Climate Change Adaptation in Developing Countries: Beyond Rhetoric

Abstract

Developing countries face unique vulnerability and adaptation challenges related to climate variability and change as a result of being, on the one hand, more exposed and sensitive, and on the other hand, having less adaptive capacity for dealing with it (Yohe et al., 2006; UNFCCC, 2007; World Bank, 2010). Also widely accepted is the urgent need for adaptation to combat what the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sees as the most likely climate change impacts in the developing world. These include; “reduced crop yields in tropical areas leading to increased risk of hunger, spread of climate sensitive diseases such as malaria, and an increased risk of extinction of 20-30 percent of all plant and animal species.” The report continues, “by 2020, up to 250 million people in Africa could be exposed to greater risk of water stress. Over the course of this century, millions of people living in the catchment areas of the Himalayas and Andes face increased risk of floods as glaciers retreat followed by drought and water scarcity as the once extensive glaciers on these mountain ranges disappear. Sea level rise will lead to inundation of coasts worldwide ...people living with the constant threat of tropical cyclones now face increased severity and possibly increased frequency of these events with all associated risks to life and livelihoods” (UNFCC, 2007, p. 5). In the face of such dire consequences, developing countries especially and international organizations, led most prominently by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; see http://unfccc.int/2860.php), have been hard at work in an attempt to design feasible climate change adaptation policies and actions. The nexus of these efforts between the developing countries and the UNFCCC is a mechanism called NAPA (National Adaptation Programmes of Actions), which were instituted by Decision 5 at the 7th Conference of Parties (CoP) held in Marrakesh, Morocco, in 2001. These efforts have galvanized political action and provided much needed guidance to developing countries on how to plan for adaptation to predicted climate change impacts. Even more importantly, they have also provided funding mechanisms and commitments from developed countries to help the least developed countries (UNFCC Article 4/3-5) implement adaptation strategies. Despite such seemingly impressive progress, a number of critical issues related to adaptation remain to be resolved if we are to move beyond the rhetoric of broad scale policy