Adaptation to global warming

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The aim of adapting to global warming is to come to terms with the changes in the climate that have already occurred due to global warming and to adjust to expected changes in such a way that future damage can be avoided as far as possible or opportunities where they arise can be used become. The adaptation can be "either reactive or proactive (precautionary) and affects both social and natural systems". One also speaks of adaptation (or adaptation) to climate change or, for short, climate adaptation .

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines adaptation to climate change as “initiatives and measures to reduce the sensitivity of natural and human systems to actual or expected effects of climate change”. The adaptability ( "adaptive capacity") of a country or a society depends on various parameters from, for example, by the level of development and economic efficiency, etc. from the knowledge about the likely effects of climate change

Adaptation to global warming is not possible indefinitely. There are limits to the adaptation to a future temperature increase, which for some human and ecological systems can already be reached at 1.5 degrees global warming. With a larger increase in temperature, the adaptability decreases further.

Adaptation measures

The IPCC scientists point out that the range of potential adaptation measures is very extensive; It ranges from purely technological measures (e.g. coastal protection) to changes in behavior (e.g. eating habits, choice of holiday destinations) and business decisions (e.g. changed land management) to political decisions (e.g. planning regulations, emission reduction targets) . They can be taken by private or public actors and implemented autonomously or in a planned manner. The appropriate implementation of adaptation measures requires appropriate knowledge. However, there are still enormous ecological, economic, informational, social, awareness and behavioral barriers preventing the implementation of adaptation measures. Given that climate change affects many sectors of an economy , integrating adaptation e.g. B. in national development plans, poverty reduction strategies or sectoral planning processes a central challenge.

Various examples of measures to adapt to climate change in Germany are documented in the database of the Competence Center for Climate Impacts and Adaptation (KomPass) at the German Environment Agency.

In this context, experts often speak of “good practice in adapting to climate change”. Although a large number of publications in the form of scientific articles, practical handbooks and guidelines for “good adaptation practice” already exist, the concept is often used vaguely and unspecifically. Against this background, the Federal Environment Agency commissioned a study in 2015 that systematized more than 30 criteria mentioned in the specialist literature for evaluating good adaptation practice and condensed them into a new set of six criteria.

adaptability

The IPCC understands adaptive capacity as the “totality of the capabilities, resources and institutions of a country or region in order to implement effective adaptation measures”. It depends on a wide variety of factors, such as wealth, available technology, quality of education, infrastructure, management skills or access to knowledge.

The adaptability of the wildlife is most likely inadequate.

National strategies / measures for adaptation to climate change

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany and Austria . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Germany

In Germany, the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS) adopted in 2008 forms the political framework for climate adaptation. The aim is to reduce the vulnerability of the economy, the environment and society to the consequences of climate change and to maintain or increase the adaptability of natural, social and economic systems. Possible consequences of climate change and options for action are presented for 15 fields of action.

With the Adaptation Action Plan of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (APA-DAS) adopted in 2011, the Federal Government described specific activities.

Regular evaluation and updating are laid down in both the adaptation strategy and the action plan. This process is supported by the Competence Center for Climate Impacts and Adaptation in the Federal Environment Agency (KomPass).

In 2015 the monitoring report on the German adaptation strategy and the progress report on the German adaptation strategy to climate change were published. a. contains the Adaptation Action Plan (APA II). The monitoring report is to appear regularly every four years; the next progress report is planned for 2020.

The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) announced the Blue Compass competition for the first time in 2016 and honored four so-called “adaptation pioneers”.

In 2016 there were the following winners:

The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports projects by municipalities, companies, associations, clubs, universities, research institutions and foundations to adapt to the consequences of climate change. The aim of the funding project is to gain multipliers who act as role models.

The Climate Service Center Germany offers various scenarios as a basis for planning on the basis of extensive databases and its own surveys for a wide variety of inquirers.

The German building code (BauGB) prescribes climate protection and adaptation to climate change in several places, for example in the planning guidelines ( § 1 paragraph 5 sentence 2 BauGB), in urban redevelopment ( § 171a BauGB) and in urban redevelopment ( § 136 BauGB ).

Agriculture and Forestry

In July 2019, Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner called for a large-scale reforestation program in Germany. There is an urgent need for action. According to your ministry, several million trees will be needed to make up for the loss of 110,000 hectares of forest.

Klöckner and Chancellor Angela Merkel declared in July 2019 that farmers should be helped to adapt to climate change. Among other things, “innovative processes” are necessary for the soils and plants that are more resistant to extreme weather conditions.

Austria

In Austria , the national strategy for adaptation to climate change has been drawn up since September 2007 on behalf of the Ministry of Life and adopted by the Council of Ministers on October 23, 2012. Countries like Bangladesh and Kenya have adopted integrated national climate strategies that combine both adaptation and emission avoidance.

