1. Pacific Islands Training Institute on Climate and Extreme Events
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. Providers of Climate Information Users of Climate Information
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 Water Enhancing 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 Water Enhancing 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 Water Enhancing 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