Climate hazards, climatic change and development planning

Abstract

The threat of global warming calls for a new approach to development planning, one that incorporates (a) analysis of the sensitivity of resource systems to variations in climate and environmental change; (b) gradual adjustment to climate change; and (c) expansion of the repertoire of options, to avoid being pressured into premature action or paralysed by uncertainty. The author asserts that such a repertoire should include actions that are easily and cheaply implemented and reversed, and that adjustments should expand rather than limit future options. Planners should expand on a ‘tie-in’ strategy that links the uncertain threat of climatic change to the certainty that current resource management systems contribute to current environmental problems. The mitigation of current natural hazards should be linked to concerns about climatic warming so that actions taken today have both immediate and long-term benefits.