NCAR JOINT SEMINAR

Climate Change Adaptation in the Face of Extreme Weather: An Adaptive Governance Approach
by Amanda Lynch, School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University

Thursday, 23 October 2008, 3:30 PM
Refreshments 3:15 PM
NCAR-Foothills Laboratory
3450 Mitchell Lane
Bldg 2 Auditorium, Room 1022

Worldwide, the threefold increase in the incidence of extreme weather events since 1960 was been accompanied by a ninefold increase in damages, reaching a peak of US$219 billion in 2005. There is strong evidence that the increases in some extremes, such as heat wave, are related to climate change.

We have reached an understanding that the climate system has a large degree of inertia. This means that the climate system will take time to respond to actions that reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The consequence of this inertia is that we are already committed to a certain degree of climate change beyond that already observed. Further, the vulnerability to impacts of climate change is increasing for other reasons, including unsustainable development and economic inequity. Thus, it is inevitable that damaging and even catastrophic events will continue to occur regardless of efforts to mitigate emissions.

Adaptive governance is a means of directing attention to otherwise neglected options that can help reduce our vulnerability. It has emerged more or less spontaneously as a loosely-coordinated array of 
pragmatic responses to manifest failures at several level of governance, from local to national.  Not surprisingly, recognition of the pattern in the last decade or two and the term itself followed innovations in practice.

This talk will review the understanding and practice of adaptive governance with reference to field testing in Alpine Shire in Victoria, Australia. The talk will highlight the role that extreme weather events can play in reducing the vulnerability of people, property and other cultural artifacts, and the natural environment to climate change.