Designing climate change adaptation policies: An economic framework

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change

“…The following issues need to be kept in mind while developing adaptation strategies: (i) expectations on future socio-economic developments, (ii) uncertainty of climate change impacts at the global, regional and sub-regional levels, (iii) long-term adaptation horizon and the dynamic character of adaptation actions, (iv) inertia of current socio-economic and governance systems to rapid changes, (v) behavioural aspects; and (vi) the degree to which either adaptation is the sensible option or if an exit strategy is more adequate (adapted from Hallegatte et al, 2011).…”

Toward a Sustainable and Resilient Future

“…A number of studies have assessed the relationship between climate change and human security, demonstrating that the linkages are often both complex and context-dependent (Barnett, 2003;Barnett and Adger, 2007;Brauch et al, 2008Brauch et al, , 2009Brauch et al, , 2011Buhaug et al, 2008;O'Brien et al, 2010a). Among the most likely human security threats are impacts felt through damage to health, food, water, or soil conditions (Oswald Spring, 2009a, 2011b.…”

“…These aspects of adjustment are increasingly seen as being embedded in ongoing socio-cultural and institutional learning processes. This can be observed in the many adaptation projects that emphasize learning about risks, evaluating response options, experimenting with and rectifying options, exchanging information, and making tradeoffs based on public values using reversible and adjustable strategies (McGray et al, 2007;Leary et al, 2008;Hallegatte, 2009;Hallegatte et al, 2011b).…”

The Role of Economic Policy in Climate Change Adaptation

“…The systematic analysis of how to adapt, for instance, to more extreme weather events is a very recent strategy to cope with climate change. Information about climate change and the impact of climate change, in addition to information about which sets of instruments and technical adaptations to these changes currently exist (see also Hallegatte et al 2011), are typical public goods: the cost of generating the information has to be incurred once by the generator of this information, whereas the marginal costs of using the information are zero for additional users of it.…”