Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-1 (section)

=== FAQ 1.1 | What are the goals of climate change adaptation? ===

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''The goals of climate change adaptation, as a broad concept, are to reduce risk and vulnerability to climate change, strengthen resilience, enhance well-being and the capacity to anticipate, and respond successfully to change. Existing international frameworks provide a high-level direction for coordinating, financing and assessing progress toward these goals. However, specifying the goals for specific adaptation actions is not straightforward because the impacts of climate change affect people and nature in many different ways requiring different adaptation actions. Thereby, goals that accompany these actions are diverse. Goals can relate to health, water or food security, jobs and employment, poverty eradication and social equity, biodiversity and ecosystem services at international, national and local levels.''

Climate change adaptation entails the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. At a high level, international frameworks, including the Paris Agreement and the SDGs, have come to provide a direction for coordinating, financing and assessing global progress in these terms. The Paris Agreement calls for climate change adaptation actions, referring to these actions as those that reduce risk and vulnerability, strengthen resilience, enhance the capacity to anticipate and respond successfully, and ensure the availability of necessary financial resources, as these processes and outcomes relate to climate change. In addition, the Sustainable Development Goals include 17 targets (with a specific goal SDG 13 on climate action) to fulfil its mission to end extreme poverty by 2030, protect the planet and build more peaceful, just and inclusive societies. These goals are difficult to reach without successful adaptation to climate change. Other notable frameworks that identify climate change adaptation as important global priorities include the SFDRR, the finance-oriented Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the New Urban Agenda.

While vital for international finance, coordination and assessment, the global goals set forth by these frameworks and conventions do not necessarily provide sufficient guidance to plan, implement or evaluate specific adaptation efforts at the community level. Specifying goals of adaptation is harder than setting goals for reducing emissions of climate-warming GHG emissions. For instance, emission reduction effort is ultimately measured by the total amount of GHGs in the Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, adaptation aims to reduce risk and vulnerability from climate change and helps to enhance well-being in each individual community worldwide.

Because the impacts of climate change affect people and nature in so many different ways, the specific goals of adaptation depend on the impact being managed and the action being taken. For human systems, adaptation includes actions aimed at reducing a specific risk, such as by fortifying a building against flooding, or actions aimed at multiple risks, such as requiring climate risk assessments in financial reporting in anticipation of different kinds of risk. At the local level, communities can take actions that include updating building codes and land use plans, improving soil management, enhancing water use efficiency, supporting migrants and taking measures to reduce poverty. For natural systems, adaptation includes organisms changing behaviours, migrating to new locations and genetic modifications in response to changing climate conditions. The goals for these adaptation actions can relate to health, water or food security, jobs and employment, poverty eradication and social equity, biodiversity and ecosystem services, among others. Articulating the goals of adaptation thus requires engaging with the concepts of equity, justice and effectiveness at the international, national and local levels.

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