Climate Change: Adaptive solutions and risk management

a.Adaptive solutions to climate change

Technological solutions

Buildings

1. New building materials

2. Improved building insulation & heating/cooling

Agriculture

1. New crop varieties & animal breeds

2. Efficient irrigation

3. Flexible farm management

4. Food & storage preservation facilities

Disaster risk reduction

1. Hazard mapping & monitoring

2. Early warning systems

3. Emergency response & recovery management

Engineered & built-environment solutions

Coasts

1. Sea walls & coastal protection structures

2. Flood & cyclone shelters

Urban

1. Improved energy, transport & water infrastructure

2. Power plant & electricity grid enhancements

Ecosystem-based solutions

Fisheries

1. Sustainable fisheries management

Urban & Coasts

1. Green infrastructure & spaces

2. 2. Mangrove conservation & replanting 

Conservation

1. Reduce existing ecosystem stressors

2. Assisted migration or managed translocation

3. Ex-situ conservation & seed banks

4. Community based natural resource management

Institutional solutions

Community

1. National, regional & local adaptation plans

2. Land zoning & building codes

3. Insurance

4. Education 

b. Climate change risk management

Climate change risk management approaches generally fall into four broad categories: 1. Mitigation, 2. Adaptation, 3. Geoengineering or climate engineering, 4. Knowledge-base expansion.

1. Mitigation: 

By lowering emissions, mitigation decreases society's future contributions to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. It is hoped that in the end, this would minimise the amount that will change climate and improve the likelihood that societal consequences can be controlled.

There are numerous types of approaches to decreasing emissions. Putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions is a particularly significant policy option; it has gotten a lot of academic interest; and it has been a topic of policy debate since climate change became a public concern.

2. Adaptation:

Adaptation includes preparing for negative climatic effects, increasing resistance to such impacts, and enhancing society's capacity to respond and recover. This may aid in reducing the damages and disruptions caused by climate change.

Adaptation policy can involve legislation to reduce susceptibility (e.g., through land-use planning and building standards); response planning; disaster recovery; impact assessment for vital systems and resources (e.g., water, health, biological systems, agriculture, and infrastructure); observations and monitoring etc.

3. Geoengineering or climate engineering:

Geoengineering is the purposeful manipulation of the climate system on a large scale, typically on a worldwide scale. Solar radiation management (curbing human-caused warming due to greenhouse gas emissions by reflecting incoming sunlight back to space) and carbon absorption are the two most common types of geoengineering discussed in scientific and policy circles (extracting carbon dioxide from the air and storing it deep in the ground or ocean).

In the event of sudden and catastrophic climate change impacts, geoengineering could potentially help lower greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, counteract the warming effect, and address specific climate change impacts. Geoengineering, on the other hand, might be dangerous. Large-scale attempts to design the earth system might have unforeseen and negative repercussions.

4. Knowledge-base expansion:

Research, investigations, scientific assessments, and technological development can aid in the discovery of climate-related hazards, as well as decision-making in the context of climate change risk management. Increasing the information base helps policymakers to better understand, choose, and improve specific risk management techniques.

In certain situations, expanding one's knowledge base might reveal totally new ways to safeguard the climate system or mitigate the hazards of climate change. As a result, policies to broaden the knowledge base can serve as a foundation for the proactive risk management techniques outlined above (mitigation, adaptation, and geoengineering).