mitigation and adaptation strategies - lead.org.pk kabani - mitigation and... · the consequences...

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies

A Presentation by Asif Kabani

Asif Kabani, Skype: kabaniasif

Structure of Presentation

Defining Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

Mitigation Strategies

Adaptation Strategies

Nicholas Stern on Climate Mitigation and Adaptation

Issues and Problem

The Way Forward – Commitment


Defining Climate Mitigation and

Adaptation

What is Climate Mitigation ?

What is Climate Adaptation ?

[Brainstorming] – use Flash Cards

And Flip Chat by Participants.

One Word – one by one


Documentary

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/environment/global-warming-environment/way-forward-climate/


Climate mitigation

Climate mitigation is any action taken to permanently

eliminate or reduce the long-term risk and hazards of

climate change to human life, property.

Note:

The International Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC) defines mitigation as:

“An anthropogenic intervention to

reduce the sources or enhance the

sinks of greenhouse gases.” Climate

Mitigation and Adaptation


Climate Adaptation

Climate adaptation refers to the ability of a system to adjust to

climate change (including climate variability and extremes) to

moderate potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities,

or to cope with the consequences.

Note: The IPCC defines adaptation as the,

“adjustment in natural or human systems to a

new or changing environment. Adaptation to

climate change refers to adjustment in natural or

human systems in response to actual or

expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which

moderates harm or exploits beneficial

opportunities. Various types of adaptation can

be distinguished, including anticipatory and

reactive adaptation, private and public

adaptation, and autonomous and planned

adaptation.”


Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Reading Handout

The terms “adaptation” and “mitigation” are two important terms that are fundamental in the climate

change debate. The IPCC defined adaptation as adjustment in natural or human systems in response

to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderate harm or exploits beneficial

opportunities. Similarly, Mitchell and Tanner (2006) defined adaptation as an understanding of how

individuals, groups and natural systems can prepare for and respond to changes in climate or their

environment. According to them, it is crucial to reducing vulnerability to climate change. While

mitigation tackles the causes of climate change, adaptation tackles the effects of the phenomenon.

The potential to adjust in order to minimize negative impact and maximize any benefits from changes

in climate is known as adaptive capacity. A successful adaptation can reduce vulnerability by building

on and strengthening existing coping strategies.

In general the more mitigation there is, the less will be the impacts to which we will have to adjust,

and the less the risks for which we will have to try and prepare. Conversely, the greater the degree of

preparatory adaptation, the less may be the impacts associated with any given degree of climate

change. For people today, already feeling the impacts of past inaction in reducing greenhouse gas

emissions, adaptation is not altogether passive, rather it is an active adjustment in response to new

stimuli. However, our present age has proactive options (mitigation), and must also plan to live with

the consequences (adaptation) of global warming. The idea that less mitigation means greater climatic

change, and consequently requiring more adaptation is the basis for the urgency surrounding

reductions in greenhouse gases. Climate mitigation and adaptation should not be seen as alternatives

to each other, as they are not discrete activities but rather a combined set of actions in an overall

strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.



Who are the stakeholder of Mitigation Strategies? Use flip chart Each participants write one/two stakeholders

on Flip chart



Climate change involves complex interactions between

climatic, environmental, economic, political, institutional,

social, and technological processes. It cannot be addressed or

comprehended in isolation of broader societal goals (such as

equity or sustainable

development), or other existing or

probable future sources of stress.



To eliminate or reduce the risk of climate change to human life and property, both

policy instruments and technology must be used in the context of sustainable

development.

In the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) three

conditions are made explicit when working towards the goal of greenhouse gas

stabilization in the atmosphere:

1. That it should take place

within a time-frame sufficient

to allow ecosystems to adapt

naturally to climate change;

2. That food production is not

threatened and;

3. That economic development

should proceed in a

sustainable manner

Asif Kabani, Skype: kabaniasif Mitigation Strategies – Example


Adaptation Strategies

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change refers to adaptation in several of its articles: Article

4.1(f): All Parties shall “Take climate change considerations

into account, to the extent feasible, in their relevant social,

economic and environmental policies and actions, and

employ appropriate methods, for example impact

assessments, formulated and determined nationally,

with a view to minimizing adverse effects on the

economy, on public health and on the quality of the

environment, of projects or measures undertaken

by them to mitigate or adapt to climate change.”


Nicholas Stern on Climate Mitigation

and Adaptation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Stern,_Baron_Stern

_of_Brentford

Nicholas Herbert Stern, British economist and

academic. He is IG Patel Professor of Economics and

Government, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute

on Climate Change and the Environment at the London

School of Economics (LSE), and 2010 Professor of

Collège de France.

Climate change and the transition to a low-

carbon economy should be high on the

agenda for every political party, not just to

reduce the risks that result from greenhouse

gas emissions but also to stimulate an

exciting period of growth, creativity and

innovation. (Statement from Nicholas Stern on a green investment bank,

2 February 2010 )


Nicholas Stern on Climate Mitigation

and Adaptation

This will deliver an increase of hundreds of billions of dollars.

International support for adaptation will come in large part through the delivery of

the commitments made by rich countries to double aid by 2010 and the

commitments made by many countries to meet the target of 0.7% of GNI by 2015.

For developing countries, good adaptation and good development policy are very

strongly intertwined, and it is right that climate change should now become central

to national planning processes and to development assistance.


But there are limits to adaptation. Small

island developing states threatened by sea

level rise have fewer options to adapt.

Sea defenses are particularly costly for low-

lying islands , and may do little to protect

the tourism and fisheries that sustain the

local economy.

Issues and Problem


Issues and Problem

Development and diversification are still important strategies

wherever possible, but ultimately the international

community will have to find ways to support alternative

responses, including the managed resettlement of some

people in these states. This will bring many challenges,

particularly for those people that must move.

There will be much greater pressures if unabated climate

change leads to sea level rise that threatens much larger

populations in low-lying coastal areas. (from the Stern

Review postscript, January 2007)


The Way Forward – Commitment Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change addresses a wide

range of timely environment, economic and energy topics including global

climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, acid deposition, and

aquatic ecosystems, species extinction and loss of biological diversity,

deforestation and forest degradation, desertification, soil resource

degradation, land-use change, sea level rise, destruction of coastal zones,

depletion of fresh water and marine fisheries, loss of wetlands and riparian

zones and hazardous waste management.

The journal provides a forum to review, analyze and stimulate the

development, testing and implementation of mitigation and adaptation

strategies at regional, national and global scales. One primary goal of this

journal is to contribute to real-time policy analysis and development as

national and international policies and agreements are discussed and

promulgated.

Related subjects » Atmospheric Sciences -

Environmental Management - Global Change -

Climate Change


Case Study – Group work Make Small Groups


The migration management cycle illustrates the

types of programmatic intervention for each of

the phases (http://www.iom.int/Template/migration-

climate-change-environmental-degradation/interactive-

factsheet/index.html)

The migration management cycle


Reading References


Topics Presentation Relevant to you

By: Author on Climate Change


Quote by David Suzuki, celebrity scientist, alarmist extraordinaire: 2011 quote:

"Humanity is facing a challenge unlike any we’ve ever had to

confront. We are in an unprecedented period of change."


Sustainable Transition to Green Economy

By: Asif Kabani [[email protected]]

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