The goals of climate change adaptation are to reduce risk and vulnerability to climate change, strengthen resilience, enhance well-being and the capacity to anticipate, and respond successfully to change. The impacts of climate change affect people and nature in many different ways requiring different adaptation actions. The goals for these adaptation actions can relate to health, water or food security, jobs and employment, poverty eradication and social equity, biodiversity and ecosystem services at international, national, and local levels.
For human systems, adaptation includes actions such as hardening a building against flooding. At the local level, communities can take actions that include updating building codes and land use plans, improving soil management, enhancing water use efficiency, supporting migrants and taking measures for poverty reduction. For natural systems, adaptation includes organisms changing behaviours, migrating to new locations and genetic modifications in response to changing climate conditions.
The available evidence suggests that current adaptation efforts may be insufficient to help ensure sustainable development in many communities worldwide even under the most optimistic greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Climate change adaptation is, therefore, urgent to the extent that meeting important societal goals requires immediate and long-term action by governments, business, civil society, and individuals at a scale and speed significantly faster than that represented by current trends.
