Climate Change and Vulnerability and Climate Change and Adaptation
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Abstract
The last few years have seen a surge in policy interest in adaptation to climate change, including attention to theoretical analysis and practical action. Heated discussions on the Adaptation Fund and the Nairobi Work Programme at recent Conferences of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) confirm this fact. A better understanding of the nature of impacts of climate change is crucial, however, to plan and implement rational adaptation options. While it is recognized that people and ecosystems in developing countries are the most vulnerable to climate change due to their limited adaptive capacity, the existing scholarship on vulnerability and adaptation in developing countries is limited, as exemplified by the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The two volume set – Climate Change and Vulnerability and Climate Change and Adaptation – edited by Leary et al. and published by Earthscan, with a total of 39 chapters contributed by more than 250 researchers, constitutes a major effort to fill the gaps in our understanding of the nature of risks and response options to address climate change in developing countries. Both volumes are products of an international research initiative – Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC) – proposed by the IPCC and implemented over the period 2002–2005. Duly recognizing its urgency and importance, the Global Environment Facility, the Canadian International Development Agency, the US Agency for International Development, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Rockefeller Foundation funded this project. The two volume set will be a nice addition to libraries worldwide and personal collections of researchers and policymakers interested in vulnerability and adaptation. The scope of topics covered and extensive references to current literature make them highly valuable. Both volumes provide authentic, peer reviewed and latest information on climate risks and management options in selected case study sites in developing countries. The chapters provide a basis to consider climate change impacts and responses in the broader context of sustainability, and offer readers an overview of gaps between anticipated and actual responses under evolving socioeconomic conditions and multiple stresses, and related complexities among strategy, policy and action. In both volumes, introductory chapters summarize key findings of all case studies, giving readers an objective assessment of critical issues to be addressed in the future. Some chapters in both volumes are complementary, as the same group of investigators discussed vulnerability issues in volume 1 and adaptation options in volume 2. book review