Climate change poses a grave threat to sustainability. The first section of Sustainability2009: The Next Horizon, therefore, is devoted to Climate Change and Adaptation. Contributions focus on the historical consequences of climate change for human societies, as well as the effects of current climate change on sea level, lightning intensity, fire, the El Niño– Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and h...

The climate analog approach is often considered a valuable tool for climate change impact projection and adaptation planning, especially for complex systems that cannot be modeled reliably. Important examples are smallholder farming systems using agroforestry or other mixed-cropping approaches. For the projected climate at a particular site of interest, the analog approach identifies locations ...

There is a scientific consensus regarding the reality of anthropogenic climate change. This has led to substantial efforts to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and thereby mitigate the impacts of climate change on a global scale. Despite these efforts, we are committed to substantial further changes over at least the next few decades. Societies will therefore have to adapt to changes ...

The policy debate on climate change distinguishes two generic response options. The first (and more prominent) option is mitigation. Mitigation addresses the causes of climate change by reducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs). The second response is adaptation. Adaptation deals with the consequences of climate change and seeks to reduce the vulnerability of human and natural sy...

Predicting how species distributions might shift as global climate changes is fundamental to the successful adaptation of conservation policy. An increasing number of studies have responded to this challenge by using climate envelopes, modeling the association between climate variables and species distributions. However, it is difficult to quantify how well species actually match climate. Here,...

As climate change has emerged as the most pressing sustainability issue, there has been an increase in corporate responses to the problem. They often involve changes to organizational routines, behaviours, procedures and are based on the process of organizational learning. In this article, we try to connect process of climate change adaptation with organizational learning. We present climate ch...

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly evident, resource managers and conservationists are being challenged to rethink long-held assumptions and strategies. Preparing for and coping with the effects of climate change—or climate adaptation—is becoming an overarching framework for conservation, and offers insight into the reconsideration of existing goals and strategies. This is an ...

Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models. Results indicate South Asia and Southern Africa as tw...

Projections of future impacts, benefits and costs of climate mitigation and adaptation policies are based on both detailed empirical research, and modelling choices and assumptions that frame the analysis. For instance, assumptions about the expected growth of population and incomes drive the projections of greenhouse gas emissions. Assumptions about the pace and nature of innovation, the econo...