Page 25 - Governing Congo Basin Forests in a Changing Climate • Olufunso Somorin

Table 1-1: Main differences between adaptation and mitigation
General Introduction and Research Setting
Attributes
Mitigation
Adaptation
Objectives Spatial scale Time scale
Sectors of interest
Monitoring
Addresses the causes of climate change (accumulation of atmospheric GHGs)
Primarily an international issue, as mitigation provides global benefits
Long-term effect on climate change because of the inertia of the climatic system, usually decades to centuries.
Mitigation is a priority for all sectors, especially in the energy, transportation, industry and waste management sectors
Most mitigation interventions and outcomes are relatively easy to measure or monitor
Addresses the impacts of climate change 1 Primarily a local issue, as adaptation
mostly provides benefits at the local scale
Medium- to short-term effect on the reduction of vulnerability, usually in terms of years
Adaptation is a priority for selected sectors in the agriculture, water and health sectors.
Adaptation interventions and outcomes are more difficult to measure or monitor
Fussel, 2007; Locatelli et al., 2011
Based on: Klein et al., 2005; Tol 2005; ; Fussel and Klein, 2006;
Notwithstanding the highlighted differences between adaptation and mitigation, there is a recognition that as policy responses to combatting climate change, both are intricately linked in certain sectors, especially the agriculture and forest sectors. The IPCC (2014) reports that despite the differences, opportunities are being explored to develop and promote synergies between the two policy responses. A call for enhancing synergetic relationships between adaptation and mitigation in both developed and developing countries is receiving increased political and scientific attention. Synergies in climate policy are assumed to be created when measures that control atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations (i.e. mitigation) also reduce adverse effects of climate change (i.e. adaptation), or vice versa (Kane and Shogren, 2000; Klein et al., 2005). Most of classic examples of synergies between adaptation and mitigation cluster around forest protection, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management and land use systems. For instance, afforestation of abandoned agricultural lands can provide benefits for carbon sequestration (mitigation) and provision of forest products (adaptation). Arguably, it is in this respect that Stern (2006) and the IPCC (2007) posit that forests can make a very significant contribution to a low-cost global mitigation portfolio that provides synergies with adaptation of forest ecosystems and forest-dependent populations to the impacts of climate change.
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