The climate is changing. In the last couple of years, we've seen more
and more record extremes.
Adaptation means doing things differently
because we know the climate is changing.
For example,
in situations of droughts, we can use drought-resistant crops
to enable farmers to keep the yields despite a changing climate.
Flood defences is another form of adaptation.
It stretches all the way through to supply chain management
or to make sure that new buildings are heat-resistant.
We need to take action to help communities and businesses and even countries
to really be able to cope with these changes.
There's a new IPCC report
which is just coming out now.
This is the only report of its kind, which is accepted by virtually
every government.
It's undertaken by thousands of researchers.
This is a landmark report.
The new report looks at assessing the impacts of climate change.
It also looks at who's vulnerable to climate and how are they vulnerable to climate.
People are differently affected worldwide.
The report shows which adaptation options there are, how effective they are
and how they can be taken.
It gives, for the first time,
also an assessment of losses and damages caused by climate change
already experienced by communities,
by individuals around the world.
Our work directly informs
what the IPCC is doing.
We've been collaborating with partners in Africa
to try to identify ways
in which we can begin to factor climate risks into planning,
and our examples have been looking at river basin development, things
like developing new hydropower dams, expanding irrigation systems.
Chapter 17 looks at what has happened.
What have countries done?
What plans are in place? In my research, for example,
I'm looking at those governments which have an adaptation plan.
Are they actually checking implementation? And I've found that 60% don't.
The Grantham Research Institute is collaborating with communities
here in England and also in Germany in the context of flood resilience.
We are part of a big alliance and we're using the IPCC
findings in our discussions with local council leaders.
We also use the IPCC results in our work with businesses.
It is widely understood that any dollar invested in adaptation today
will help us save at least $5
in terms of avoided future losses and damages.
It's really important for us to understand
that adaptation and mitigation need to go hand in hand.
Obviously, we need to move society away from fossil fuels and onto renewable
energy sources and to be thinking much more about carbon neutrality.
At the same time, we really now need to start investing in adaptation
and becoming more resilient because we already see that
wildfires, floods, wind storms have really bad
impacts on communities, on businesses, on countries.
Adaptation is an integral process of sustainable development,
and as such, climate change has to be considered
in all of the decisions and planning that are being made.
We cannot develop first and adapt to climate change later.