Editing IPCC:AR6/SRCCL/Chapter-5 (section)

== 5.3 Adaptation options, challenges and opportunities ==

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This section assesses the large body of literature on food system adaptation to climate change, including increasing extreme events, within a framework of autonomous, incremental, and transformational adaptation. It focuses primarily on regional and local considerations and adaptation options for both the supply side (production, storage, transport, processing, and trade) and the demand side (consumption and diets) of the food system. Agroecological, social, and cultural contexts are considered throughout. Finally, the section assesses the role of institutional measures at global, regional (multiple countries), national, and local scales and capacity-building.

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=== 5.3.1 Challenges and opportunities ===

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By formulating effective adaptation strategies, it is possible to reduce or even avoid some of the negative impacts of climate change on food security (Section 5.2). However, if unabated climate change continues, limits to adaptation will be reached (SR15). In the food system, adaptation actions involve any activities designed to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience of the system to climate change. In some areas, expanded climate envelopes will alter agroecological zones, with opportunity for expansion towards higher latitudes and altitudes, soil and water resources permitting (Rosenzweig and Hillel 2015) <sup>[[#fn:r1431|1431]]</sup> .

More extreme climatic events are projected to lead to more agrometeorological disasters with associated economic and social losses. There are many options for adapting the food system to extreme events reported in IPCC (2012 <sup>[[#fn:r464|464]]</sup> ), highlighting measures that reduce exposure and vulnerability and increase resilience, even though risks cannot fully be eliminated (IPCC 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r465|465]]</sup> ). Adaptation responses to extreme events aim to minimise damages, modify threats, prevent adverse impacts, or share losses, thus making the system more resilient (Harvey et al. 2014a <sup>[[#fn:r466|466]]</sup> ).

With current and projected climate change (higher temperature, changes in precipitation, flooding and extremes events), achieving adaptation will require both technological (e.g., recovering and improving orphan crops, new cultivars from breeding or biotechnology) and non-technological (e.g., markets, land management, dietary change) solutions. Climate interacts with other factors such as food supplied over longer distances and policy drivers (Mbow et al. 2008 <sup>[[#fn:r467|467]]</sup> ; Howden et al. 2007 <sup>[[#fn:r468|468]]</sup> ), as well as local agricultural productivity.

Given the site-specific nature of climate change impacts on food system components together with wide variation in agroecosystems types and management, and socio-economic conditions, it is widely understood that adaptation strategies are linked to environmental and cultural contexts at the regional and local levels ( ''high confidence'' ). Developing systemic resilience that integrates climate drivers with social and economic drivers would reduce the impact on food security, particularly in developing countries. For example, in Africa, improving food security requires evolving food systems to be highly climate resilient, while supporting the need for increasing yield to feed the growing population (Mbow et al. 2014b <sup>[[#fn:r469|469]]</sup> ) (Box 5.2).

Adaptation involves producing more food where needed, moderating demand, reducing waste, and improving governance (Godfray and Garnett 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r470|470]]</sup> ) (see Section 5.6 for the significant synergies between adaptation and mitigation through specific practices, actions and strategies).

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