Assessing the feasibility of adaptation options: methodological advancements and directions for climate adaptation resea
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Assessing the feasibility of adaptation options: methodological advancements and directions for climate adaptation research and practice Chandni Singh 1 & James Ford 2 & Debora Ley 3 & Amir Bazaz 1 & Aromar Revi 1 Received: 23 April 2019 / Accepted: 18 May 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
The Paris Agreement put adaptation prominently on the global climate action agenda. Despite a surge in research and praxis-based knowledge on adaptation, a critical policy roadblock is synthesizing and assessing this burgeoning evidence. We develop an approach to assess the multidimensional feasibility of adaptation options in a robust and transparent manner, providing direction for global climate policy and identifying knowledge gaps to further future climate research. The approach, which was tested in the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C (SR1.5) to assess 23 adaptation options, is underpinned by a systematic review of recent literature, expert elicitation, and iterative peer review. It responds to the challenge of limited agreement on adaptation indicators, lack of fine-scale adaptation data, and challenges of assessing synergies and trade-offs with mitigation. The findings offer methodological insights into how future assessments such as the IPCC Assessment Report (AR) six and regional, national, and sectoral assessment exercises could assess adaptation feasibility and synthesize the growing body of knowledge on climate change adaptation. Keywords Climate change . Adaptation . Feasibility assessment . Synergies and trade-offs . IPCC
Significance statement: The climate change adaptation literature is growing exponentially, and various methods have been developed to assess and synthesize it. In the article, we detail a methodology for conducting a global assessment of the feasibility of adaptation options. We use a six-dimensional feasibility assessment framework which is unique in that it (1) presents an up-to-date, transparent, and robust review of current adaptation literature; (2) develops a methodological approach to undertake a multidimensional assessment of different adaptation options, thus moving beyond technological or economic assessments that dominate the field; (3) analyses the synergies and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation, so far a critical gap in the literature; and (4) identifies current knowledge gaps across the adaptation space. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-02002762-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* James Ford [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Climatic Change
1 Introduction: The need for rigorous, transparent adaptation feasibility assessments Climate change research is growing exponentially with the literature doubling every 5–6 years (Haunschild et al. 2016). While research across all topics are rising by 4% annually, climate change research has grown at an astounding 16% (Minx et al. 2017). At this rate, the literature t
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