Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ... - ITU

designing and implementing strategies to moderate, cope with and take advantage of the impacts of
climate change 4 are more urgent than ever before.
Box 2. A Definition of climate change adaptation
“Adaptation to climate change can be defined as the adjustment in natural or human systems
in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm
or exploits beneficial opportunities”.
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Adaptation measures can be planned or autonomous, and take multiple forms, ranging from strengthening
local infrastructure to withstand more severe periods of precipitation and floods, improve the management
of water resources to ensure sufficient supply during dry seasons, adopt more resistant seed varieties, or
improve the dissemination of information as part of disaster preparedness and response programs, among
others.
Ultimately, the severity of climate change impacts is closely linked to the levels of exposure and
vulnerability that prevail within a given context. For the objectives of this report, adverse impacts are
considered disasters when they produce widespread damage and cause severe alterations in the normal
functioning of communities or societies. Thus, disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change
focus on reducing exposure and vulnerability, while contributing to increase the resilience of vulnerable
contexts to face the impacts of climatic events. According to the UNFCCC 5 ,
“Most methods of adaptation involve some form of technology, which in the broadest sense
includes not just material and equipment but also diverse forms of knowledge. Promoting the
development and diffusion of technologies, know-how, and practices for adaptation are
important activities for improving and enabling adaptation to climate change”(p.36)…adding
that ”Drawing on experiences and traditional knowledge as well as modern technologies,
targeted adaptive actions have been undertaken to, among other things, enhance the resilience
of livelihoods and economies” (p. 41).
Climate change adaptation is gaining momentum as an area of priority action, particularly for developing
countries that are at the forefront of climate change impacts. These countries have recognized that the
adoption of adaptation efforts must be intensified in order to cope with the unavoidable, yet uncertain
impacts of the changing global climate. This realization has been accompanied by – and fostered through −
a growing international debate at the highest policy levels, which addresses the mechanisms, measures and
policies that should be in place to enable the effective adoption of adaptive actions in vulnerable contexts.
Thus, positioning climate change within the international policy domain is crucial to better understand the
context and levels within which national policy processes and strategies are developed.
1.3. Climate change adaptation in the international policy domain
Climate change was one of the key environmental issues discussed at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference, also known as the
1992 Earth Summit, agreed on the establishment of the Rio Conventions, three intrinsically linked United
Nations conventions addressing the interdependent issues of biodiversity, climate change and
desertification. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is one of them.
The UNFCCC emerged as the global response to address the challenge of climate change. The Convention
aims at undertaking actions at the international, regional and national level to reduce GHG emissions (thus
mitigating climate change) and to cope with temperature increase foreseen in the near future.
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