Copenhagen Concensus / by Samuel Fankhauser
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[From abstract] This paper sets out the case for adaptation as a core aspect of the global policy response to climate change. The paper argues that adaptation is now unavoidable. There are no realistic mitigation policies that restrict warming to a level that does not require substantial adaptation…
The paper highlights the powerful nature of adaptation, which can go a long way to reverse the worst impacts of climate change. The net benefits of basic adaptations, such as coastal defence and adjustments in agricultural practices, are often substantial. This is particularly the case in developing
countries, where there are well-documented “adaptation deficits”, that is, a limited ability to deal even with current climate events. In developing countries adaptation and development go hand in hand.
Adaptation is made more difficult by uncertainty about the exact nature of the expected change. This affects the timing and sequencing of adaptation action and puts a premium on adaptations that yield early benefits and/or increase the flexibility of systems to react to unexpected change.
Copenhagen Concensus / by Frank Jotzo
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[Abstract] Adaptation to climate change impacts will be necessary, and may require substantial economic resources. Economic analysis of adaptation, including costs and benefits, is subject to similar complications and limitations that beset quantitative economic analysis of climate change
mitigation. To make such analysis relevant for policy decisions, the analysis must incorporate three factors that define the economics of climate change. The first is uncertainty, in particular the risk of abrupt climate change, which is a major reason for urgency in addressing climate change. The second is improved calibration of economic climate change impacts, and the inclusion of non-market impacts. The third is equity and differential climate impacts at the fine scale, which will define adaptation actions in practice. Hence, there is a long road ahead in improving the tools for economic modelling of adaptation, and the mitigation-adaptation nexus. Meanwhile, the crucial question for policymakers is not the benefit-cost ratio for adaptation in aggregate, but whether and where specific adaptation actions are beneficial,
what new policies are needed to support adaptive action, and what existing policies need to be changed or scrapped.