European strategy for adaptation to climate change

In 2009 the European Union published the White Paper "Adapting to Climate Change: A European Framework for Action". Among other things, this resulted in the Internet platform Climate-ADAPT, which serves to improve the Europe-wide exchange of information on adaptation measures.

On April 16, 2013, the EU Commission presented an EU strategy for adapting to climate change. It pursues three goals: the promotion of adaptation measures in the member states, the broadening of the knowledge base about climate change for well-founded decision-making and the integration of adaptation needs into EU policy areas such as the common agricultural policy.

Adaptation and Vulnerability

Overall, the ability to adapt is strongly influenced by vulnerability . Socio-economic factors play a central role here. The extent of vulnerability is considered from the following three points of view:

  • the exposure (how strong the climate changes are in a country),
  • the sensitivity (the consequences of the change) and finally
  • adaptability (the ability to adapt to change and protect yourself from negative consequences).

The IPCC is one of the countries and regions that are characterized by a particularly high level of vulnerability, especially the least developed developing countries , the so-called Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Unlike most industrialized countries, which are located in temperate climatic zones, most developing countries are heavily exposed due to their geographic location. In the tropics and subtropics , extreme weather conditions such as cyclones or droughts occur more frequently and are more severe. Many developing countries are also particularly sensitive because the weather-dependent agriculture shapes their economies. To make matters worse, a large part of the population lives from subsistence agriculture . The adaptive capacities are also typically poor in developing countries. On the one hand there is a lack of money for targeted measures, on the other hand there is often a lack of competent staff and institutions capable of acting. In order to support the LDCs, special funding programs have been agreed within the framework of the United Nations climate policy (see 5.).

Headed by the Federal Environment Agency, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research carried out a nationwide vulnerability analysis for Germany for the first time in 2005. The action areas water, winter sports tourism and health were rated as particularly vulnerable. In addition, the regions of south-west Germany (Upper Rhine Rift Valley), the central areas of east Germany (north-east German lowlands, south-east German basins and hills) and the Alps were identified as the most vulnerable, while the lowest vulnerability was seen for the German low mountain ranges and north-west Germany.

As part of the “Vulnerability Network” research project led by the Federal Environment Agency (KomPass), a current Germany-wide vulnerability analysis was carried out between 2011 and 2015. The final report was presented to the public on November 24, 2015.

Vulnerability analyzes are also available for individual federal states and regions as well as for individual fields of action such as health.

Regional vulnerability

According to the IPCC, vulnerability is particularly high in the following regions:

  • across Africa because of the expected severe climate impacts and low adaptive capacity,
  • in the small island states , which are threatened by sea level rise , and
  • in the great delta and coastal regions of Asia and Africa with high population densities that are regularly exposed to floods and storms,
  • in the Arctic , due to the effects of the particularly high rate of warming.

This does not mean that the industrialized countries cannot potentially experience massive changes, but that this tends to occur in the event of a rise in temperature, which would have negative effects on the developing countries well in advance.

Adaptation in UN climate policy

A central political framework for the international climate debate is the Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ), which was passed in 1992 and which has meanwhile been ratified by 192 countries. Reference is already made there to the topic of adaptation, although at that time the focus was even more on avoiding dangerous climate change (Article 2 of the UNFCCC). At the latest with the third assessment report of the IPCC, which was published in 2001, the need for adaptation and the understanding of it has increased significantly.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change refers to adaptation in Articles 2 and 4 (4.1 (b, e, f), 4.8 and 4.9). In the Kyoto Protocol , which was agreed in 1997 and came into force in 2005, adaptation only plays a minor role, but the decision was made to set up a special UN Adaptation Fund for the developing countries particularly affected assist in financing adaptation. The Bali Action Plan ( Bali Roadmap ), adopted in Bali in 2007, for the first time treats adaptation with the same weight as the avoidance of emissions, and served as a framework for the subsequent negotiations on a new, comprehensive international climate agreement.

The Nairobi Work Program on Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability, adopted in 2006, was an important step, particularly from the perspective of scientific support for governments. Guidelines for LDCs for the development of national action programs for adaptation (NAPAs) were already adopted at the 2001 UN climate summit in Marrakech, which explain the initial situation of the respective country, the consequences and regional effects of climate change on the country, its vulnerability and possible adaptation strategies as well as identify the projects that are most necessary in the short term. By May 2009 the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Climate Change had 40 NAPAs developed by individual countries.

Adaptation as argumentation model of climate protection opponents

The demand to simply adapt to global warming instead of practicing preventive climate protection is one of the well-known argumentation patterns of climate skeptics and deniers or opponents of effective climate protection measures. This is a comparatively new strategy that has been in use since at least the mid / late 2000s. In her case, the protagonists do not deny the existence or the human cause of climate change. Instead, they argue that it is too late to stop global warming. People who use this PR trick initially present themselves as reasonable interpreters of the scientific findings, but then argue that we should adapt to the warming, that the warming may even be positive or that climate protection measures and economic development are balanced would have to. Experts of this type of denial such as Björn Lomborg argue, for example. B. that there are more important goals than combating global warming. B. the fight against poverty, HIV or malaria and the world would be better off if money were used for these measures instead of climate protection. But they deliberately conceal the fact that z. B. Poverty and malaria are exacerbated by climate change.

