Climate Sense

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daptation

and

itigation

trategies

vulnerabilities to climate change, and determine options

and ways to adapt to these impacts, concerted and coor-

dinated efforts at a much greater scale are needed. But

where should we begin?

The Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC offers

some guidance on this. Maps identifying future changes,

as well as key climate indicators, may help guide initial

adaptation efforts around the world. There is no doubt

that we need more research – particularly on a regional

scale – but we do know enough to act.

Science and information are at the heart of addressing

the challenge of adaptation. Although climate change is

a global phenomenon, the impacts are experienced at the

local level. The degree of vulnerability to these impacts

depends on many factors and varies from one place to

another. Without timely and spatially relevant climate

information, national governments and communities are

ill-equipped to plan for and manage emerging climate

risks. Denmark has taken the first steps, but many devel-

oping countries require strengthened climate research

and observation infrastructures in order to obtain locally

relevant information.

Having the appropriate information, however, is only

the first step of many towards developing a national

strategy for adaptation to climate change and building

resilience. Given the diversity of circumstances and

different priorities of each nation, there is no specific

recipe for how to plan for anticipated climate impacts.

However, based on its experience, Denmark has found

some ingredients to be essential.

Prior to the adoption of its national adaptation

strategy in early 2008, Denmark underwent a long intra-

Few other places on earth are as telling of climate change impacts

as the Arctic. The region is experiencing an increase in temperature

twice that of the global warming average. Although the Arctic has

historically been both vulnerable and resilient, the current extent and

speed of human-induced climate change is terrifying. The melting,

and subsequent retreat, of sea ice and glaciers is occurring at a far

greater rate than climate models and scientists perceived possible

just a few years ago. Changes in the Arctic will reverberate globally,

directly impacting the planet as a whole through rising sea level, and

indirectly through impacts on global weather conditions such as feed

backs, changes in global albedo, content of atmospheric greenhouse

gases and ocean currents. Furthermore, ecosystems and species that

thrive in this fragile environment – which often constitute the liveli-

hood of indigenous peoples – are speeding toward an ill fate. This

poses new challenges to the resilience of Arctic life and to the adaptive

capacity of indigenous peoples in the north. Many such populations

depend on hunting, fishing and gathering – not only for food and to

support the local economy, but also as a basis for social and cultural

identity. Indigenous knowledge and observations have provided an

important foundation for survival, but as the pace of climate change

accelerates these traditional skills need to be complemented by scien-

tific research. This will strengthen their adaptive capacity to deal with

climate variability, climate change and its impacts.

Since the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC), it has been clear that the global ecosys-

tem will change and that our societies and ecosystems will need to

adapt to climate change and extreme events – even with ambitious

greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and rigorous mitigation

actions. This has been reinforced in the Fourth Assessment Report

from the IPCC. A great deal of work has been undertaken both within

and outside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC) process. However, to assess the impacts of and

Image: Henning Thing

The IPCC predicts that if global mean temperatures exceed a warming of 2 to 3°C above preindustrial levels, approximately 20 to 30% of plant and animal species

are likely to be at increasingly high risk of extinction. This will have enormous implications for ecosystem services on which our global ecosystem depends