Links Between Capacity and Action in Response to Global Climate Change: A Climate Response Shift at the Local Level

Abstract

Although the development and implementation of a global greenhouse gas reduction regime has dominated policy debates even before the advent of the Kyoto Protocol (and remains a critical element of effective mitigation), communities in developing countries do not have direct control of critical sources of emissions or are not fully aware of the scale at which the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change will play out. This paper has undertaken a revision of scientific literature on climate change issues and has introduced the concept of response capacity, its links to adaptive and mitigative capacity, as well as action or behaviour change in response to climate change. As this paper shows, communities face a unique set of challenges as they navigate through the uncertain future presented by climate change. Even so, communities bring to the task of climate change adaptation and mitigation a unique set of tools and proficiencies that are often absent at the national and international levels. The paper investigates the complex relationship between capacity and action in response to global climate change, which represents a significant gap in the climate change literature and influences the ability of climate policies to build effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. It is the one aim of this paper to present some of the means via which communities might more effectively employ the various forms of capacity they possess to rise to the challenge presented by climate change.