Extreme Weather, Attribution, Measurement & Upcoming IPCC Report

Later this week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will issue its report on ways to manage risks from extreme events in a changing climate.  

Listed below are a few articles and blogs anticipating the topic, and discussing relevant issues.

Closeup: Climate Extremes and Global Warming

The New York Times, By Andrew C. Revkin

 

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/closeup-climate-extremes-and-global-warming/

 

Included in this blog is an interview with Chris Field, a leader of the panel’s Working Group 2, focused on impacts and adaptation, with a discussion on the challenges in this charged arena.

Is Weather Event Attribution Necessary for Adaptation Funding?

Mike Hulme, Saffron J. O’Neill, Suraje Dessai

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6057/764.citation

This is an interesting Policy Forum article published last week in Science argues that the attribution of climate change—also known as “probabilistic event attribution” (PEA)—is unlikely to make useful contributions to adaptation funding decision-making. They make a case PEA has multiple problems, and suggest the focus should be on building resilient societies.  

The authors conclude by stating: “The crucial point is that climate adaptation investment is most needed where vulnerability to meteorological hazard is high, not where meteorological hazards are most attributable to human influence.” 

Are we jumping the gun in trying to measure adaptation?
Friday, March 25, 2011 1:09 PM by Lindsey Jones
http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/2011/03/25/Lindsey_Jones_adaptive_capacity_climate_change_monitoring_evaluation_adaptation.aspx

From the blog: 

A clear and concise methodology for measuring adaptation to climate change has yet to emerge. But the need for it is clear.

With the impacts of climate change threatening to undermine development objectives and substantial pots of money being committed to support adaptation, evaluating the impact and effectiveness of adaptation interventions is paramount.  The UK government for one has committed £2.9 billion for 2011-2015, a balanced proportion of which is thought to be earmarked for adaptation, and many other countries have committed through so-called ‘fast-start climate finance’  .  

Why is there no agreement?

To start with, we have to realise that assessing and understanding adaptation, and the processes that shape it, is incredibly complex. 

 

 

 

 

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