ABSTRACT

Adaptation generally refers to the process of modifications or adjustments in behaviour, aspects of operations or rules in order to respond to changes in the external environment. In the context of climate politics the term is used mostly in climate change discussions and refers to the changes that societies are supposed to make in order to respond to the negative impacts of unavoidable climate change. It is also used in discussions that focus on the tendency as well as the limit of the earth’s natural system and the living organisms to adjust in ways that can accommodate the process of (natural and human-induced) climate change without resulting in catastrophic consequences. When the issue of global climate change became a major political topic in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the main focus was on mitigationthat is how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere in order to prevent the incidence of human-induced climate change. The focus on mitigation is clearly reflected in the wordings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which has as its objective the need to ‘stabilize greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system’ although the word adaptation was subsequently mentioned in a number places in the Convention text. Adaptation received less attention in the early years mainly because Parties to the Convention requested more certainty on the effects of and vulnerability to climate change on different natural and social systems. In 2001 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that it was reasonably certain that climate change was already happening with considerable negative effects on several ecosystems and human settlements around the world. The major effects were said to be the general reduction in crop yield in most tropical regions, increased flooding of human settlements, water scarcity and the increase in water borne and vector-borne diseases such as malaria due to drastic changes in precipitation patterns. Those identified to be mostly vulnerable to the negative impact of unavoidable climate change were the Third Word countries especially the Least Developing Countries (LDC) and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The panel called for attention to be given to adaptation as well as mitigation in the global effort to tackle climate change. Since then a huge number of studies from both public and private organizations have been conducted to ascertain the scale of impact and the

communities to climate change. Most of these results show that the developing countries which contribute little to climate change are the ones that are most vulnerable to the negative consequences. Subsequently the developing countries have been pushing for adaptation to be accorded a priority in the scheme of things in the United Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Buenos Aires Argentina 2004 a plan of action on adaptation and response measures was adopted as part of the responses to this campaign. There have been also other programmes including the establishment of a special needs fund for the Least Development Countries (LDC Fund) and a Five-year programme of work on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation all designed to help the developing countries to respond the impacts of climate change.