Climate change in the UKOTs an overview of the ... - JNCC - Defra

4.1 Mainstreaming
adaptation
The concept of adapting to climate variations
is nothing new. People have always
found ways of responding to climate variations
using their resources and traditional
knowledge gained from experiences. However,
the current pace of change suggests
it is not enough for people to rely on experience
to navigate the future.
Adaptation is the only way to deal with the
inescapable impacts of climate change
(Stern, 2007). If UKOTs hope to sustain
those economic activities and livelihood
strategies that are climate-dependent (for
example, tourism) or heavily climateinfluenced
(for example, fisheries and agriculture),
they have to make adaptation a
major part of their national development
strategies. The natural disasters that affect
many UKOTs as part of their ‘normal’ climate
conditions are becoming more
intense and the territories have to look at
how these have been, and will continue to
be, influenced by climate change. All
countries already have some measures in
place to deal with natural hazards; adaptation
to climate change simply needs to
scale up what already exists and strategically
identify the gaps and weak points
that need to be addressed.
An opportunity for UKOTs
Adapting to climate change is an opportunity
for UKOTs to improve natural resource
management and physical planning
processes. Even if climate change were
taken out of the equation, adaptive measures
would make the territories better able
to deal with the natural hazards that are
part of their normal climate variability, as
well as the growing human-induced
stresses on the environment.
There are many things that UKOTs can do
to adapt to climate change. Adaptive
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Adapting to climate change
is an opportunity for UKOTs
to improve natural resource
management and physical
planning processes.
“
”
responses can be technological (for
example, improving coastal defences),
managerial (for example, introducing crop
rotation) or policy-based (for example,
strengthening planning regulations). They
can also be behavioural. At the individual
level, this could be something as simple as
preparing one’s home adequately for a
hurricane or using less water in the
garden.
Building adaptation into national
development agendas
More and more countries are beginning to
develop adaptation strategies or plans of
action. The UNFCCC makes provisions for
its least developed country signatories to
prepare National Adaptation Plans of
Action (NAPAs) that set out the priority
areas in which they need urgent and
immediate adaptive measures. Even outside
of the NAPA framework, countries are
developing adaptation strategies in the
face of the growing realisation that action
to address climate change is needed now.
The Caribbean UKOTs, for example, are
working with the Caribbean Community
Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) to
develop and implement adaptation strategies
under the Mainstreaming Adaptation
to Climate Change in the UK Overseas
Territories project, funded by the UK
Department for International Development.
Some multilateral agencies, like the Asian
Development Bank, have begun to integrate
climate concerns into their grant and
loan procedures.
Simply having a national plan or strategy is
not enough; it is how countries use them