Twenty-eighth Report Adapting Institutions to Climate Change Cm ...

Chapter 4
4.118 We have also already pointed out that adaptation will require practical actions which have
similarities with the outputs from successful businesses. How corporations manage information,
uncertainties and complexities, and particularly how they innovate to create lasting expertise
and adaptable attitudes, can provide valuable lessons for all organisations grappling with climate
change. Almost by defi nition, ‘business as usual’ will become increasingly diffi cult and ultimately
irrelevant. To survive and remain effective in the face of climate change, organisations will have
to be innovative.
THE CIRCLES OF ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
4.119 In summary, institutions addressing adaptation face four challenges: uncertainty, complexity, path
dependency, and equity and effi ciency. In order to build their adaptive capacity, institutions will
also need to consider how to frame the issue of adaptation, how to learn, and how to implement.
This will be the vital fi rst step in ensuring effective responses. In this chapter we have explored
how each of these components is multi-faceted and each is inter-linked (Figure 4-III). In the
next chapter we make a number of more specifi c recommendations designed to help institutions
address them in practice.
FIGURE 4-III
The circles of adaptive capacity
This diagram illustrates a fl exible, iterative, non-linear framework for building adaptive capacity, together with
the main components, actions and institutional activities that contribute to each part of the process.
Implementation
Framing
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Learning