Tackling climate change: mitigation and adaptation

Reducing our GHG emissions means attempting climate change mitigation, trying to reduce the impact we must expect. This will include new policies, innovative technologies and a change in lifestyle for all of us, all of which will certainly come at a price.

"In his report on the economics of climate change, the development economist and former chief economist at the World Bank, Nicolas Stern, calculated the cost of keeping CO2e concentrations below a 550 ppm threshold at around 1 per cent of global GDP by 2050. But if we do not act, he says, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5 per cent of global GDP each year, now and permanently. If a wider range of risks and impacts is taken into account, the estimates of damage could rise to 20 per cent of GDP or more. The IPCC calculated the macroeconomic cost in 2030 at less than 3 per cent for stabilizing the CO2e in the atmosphere between 445 and 535 ppm and the 2008 UNDP Human Development Report estimates that the cost of limiting temperature rise to 2°C could be less than 1.6 per cent of global GDP up till 2030. These estimates, whichever is more accurate, are significant. But with total global military spending at around 2.5 per cent of global GDP, they are far from prohibitive."

We also need to go flat out at the same time on a quite different strategy, climate adaptation,

"“Adaptation actions are taken to cope with a changing climate, e.g. increasing rainfall, higher temperatures, scarcer water resources or more frequent storms, at present or anticipating such changes in future. Adaptation aims at reducing the risk and damage from current and future harmful impacts cost-effectively or exploiting potential benefits. Examples of actions include using scarce water more efficiently, adapting existing building codes to withstand future climate conditions and extreme weather events, construction of flood walls and raising levels of dykes against sea level rise, development of drought-tolerant crops, selection of forestry species and practices less vulnerable to storms and fires, development of spatial plans and corridors to help species migrate.” (this definition is taken from the European Commission’s Green Paper – Adapting to climate change in Europe – options for EU action, SEC(2007)849)"

preparing to cope with the inevitable changes ahead (inevitable because of the inertia locked up in the atmosphere and the oceans: much of the warming we are experiencing today was caused by GHGs emitted several decades ago). Climate neutrality is a way to mitigation which will help to reduce the likely damage. This will, in turn, lessen the need for adaptation and alleviate the cost of adapting. Adaptation and mitigation can complement each other


24 KICK THE HABIT INTRODUCTION