Perspective of Adaptation as Responses to Global Warming

Abstract

　The Kyoto Protocol, which became effective in February 2005, has been promoting a series of countermeasures against global warming on an international scale under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As a result of overwhelming impacts of the heat wave in Europe in 2003 and Hurricane Katrina that devastated the city of New Orleans in August 2005, there has been a growing concern over widespread climatic anomalies. This in turn has triggered increased interest in adaptation as a long-term countermeasure against the effects of global warming. In particular, developing countries, including small islands in tropical and subtropical zones, are vulnerable to climate change and variability, though they emit only small amounts of greenhouse gases. Therefore, adaptation is widely recognized as a primary countermeasure against global warming in these countries. In this paper, we attempt to draw a picture of the current understanding of the role and scope of adaptation by examining its purposes, nature and tools, as well as gaps in implementation and the social capacity for adaptation.