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This chapter pays attention to climate change adaptation politics and describes the types of political conflicts that have emerged around the issue of funding for adaptation. It discusses three main points of contention between countries on both sides of the North–South divide. These conflicts are referred to as the Gap (in raising the funds), the Wedge (in who is prioritized to receive funds), and the Dodge (in using just governance institutions). The chapter then considers the governance challenges and geopolitical dynamics that will emerge as drastic climate change impacts become inevitable. It concludes by connecting the issue of adaptation of politics to the theoretical framework of strategic power discussed in the previous chapters.

Climate change adaptation involves major global and societal challenges such as finding adequate and equitable adaptation funding and integrating adaptation and development programs. Current funding is insufficient. Debates between the Global North and South center on how best to allocate the financial burdens associated with adaptation programs. How to “mainstream” adaptation into development programs is another topic for debate, as is the question of whether market-based approaches offer the right tools for both development and adaptation. Sociological insights on topics such as the political economy of development, disaster risk reduction, human migration in the face of environmental change, institutions, social movements, and public participation in environmental governance are applicable to the study of adaptation.

The chapter moves the analysis to the realm of distributive justice. It explores whether inherent to the climate change and people movement nexus are issues of unequal distribution, for example, of benefits and burdens. The chapter outlines distributional issues and then suggests whether, from a distributive justice standpoint, equity could be achieved through redistribution of costs which may accrue for those under pressure to move. The chapter sketches the extent to which international law is underpinned by distributive justice notions. It then, more explicitly, turns to international environmental law, and in particular the international climate change adaptation and finance architectures, to analyse whether, in combination, they support remedying distributional issues in relation to people movement in the climate change context.

Though predictions regarding the physical impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly detailed and sophisticated, the question of exactly what these physical changes mean for the social, economic and natural systems that humans value cannot be answered by the physical sciences alone. Insights from the social sciences are essential for situating these projections in ways meaningful for people and communities making decisions in the face of a changing climate. However, serious methodological and epistemological challenges make true integration between the climate and social sciences difficult. Here we describe three of these challenges in detail: the long time-scales and large spatial-scales at which climate science typically operates, the tendency to abstract climate-change related impacts from their context, and a strong emphasis on prediction. More generally, the difficulty in combining statistically-defined climate projections, with specific, embedded narratives from the social sciences is discussed, as well as suggestions for ways forward.

New England is a densely populated area dependent on the coast and rich in maritime history. The impacts of climate change, such as sea-level rise, increased storm intensity and frequency, and erosion are causing New England municipalities and states to creatively adapt their laws and policies within complex environmental, economic, and political systems. This chapter explores some of the innovative ways communities and states in New England have adapted, and plan to adapt, to climate change, such as Maine’s anticipatory planning for sea-level rise along its coast, New Hampshire’s adaptation strategies, and approaches taken regarding the Massachusetts South Shore; New Haven, Connecticut; and New Shoreham, Rhode Island.

Understanding and predicting future ecological impacts of climate change, and then developing a conservation strategy to minimize the negative impacts on biodiversity, remains one of the greatest environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. We lack a robust understanding of how climate variability (e.g., temperature, precipitation) itself influences the biology of organisms and, when evidence points to a species being vulnerable to the effects of climate change, there is a lack of specific and timely recommendations for managers to reduce that vulnerability. This chapter reviews how we assess which species are most impacted by climate change and then provides a framework and examples of common strategies and tactics managers can use to incorporate climate change adaptation into bird conservation. In doing so, we present a suite of strategies designed to translate broad conservation concepts into targeted and prescriptive actions for birds.

The chapter discusses the problem of global warming and climate change as one of global pollution with widest effects of global externality. It describes the characteristics of the green house gases (GHG), their composition and regional source wise distribution and shows how their accumulation in the atmosphere leads to the rise of global temperature and climate change. It then describes the physical and economic impacts of climate change with the consequent loss of GDP and economic assets. The chapter further examines the prospect of low carbon economic growth for abating climate change particularly in the Indian context. It also discusses the issues relating to the adaptation to climate change as some climate change would be inevitable in future. It finally addresses the institutional issue of collective action for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and concludes by describing India’s policy approach of defining the shared global responsibility in the context.

This chapter approaches climate change through the quotidian response of herders in India to an invasive species, Lantana camara, whose proliferation some believe is linked to changing precipitation patterns. Puri uses this as a window into understanding human decision-making in the face of change. The chapter illustrates the value of a focus on everyday activities as a methodology for investigating adaptation to climate change impacts.

This chapter analyzes whether the desire of industrialized states to enhance their own well-being through development abroad influences the allocation of resources in areas such as climate finance, where development is not the primary stated purpose of funds. An examination of the early years of climate finance suggests that mitigation and adaptation funds are being diverted to areas where they can provide development benefits to the donor states, rather than being spent where adaptation assistance is most needed or where mitigation resources can most efficiently combat climate change. This targeting helps explain the preference of industrialized states to channel their climate finance bilaterally rather than through newly created multilateral institutions, such as the Green Climate Fund, ostensibly tasked with the distribution of such funds.

In this chapter we review techniques that managers may use to respond to climate change. First, modelling the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems is discussed. While hydro-climatic projections can be used their imprecision requires the selection of robust adaptation options that provide benefits under a range of possible climate outcomes. Second, contested concepts for managing freshwater ecosystems and resources are summarised, and we conclude that they may be used to develop and implement cross-sectoral policies that sustain freshwater ecosystems. Third, options for climate change adaptation for freshwater ecosystems recommends application of six principles, emphasising: accommodation of change; application of ecological and socio-economic targets across multiple scales; maintaining connectivity, conservation of refugia, and representative habitats; initial implementation of no- and low-regret adaptation interventions; agreeing on thresholds for ecological change that trigger new management interventions; and scientific monitoring and evaluation. We conclude by considering how to manage the negative impacts and seize positive synergies in climate change responses: conservation advocates must engage with agriculture, energy, and water resources sectors if freshwater ecosystems are to be incorporated in their decisions.

This chapter outlines the urgent, sustained, worldwide technological and institutional transformations in energy, transportation, land use, buildings, urban systems, infrastructure, agriculture, and industry needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate disruption. These transformations involve government, business, financial, educational and research institutions, civil society, and the general public. They will be specific to each country and adjusted with experience. They will need public participation, understanding, and buy-in. They will require carbon charges sufficient to influence business and consumer decisions. This chapter reviews and assesses the many technologies needed to make these transformations possible. Coal-fired generating plants must be entirely phased out. Wind and solar energy must expand to meet the new demand for electricity from massively improved energy efficiency throughout the economy. Measures that could have been phased in smoothly and affordably thirty years ago are now drastic, painful, expensive, and hampered by populist backlash. Time is short.