understand and respond to threats posed by climate change. Decision makers need sound information on vulnerabilities to climate change grounded in the best science available. Equally important is sound information on the potential social and economic impacts of climate change, particular on more vulnerable groups like the extreme poor. Significant barriers and constraints persist for adaptation efforts in developing countries. Access to relevant knowledge and technical resources, as well as the capacity to utilize these resources on adaptation are some of the most pressing challenges.

Knowledge Support and Policy Integration

Significant barriers and constraints persist for adaptation efforts in developing countries. Access to relevant knowledge and technical resources, as well as the capacity to utilize these resources on adaptation are some of the most pressing challenges. To address these challenges by enhancing the capacity of developing countries to make adaptation decisions that are based on best available knowledge and technical information, strengthening institutional and policy frameworks for adaptation, and supporting countries in integrating adaptation issues into national development planning and legislative processes.

 

Building Resilience of Ecosystems for Adaptation

Healthy, well-functioning ecosystems can build resilience to adverse impacts of climate change and can also help reduce human vulnerability. Enabling  a  strong  natural  resource  base  linked  to  well-functioning ecosystem  services  offers  a  valuable  approach  for  climate  change adaptation,  complementing  other types of  adaptation  actions  such as infrastructure development. This approach, known as “Ecosystem-based Adaptation” (EBA), uses biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people and communities adapt to the negative effects of climate change at local, national, regional and global levels.EBA uses biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people  and communities adapt to  climate change. In addition to protection from climate change impacts, EBA also provides many other benefits to communities, for example through the maintenance and enhancement of ecosystem  services  crucial  for  livelihoods  and human well-being, such as clean water and food. Appropriately designed ecosystem management initiatives can also contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing emissions from ecosystem loss and degradation, and enhancing carbon sequestration.

Economics and Finance

The impacts of climate change are already resulting in economic losses around the world. Activities to adapt to the impacts of climate change also come with a range of costs, and associated implications for the need for financial investments.

Most vulnerable women and children

Women in the HKH region are often at the frontline in managing natural resources on a daily basis, having different responsibilities and unique capacities. They are also positioned differently from men regarding the particular ways they are impacted and their potential role in adaptation. 

To foster adaptation, it is important to explore how the specific knowledge, expertise, and experiences of women can be realized and engaged in responding more effectively to a changing environment. However, women are often constrained by unequal power relations and gender-biased attitudes. It is therefore important to address the way unequal power relations due to social, economic, cultural, or political conditions affect people’s resilience and may hamper adaptation measures. This component focuses on the differentiated relationship between and among women and men and their ability to adapt to climate change in highly dynamic environments and different socio-cultural contexts across the region.

It also examines how planned adaptation measures and policies can take into account women’s prominent role and gendered knowledge and contribute to more equitable access to and provision of development resources.

The social/human adaptation is best achieved by ensuring the continued provision of ecosystem services and enhancing human capacities to address current challenges and future uncertainties. This is especially true in the context of the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain regions, where communities continue to be significantly dependent on ecosystem services for their livelihoods.

Food security

Food security is an acute problem in the HKH region due to the fragile environment, limited availability of suitable land for large-scale grain production, difficult access and poor infrastructure. Different socioeconomic groups may face differential impacts on food security through climate and other biophysical and socioeconomic changes.

Mountain people with small landholdings are highly vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events. It is, therefore, important to understand the root causes of food insecurity, their socioeconomic dimensions, as well as direct and indirect impacts of climate change on household and community food security and food production – with a view to develop appropriate policies and strategies to enhance resilience of mountain communities in improving food security in the HKH region.

Vulnerability and adaptation

Vulnerability is strongly determined by poverty and marginalization. Mountain communities in the HKH generally suffer increased rates of poverty and are often marginalized from political influence and economic opportunities. Mountain communities are not homogenous, and vulnerability and adaptive capacity differ among various segments of the population. 

Women, children, elderly, and marginalized social groups are particularly vulnerable. Supporting adaptation at the community level has to take into account these differential vulnerabilities and leverage existing adaptive capacity. Adaptation is not a new strategy for mountain people but it is not clear whether existing autonomous adaptation practices will be sufficient to withstand the magnitude of future change. Adaptation is highly context-specific and the impacts of climate variability compound with other environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic drivers. Additionally, fostering adaptation calls for a better understanding of existing autonomous adaptation strategies at the community level and identifying the conducive elements of policy frameworks and conditions to foster them. A major focus of this component therefore lies in the generation of actionable knowledge to inform policies in support of community adaptation.