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Vulnerability and Adaptation

Reducing human and ecosystem vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.

An Overview of Adaptation

Enabling Climate Adaptation
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The impacts of climate change are already upon us, and are likely to grow more serious even under the most optimistic mitigation scenarios. Given the high vulnerability of poor communities to the impacts of climate change, and the threats posed by global warming to the provision of critical services by ecosystems, efforts to adapt to the changing climate are closely linked to the broader challenges of development and ecosystem management. Effective adaptation means finding new ways to transcend institutional boundaries, bring together diverse stakeholders, and incorporate complex information into decision-making.

Current Work

  • Our National Adaptive Capacity (NAC) Framework helps decision-makers assess national-level institutional capacities for adaptation, in order to put capacity development at the heart of approaches to adaptation planning.
  • World Resources Report 2011 focuses on the theme of “decision making in a changing climate.” The report combines a dynamic online presence with expert perspectives, case studies, scenario-planning exercises, and online discussions.
  • Our governance program has produced an advocacy toolkit for use by civil society groups in setting national adaptation policy agendas. This project, ARIA, has been piloted in Ghana and Bolivia. It draws on the NAC framework and the Access Initiative.
  • In addition to national policy change, our work informs recommendations for three important global policy arenas: the UNFCCC, the development of bilateral and multilateral climate finance programs, and the foreign policy components of US climate change policy.

Future Work

  • We are developing a practitioner’s handbook on monitoring and evaluation for adaptation with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This work draws on a field review of several GIZ and KfW initiatives in India, as well as several roundtables and panels held by WRI in 2010. The handbook will be published in April.

WRI’s Adaptation Strategy

WRI is developing a new Institute-wide adaptation strategy that will draw upon all our Institute’s strengths to help countries design and implement national policies that enable tangible, locally appropriate action on adaptation. To do this, we will engage deeply, and over the long-term, with government and non-governmental partners in several developing countries, as well as at least one Indian state. Our work under the new strategy will focus on four areas:

Institutions.
  • We will help identify changes in the structure and function of national and sub-national institutions to help policy-making succeed under the uncertainties associated with climate change, and in meeting the needs of the poor and other vulnerable people.
Information.
  • WRI seeks to contribute to the process of defining the “adaptation information agenda,” through the design, testing and application of information products, and through engagement in global learning and knowledge-sharing processes.
Policy Analysis.
  • WRI will apply its experience in policy analysis to the dual challenge of a) creating policies that provide incentives for adaptation by sub-national government and the private sector, and b) “climate-proofing” important areas of national policy-making, such as land use and water management.
Finance.
  • WRI will draw upon its past experience in shaping international financial flows to ensure that adaptation finance is allocated in a way that promotes positive policy change and effective program implementation in recipient countries.

We expect the strategy to be completed, and focal countries identified, in May 2011.

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Contacts

Heather McGrayCo-Director, Vulnerability and Adaptation Initiativehmcgray@wri.org+1 (202) 729-7778
Aarjan DixitResearch Analyst adixit@wri.org+1 (202) 729-7878
Kelly LevinSenior Associateklevin@wri.org+1 (202) 729-7910
Joseph FotiSenior Associate jfoti@wri.org+1 (202) 729-7640
Brian LipinskiResearch Analyst / Program Coordinator IIblipinski@wri.org+1 (202) 729-7797