The Inequities of National Adaptation to Climate Change

Abstract

With global efforts to mitigate climate change lagging behind what is necessary to achieve Paris Agreement global warming targets, global mean temperatures are increasing, and weather extremes are becoming more frequent and more severe. When mitigation falters, adaptation to current and anticipated future climate conditions becomes increasingly urgent. This study provides a novel collection of adaptive capacity and adaptation readiness indicators, which it aggregates into a composite adaptation index to assess the relative adaptation performance of nations. Adaptation performance is assessed using two complementary techniques, a distance to frontier analysis and a dominance analysis. Developed countries perform relatively well and developing countries perform relatively poorly in both exercises. Adaptation performance is found to be closely and positively related to both national income per capita and greenhouse gas emissions per capita, highlighting the inequities of global adaptation performance. These adaptation inequities are consistent with the IPCC assessment that nations most affected by climate change are those that are least able to adapt and contribute least to the problem, creating a need for assistance from developed countries.

Living in Mediterranean cities in the context of climate change: A review

“…Additionally, Caretta et al (2022) cautioned Mediterranean countries about the need to bolster their coastal defenses against the anticipated increase in storm frequency and higher sea levels. Moreover, many recent studies underscore the disparities in national adaptation to climate change (e.g., Edmonds et al, 2023), particularly dire in cities located in developing countries. An additional obstacle is the political instability in parts of the MR which hinders effective coping with the escalating environmental pressures.…”

Climate Change Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Feedback Hypothesis: A Comparison of Lower-Middle, Upper-Middle, and High-Income Countries

“…The climate change adaptation investigation was initiated by Smit and Wandel [24], with adaptation strategies emerging as a vital component of climate policy [36][37][38][39]. Climate change has detrimental effects on all life-supporting sectors and human well-being worldwide.…”

“…Due to the lower capacity to adapt [10], limited literature on enhancing adaptation capacity is available. It may produce effects beyond the level of climate change coping capacity on adaptation [37]. The extent to which climate phenomena affect our society depends on exposure, adaptive capacity, the type of hazards, and socio-economic development.…”