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

INTRODUCTION
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
Chapter 5
DEVELOPING ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
Societies have always had to adapt pragmatically to their current climate, with varying degrees
of success (1.4). In the UK we can deal with most weather conditions reasonably well, but
extreme weather can cause severe disruption – as the heatwaves of 2003, floods in 2007 and
late 2009, and the cold weather at the end of 2009 and the start of 2010 demonstrated. Often
these events lead to reviews, and lessons are learnt which increase our capacity to cope with
similar events in future. But that learning can often be slow, and it is usually in reaction to
events rather than anticipatory.
Climate change presents adaptation challenges of a different order: extreme events will occur
more often, and will potentially be more extreme and more widespread. It will never be possible
(or affordable) to plan to cope with all the circumstances which the country or local areas may
face. But the Commission firmly believes that as a country we need to recognise that our vulnerability
will increase, and that institutions should address this proactively and systematically on the
basis of the principles set out in the previous chapter.
We saw in Chapter 4 how institutions face four challenges when dealing with adaptation:
uncertainty, complexity, path dependency, and equity and efficiency. In addressing these
challenges, institutions will need to consider how to frame, incorporate learning and implement
their approaches to adaptation. It is only by following these principles that institutions can build
adaptive capacity soundly.
Framing, implementation and learning are not linear processes but, rather, are flexible and iterative
approaches for understanding and characterising the issues that emerge from the four high-level
challenges. Of the many difficulties we have outlined in this report, it is common for organisations
when faced with a problem to focus on what actions they need to take immediately, whereas often
it would also be appropriate to concentrate on how to build capacity to frame, learn about, and
implement appropriately. Then adaptation actions will not only be effective in the short term but
can remain sufficiently flexible in the face of an uncertain climate in the longer term.
The key message is that building adaptive capacity needs to be embedded as part of the routine
business of institutions. The circles of adaptive capacity (Figure 4-III) provide a framework to
understand how the different components of adaptive capacity can be developed so that the
challenges can be addressed.
But how do organisations embed adaptation within their business? How can government ensure
that the policy framework for delivering services and programmes is made more relevant to a
world with a changing climate? Leadership and capacity building are the key prerequisites. We
believe strongly that addressing these themes is essential if organisations are to frame, implement
and learn successfully.
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