In fact, the ability to adapt to global warming is limited. It is necessary to adapt to the warming that has already taken place. So ecosystems have e.g. B. only up to approx. 2 degrees with appreciable adaptability; if the temperature increased significantly, they would collapse and many species would become extinct. In addition, climate researchers like James E. Hansen think it is insane that human civilization would be able to adapt sensibly to a sea level rising several meters, which would flood many large cities around the world. In addition, there is a risk that pure adaptation strategies will trigger tipping elements in the earth system , which could possibly result in galloping climate change (see also discussion of the possibility of a galloping greenhouse effect on earth ). The claim that strategies to adapt to man-made climate change are easier or cheaper than preventive climate protection measures is also highly misleading. This is especially true in light of the fact that it is currently not at all foreseeable which types of adaptation would be needed at all.

In Germany argues z. B. the Berlin circle in the Union after this pattern.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Glossary - Climate Change Dossier
  2. ↑ a b IPCC: Climate Change 2007: Summaries for Political Decision Makers Report (PDF; 5.7 MB) ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.umweltbundesamt.at
  3. ↑ IPCC 2018: Special report 1.5 ° C global warming . Summary for Policymakers , p. 12
  4. ↑ KomPass - database
  5. ↑ C. Kind / M. Buth / M. Peters 2015 - Good Practice in Adapting to Climate Change. Dessau-Roßlau: Federal Environment Agency
  6. ↑ Viktoriia Radchuk, Thomas Reed a. a .: Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient. In: Nature Communications. 10, 2019, doi : 10.1038 / s41467-019-10924-4 .
  7. ↑ Federal Government (2008): German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change
  8. ↑ Federal Government (2011): Adaptation Action Plan (APA) of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS)
  9. ↑ 2015 Monitoring Report on the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change , Report of the Interministerial Working Group “Adaptation Strategy of the Federal Government”, publisher: Umweltbundesamt (UBA), February 2015
  10. ↑ a b Progress Report on the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change , Die Bundesregierung, November 16, 2015
  11. ↑ "Blue Compass" competition , Federal Environment Agency (UBA)
  12. ↑ Future Cities - Green-Blue Climate Corridor Kamen , Federal Environment Agency (UBA)
  13. ↑ Funding of measures to adapt to the consequences of climate change , Project Management Jülich
  14. ↑ Funding program for measures to adapt to climate change , BMUB
  15. ↑ GERICS Homepage - Climate Service Center Germany. Accessed December 9, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Climate policy - "Up to 20 more hot days in summer" . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed December 9, 2017]).
  17. ↑ Adaptation to climate change. First progress report by the federal government on the German adaptation strategy. Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), April 2016, accessed on August 14, 2019 . P. 22.
  18. ↑ a b | Forestry: Julia Klöckner wants to reforest forests , www.zeit.de, July 6, 2019
  19. ↑ Federal Environment Agency Austria - starting shot for developing the adaptation strategy . Retrieved August 8, 2013.
  20. ^ Federal Environment Agency Austria - Austrian adaptation strategy . Retrieved August 8, 2013.
  21. ↑ KomPass - adaptation at EU level . Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  22. ↑ European Commission (2013): An EU Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (PDF)
  23. ↑ KomPass - Risks and Vulnerabilities . Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  24. ↑ Network Vulnerability ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.netzwerk-vulnerabilitaet.de
  25. ↑ The consequences of climate change will be much stronger in the future: 16 federal authorities and institutions present a study on the future consequences of climate change in Germany
  26. ↑ Vulnerability Network - Climate Study Catalog ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / netzwerk-vulnerabilitaet.de
  27. ↑ IPCC: AR4 SYR Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers - 3 Project climate change and its impacts
  28. ^ UNFCCC website on the Nairobi Work Program
  29. ↑ UNFCCC website on National Adaptation Programs of Action Least Developed Countries Portal
  30. ↑ See Haydn Washington, John Cook: Climate Change Denial. Heads in the sand . Earthscan 2011, p. 78.
  31. ↑ See Haydn Washington, John Cook: Climate Change Denial. Heads in the sand . Earthscan 2011, p. 125.
  32. ↑ Naomi Oreskes et al .: Adaptation to Global Warming: Do Climate Models Tell Us What We Need to Know? In: Philosophy of Science . tape 77 , no. 5 , 10, pp. 1012-1028, p. 1026 , doi : 10.1086 / 657428 .
  33. ↑ CDU rights attack Merkel's climate policy . In: tagesschau.de . June 3, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  34. ↑ Right wing CDU attacks Merkel's climate policy . In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 3, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2017.