Keynote Presentations
from the
AVEC
International
Summer School, Peyresq, 14-27 September 2003
Speaker: Gary Yohe
gyohe<at>wesleyan.edu
Wesleyan University, 238 Church Street Middletown, CT 06457, USA
Title of the talk: Definition
on the adaptive capacity (pdf: 4,5MB)
Summary of the talk by a student: Students´
summary (pdf)
Abstract
We will work through the fundamental steps of the newly emerging Adaptation
Policy Framework with specific reference to an illustrative example. We will
also spend some time contemplating the determinants of adaptive capacity and
suggest practical methods by which comparative analysis might be conducted.
- The Adaptation Policy Framework (the APF) builds upon recent findings of
the IPCC Third Assessment: vulnerability is a function of exposure and sensitivity,
and both can be influenced by adaptive capacity. In working through the Framework,
five principles will be emphasized.
- Adaptation policy and measures are best assessed in a developmental
context
- Adaptation to short-term climate variability and extreme events are
explicitly included as a step toward reducing vulnerability to longer-term
climate change
- Adaptation occurs at different levels in society, including the local
level
- The adaptation strategy and the process by which it is implemented
are equally important, and include review, evaluate, and monitor adaptation.
They are instrumental in driving each stage of the process
- Building adaptive capacity to current climate is one way of preparing
society to cope better with future climate.
- A practically motivated method for evaluating systems’ abilities to
handle external stress is available to support the Framework. It has been
designed to assess the potential contributions of various adaptation options
to improving systems’ coping capacities by focusing attention directly
on the underlying determinants of adaptive capacity:
- The range of available technological options for adaptation
- The availability of resources and their distribution across the population
- The structure of critical institutions, the derivative allocation of
decision-making authority, and the decision criteria that would be employed
- The stock of human capital including education and personal security
- The stock of social capital including the definition of property rights
- The system’s access to risk spreading processes
- The ability of decision-makers to manage information, the processes
by which these decision-makers determine which information is credible,
and the credibility of the decision-makers, themselves, and
- The public’s perceived attribution of the source of stress and
the significance of exposure to its local manifestations.
Another illustrative example will be provided.
Recommended background literature on this presentation:
