Climate Adaptation and Mitigation

Climate adaptation means adjusting human or natural systems to actual or expected climatic effects so as to reduce harm or use beneficial opportunities. Climate mitigation addresses the cause of climate change by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions or enhancing their removal by sinks.

Core conceptual difference

• Adaptation manages the consequences and risks of climate change, whereas mitigation limits its future magnitude by addressing emissions and atmospheric concentrations.
• Adaptation includes climate-resilient agriculture, early-warning systems, water conservation and coastal protection; mitigation includes renewable energy, energy efficiency, methane control and carbon sinks.
• Adaptation's primary benefits are often local or regional, while mitigation's climate benefits are global because greenhouse gases mix in the atmosphere.
• Adaptation is commonly assessed through reduced vulnerability, exposure or expected damage; mitigation is commonly measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent avoided or removed.

Limits and complementarity

Adaptation and mitigation are complementary rather than interchangeable. Strong mitigation reduces the scale and rate of climatic change requiring adaptation, while adaptation addresses impacts already occurring or made unavoidable by past and present emissions.

• Adaptation can face soft limits, which may be overcome through finance, technology or institutions, and hard limits, beyond which unacceptable risks cannot be avoided.
• Poorly designed adaptation can produce maladaptation by increasing vulnerability, transferring risks or locking in high emissions.
• Impacts that cannot be avoided through mitigation or adaptation may result in loss and damage.

Place in the global climate regime

The Paris Agreement, Article 4 primarily structures mitigation through nationally determined contributions, while Article 7 establishes the global goal on adaptation. Article 9 addresses financial support for developing countries for both mitigation and adaptation.

• The Agreement seeks both low greenhouse-gas-emission development and increased capacity to adapt, while reflecting equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
• Global policy must balance mitigation ambition with adaptation finance, technology transfer and capacity-building, particularly for vulnerable developing countries.