Climate Adaptation & Adaptation Mainstreaming: Lessons from Variability

1. Climate Adaptation & Adaptation Mainstreaming: Lessons from Variability Eileen L. Shea East-West Center Pacific Islands Training Institute on Climate and Extreme Events June 2004

2. Mainstreaming Climate Information for Adaptation: Sources of Lessons • 2002 Snowmass Institute on Integrated Assessments: Special Session on Adaptation • Symposium on Climate and Extreme Events in Asia-Pacific: Enhancing Resilience & Improving Decision Making (Bangkok, March 2003) • Mobilizing Solutions for Adaptation: Enhancing Resilience (New Orleans, October 2003) • Insights and Tools for Adaptation: Learning from Climate Variability(Washington, D.C., November 2003)

3. Some Definitions… • Vulnerability – a combination of sensitivity, exposure and resilience (adaptive capacity); focus on • Reducing exposure and/or sensitivity or • Enhancing resilience • Adaptation– those activities that people, individually or in groups such as households, villages, companies and various forms of government, carry out in order to accommodate, cope with or reduce the adverse effects of climate variability and change (SPREP, 2000); generally two types; • Anticipatory (proactive) • Reactive

4. Lessons Learned from Variability • Recall some of the Guiding Principles from “Forecast to Applications” session: • Focus on integrated climate-society system • Interactive, collaborative process with stakeholders (science-policy partnerships) • Problem-focused approach: • Understand place, context, history and decision making process • Useful and usable information • Near-term decisions and long-term planning • Learn-by-doing • Address today’s problems and plan for the future • Facilitate proactive decision making and iterative, reflective, flexible and adaptive approaches

5. Pacific Regional Climate Information System • Identification of information needs • Product design and evaluation • Future needs and opportunities Continuous Interaction and Information Flow Providers of Climate Information Users of Climate Information • Product development and distribution • Information interpretation/translation • Communication/outreach/education Continuing Process of Shared Learning and Joint Problem Solving

6. A General Approach to Adaptation Mainstreaming (New Orleans, 2003) • Adaptation entails the consideration of climatic variability and change in ongoing decision-making processes, development plans, projects & initiatives • Improving society’s ability to cope with changes in climate across timescales • Allows for adaptation to both natural and anthropogenic changes in climate • Adaptation requires being proactive regarding the full range of future stresses • Recognize interconnections between socioeconomic, environmental and climatic stresses • Comprehensive risk management where climate is one factor in a multi-stress environment

7. A General Approach to Adaptation Mainstreaming (New Orleans, 2003) • The goal of adaptation is to enhance resilience and develop flexible management approaches that facilitate adjustments in response to changing climate conditions • Address both climate-related challenges and opportunities • Evolutionary process of minimizing risk, reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience • Opportunities exist for integrating greenhouse gas reduction (mitigation) and adaptation concerns, e.g.: • Efficiencies in agriculture and water sectors • Mangroves as carbon sink and coastal protection

8. Methods & Mechanisms for Adaptation:(New Orleans, 2003) • Consider the context in which adaptation must take place: • Work with stakeholders to develop problem-specific solutions – mainstreaming climate information to support adaptation a “demand-driven” enterprise • Understand the decision making processes • Identify appropriate intervention points • Emphasize adaptive management • Support and integrate indigenous adaptations

9. Methods & Mechanisms for Adaptation:(New Orleans, 2003) • In the context of natural resources, effective adaptation a balance between bottoms-up (multiple, individual projects) and top-down (imposition of a management structure) • Use a wide range of networks and partnerships (government, social, scientific, private sector networks) • Foster cross-sectoral integration • Work at multiple levels of governance

10. Some Barriers to Adaptation(New Orleans, 2003) • Systemic and perceptual barriers including: • Difficulties communicating information across sectors and among levels of government • Short-term planning horizons on the part of some policy officials and decision makers • Mechanisms for using market forces to facilitate adaptation not well established • Vulnerable countries have limited capacity and in-house expertise • Approaches for integrating climate information into decision making and long-term planning efforts not well established • Reliance on historical data and patterns • No well-established framework for priorities

11. Methods & Mechanisms for Adaptation:(New Orleans, 2003) • Work “end-to-end” – from planning through implementation, monitoring, evaluation and adjustment • Start with existing planning efforts • Set priorities to maximize use of limited resources • Monitor and assess progress often & continuously • Develop indicators of outcomes • Work in multiple timescales • Decision makers interested in continuum of information from extreme events through seasonal outlooks to long-term projections • Exploring linkages important

12. Enhancing Resilience:Water Resources as Example • Central importance of water resources to survival and development make this sector a natural target of opportunity • “Water is Gold” – cascading effects • Limited (natural) storage capacity • Dependence on rainfall; subject to seasonal and year-to-year variations • Increasing demand – population growth and economic development • Infrastructure constraints • Institutional challenges

13. Providing Access to Fresh WaterEnhancing Resilience • Improve Infrastructure/Enhance Capacity • Evaluate Existing Assets and Develop Unused/Alternative Sources • Incentives for Water Conservation and Wastewater Recovery and Reuse

14. Providing Access to Fresh WaterEnhancing Resilience • Encourage Public-Private Partnerships Among Large-Scale Users (tourism, agriculture, military) • Pursue Watershed Protection and Restoration • Emphasize Integrated Water and Land Use Management; Explore Traditional Practices (e.g., Ahupua’a in Hawaii)

16. Providing Access to Fresh WaterEnhancing Resilience • Plan for Extremes (particularly droughts) • Integrate Climate Forecasts into decision making • Emphasize Self-Sufficiency in Long-Term Planning • Promote Public Awareness, Education, Dialogue & Capacity-Building

17. Some Closing Thoughts on Adaptation • Government leadership—at all levels • Risk management a useful framework for building partnerships and guiding climate information systems • Proactive planning—climate risk management in a sustainable development context: • Responding to today’s variability • Adaptation to long-term change • Economic planning & community development