Upscaling Adaptation Studies to Inform Policy at the Global Level

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change is conventionally categorized as an environmental pollution issue. However, this definition is incomplete and has a distorting effect on policy. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are essential actions and so is adaptation; it is necessary to adapt to inevitable climate change which is now too late to prevent. This paper identifies four approaches that might facilitate a transformation of the way in which climate change is socially constructed: (1) The qualitative accumulation of case study evidence; (2) meta-analysis; (3) adaptation modeling; and (4) the integration of adaptation with mitigation in both case studies and in models.