ABSTRACT
Adaptation to climate change impacts, as one of the two planks of addressing the problem (mitigation being the other), has come a long way since the inception of the international policy regime – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – in 1992. In the original Convention and its Kyoto Protocol, mitigation was given overwhelming focus, while adaptation was regarded as an “afterthought.” Some argued that it was immoral or un-strategic to discuss adaptation, when mitigation was the only way to avoid the terrible outcomes of climate change. However, with observed evidence of increasing climate impacts by the successive reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the adaptation agenda has moved to the fore at an accelerating pace. The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) in Durban, South Africa held in December 2011 saw the collective take important initiatives to operationalize an agreed “Adaptation Framework.” The 2009 Copenhagen Accord, upon which the Cancun and Durban Agreements subsequently have been built, stipulates the need for “enhanced action and international cooperation on adaptation … aimed at reducing vulnerability and building resilience in developing countries” (UNFCCC 2010 FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1 Art. II: Par. 11).
