ABSTRACT

�Sound and solid case studies on vulnerability and adaptation have been woefully lacking in the international discourse on climate change. This set of books begins to bridge the gap.� Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme �Important reading for students and practitioners alike.� Martin Parry, Co-Chair, Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) �This book fills an important gap in our understanding ... It is policy-relevant and deserves to be widely read.� Richard Klein, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden The award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC brings needed attention to the threats from climate change for highly vulnerable regions of the developing world. This authoritative volume (along with its companion covering adaptation) resulting from the work of the Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC) project launched with the IPCC in 2002, is the first to provide an in-depth investigation of the stakes in developing countries. It discusses who is vulnerable and the nature and causes of their vulnerability for parts of the world that have been poorly researched till now. It also provides researchers with new examples of applications of vulnerability assessment methods, an approach that is of growing interest in the climate change area but for which there are relatively few applications in the literature. Published with TWAS and START