Adaptation is necessary to cope with emergencies but mitigation is indispensable in order to limit the costs of adaptation.
Adaptation is the poor relation of climate policies, especially in comparison to its sister, mitigation. If efforts to provide mitigation have to be shared according to the responsibility of countries for the present acceleration in climate change, adaptation concerns both developing and developed countries
The political and scientific community are ten years behind with regard to measures of adaptation to climate change in comparison with mitigation, for which economic mechanisms have already been put in place by the Kyoto Protocol (CO2 quota systems, mechanisms for projects to reduce emissions).
Some measures of adaptation can be put in place today. Some countries have developed adaptation plans in various sectors (housing, energy, agriculture...). Sadly, the lack of funding granted by the industrialized countries leaves these measures in the project stage. To support adaptation in developing countries 40 billion Euros per year are necessary before 2020.
So, during the last COP (Conference of the Parties) in Cancún 2010, a Green Fund for the Climate was created. This fund will be donated by the developed countries in order to finance mitigation and adaptation policies in developing countries. The Cancún agreement sets out the structure of the administration and practical organization of the fund, directed by a governing board of 24 members; half each from developed and developing countries. In waiting for the selection of an administrator empowered to manage international financial assets, the World Bank will ensure its operation for the first three years.
This Green Fund will provide a "new and additional" 30 billion dollars over and above Official Development Assistance that should be raised by 2012. This is a "Fast Start". This sum should reach 100 billion dollars per year by 2020.
Adaptation and mitigation: two complementary approaches
Adaptation and mitigation (the reduction of GHG emissions) taken separately will not totally prevent the effects of climate change. Without a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), adaptation could become extremely difficult, in view of the acceleration of climate change and the worsening of its effects.
Besides some effects of climate change can already be seen and even if mitigation efforts are successful, the climate will continue to alter because of the lasting effects of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere (from 100 years for CO2 to thousands of years for fluorinated gases) and the amount of heat accumulated in the sea.
Mitigation preserves the climate with medium to long term effect because of climate inertia. The goal of adaptation is to allow our societies to predict, in the best possible way, the probable consequences of climate change, in order to react better, but also in order to take advantage of the opportunities linked to these changes. The more efficient mitigation is, the less costly adaptation will be: but anyway we will have to adjust because the climate has already begun to change.
Source : www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/-Impacts-et-adaptation-ONERC-.html
Télécharger le PDF "Concepts clés de l'adaptation" - Source : Climat Sphère n°17 - CDC Climat Recherche
