From Vulnerability to resilience the challenge of adaptation to climate change

Abstract

This report summarizes the results of the Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation (V&A) component of the Development and Climate Project that has been managed jointly by the Korea Environment Institute, Seoul (KEI) and the UNEP Risø Centre, Denmark (URC). The project strengthened a partnership between KEI, URC and centres of excellence in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Korea. The project was sponsored by KEI, whose fund originated from the Office of the Prime Minister, Korea. The focus of this report is providing adaptation responses through selected case studies in developing countries. The case studies cover diverse themes such as water, agriculture, role of bioenergy in enhancing resilience and infrastructure. These address adaptation policies to provide general insights about synergies and tradeoffs between national sustainable development policies and climate change, and the implementation measures required to obtain attractive policy options, including adaptation. The report includes a short introduction to the project and its approach and summaries of the country studies. The report draws conclusions on enhancing the resilience of vulnerable populations and systems to the adverse impacts of climate change. This is the challenge of adaptation. The country study results are ‘owned’ by the national teams and the names of the researchers involved are acknowledged on the individual country study chapters. We appreciate their commitment and commend their in-depth coverage of the themes. We are sure that this report would be of interest to various international audiences including policymakers, researchers and scientists.