Vulnerability and Adaptation

Even if we rapidly stabilize armospheric GHG concentrations the impacts of climate change will continue for centuries. Climate change poses novel risks, often outside the range of experience with existing climate variability. The adverse impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable in the least developed and developing countries in the tropics and subtropics. Adaptation is essential, but there are substantial limits and barriers as the capacity to adapt is uneven across and within societies. It is widely accepted these poorer nations are largely maladapted to future climate risks.

SEI's work on adaptation lies at the intersection of sustainable development and climate change. Support includes vulnerability assessments, financial needs assessments, capacity-building and response strategies, and widespread integration of climate risks and adaptation actions into local, national, and regional policies and planning. SEI has worked with international and national agencies to develop climate change adaptation policies, training programs and software tools for adaptation for countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

SEI works in 3 main areas of climate change adaptation:

1. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments:

Vulnerability is an emerging concept for climate science and policy.  Methods of vulnerability assessment have been developed in the fields of natural hazards, poverty analysis, food security and sustainable livelihoods and, more recently, to determine how people cope with climate hazards. Vulnerability assessments examine the underlying socio-economic, institutional, political, and cultural factors that influence vulnerability climate change impacts to identify the conditions that enhance or erode adaptive capacity. They are an important tool for evaluating future climate risks and to develop adaptation strategies.

2. Developing Climate Change Adaptation Strategies:

In Developing Counties:
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s NAPA process (national adaptation programmes of action) provide a platform for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to prioritize activities for their urgent and immediate adaptation needs. Developing and least-developed countries often require external technical and financial assistance to research, design, and implement effective national climate policies. SEI provides technical assistence to LDCs for vulnerability assessments on the adverse impacts of climate change on people and the environment. SEI also provides support in developing technical and policy strategies for adaptation. SEI furthermore focuses on capacity building to help LDCs to become more self-supporting in formulating their climate policies (see below).

In the United States:
Through collaboration with the Center for Climate Strategies SEI-US works in the US with groups of diverse stakeholders to develop state-level adaptation strategies. These stakeholder bodies, comprised of individuals from across the state and different sectors, have been tasked with recommending strategies for reducing the vulnerability of the State’s coastal, natural and cultural resources and communities to the impacts of climate change as well as with developing a comprehensive strategy adaptation to climate change. For example, SEI-US has worked with the  Maryland Adaptation and Response Working Group, and the Alaska Climate Change Adaptation Advisory Group.

More information on SEI's work on US-States Climate Mitigation Policy Work.

3. Capacity Building and Tools

SEI regularly runs workshops and trainings as part of our capacity building efforts through the U.N.'s National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) and other national policies on climate change adaptation. SEI has contributed to the development of the following tools:

CRiSTAL: Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods.
A decision support tool for use by project coordinators/managers to climate-proof rural development projects, developed with IISD, IUCN, and Intercooperation. CRiSTAL enables project planners and managers to:
(a) understand the links between local livelihoods and climate;
(b) assess a project's impact on livelihood resources important for climate adaptation; and
(c) devise adjustments to improve a project's impact on these key livelihood resources.

More Information

For more information on SEI's work on climate change adaptation, please visit:

SEI's Program on Risk, Livelihoods & Vulnerability
SEI-Oxford Center's work on Vulnerability and Adaptation: weadapt.org and vulnerabilitynet.org.

Netherlands Climate Assistance Programme
Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC)

Publications:

Technical Sourcebook: Integrating Climate Risks into UNEP Program and Project Planning, prepared for the United Nations Environment Programme. Final version pending.

Poverty Reduction at Risk: An Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty Alleviation Activities; prepared for the Environment and Water Department at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Available for download from the Poverty Reduction and Climate Risk - Report Series.

Climate Change in the Middle East and North Africa Region: Impacts and Adaptation Options, Prepared for the Rural Development, Water & Environment Group of the Middle East and North Africa Bureau, The World Bank.

Leary, N., Adejuwon, A., Barros, V., Burton, I., Kulkarni, J., Lasco, R., (eds) 2008. Climate Change and Adaptation. Earthscan Press, Virginia, USA. Available for purchase from Earthscan Publishers. (Most of the chapters in this book can be found in an working paper version available for download from the AIACC Working Papers Series.)

United Nations Development Programme (ed), 2005. Adaptation policy frameworks for climate change: developing strategies, policies, and measures , Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.

© 2010 SEI US