When Does the Integration of Mitigation and Adaptation in the Land Use Sector Actually Makes Sense

Abstract

The phenomenon of Climate change is addressed through two main strategies: mitigation and adaptation. It is broadly recognized that both strategies are interrelated, however, in the land use sector this connection is particularly strong. In fact, the mentioned sector is one of the most promising areas to mainstream mitigation and adaptation into a single intervention. In spite of its potential, in practice mitigation and adaptation are still treated as two different policy instruments. Concerns about efficiency have emerged as a result of such dichotomy. However, it is still poorly understood how to manage a joint implementation of mitigation and adaptation. In this research paper, enabling conditions for an enhanced policy outcome in the land use sector were studied. Specifically, a dynamic optimization problem based on the concept of forest transition was developed and solved. Steady states were characterized for an unregulated economy and different policy configurations. The results show that partial policy interventions (only adaptation or only mitigation) improved the unregulated economy situation but deliver sub-optimal land allocation. It is only under a joint implementation that optimality can be restored.