{"id":5293,"date":"2019-09-13T10:29:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T07:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5293"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:32","slug":"5-ways-we-need-to-adapt-to-climate-change-or-pay-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/09\/13\/5-ways-we-need-to-adapt-to-climate-change-or-pay-the-price\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways We Need To Adapt To Climate Change \u2014 Or Pay The Price"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Paola Rosa-Aquino<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To avoid the worst consequences of global warming,\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0has stressed the importance of cutting emissions. But with unusually intense weather events wreaking havoc all over the world \u2014 from\u00a0Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0heatwaves in Europe<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 new findings suggest that the world needs to devote an equally urgent effort to adapt to the changes that are already on the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 81-page report<\/a>,\nreleased Tuesday by the Global Commission on Adaptation, argues that big\ninvestments in adaptation measures will not only avert environmental\ncatastrophe but also reap significant returns: Researchers found an investment\nof $1.8 trillion from 2020 to 2030 could generate $7.1 trillion in total net\nbenefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMitigation and adaptation are actually two sides of the\nvery same coin,\u201d Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the United\nNations Framework Convention on Climate Change and a member of the adaptation\ncommission, told the AP<\/a>.\n\u201cIf we delay mitigation any further we will never be able to adapt sufficiently\nto keep humanity safe. And if we delay adaptation we will pay such a high price\nthat we would never be able to look at ourselves in the mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nwhat kind of adaptation measures are we talking about? The new report\nrecommends five specific areas in which to invest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early\nwarning systems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early\nwarning systems are technologies that can accurately forecast when a storm,\nheatwave, or other adverse weather event is incoming. According to the report,\njust 24 hours\u2019 warning can reduce the resulting damage by 30 percent, and\ninvesting $800 million in such systems in developing countries would prevent\n$3\u201316 billion per year in losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate-resilient\ninfrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreport\u2019s authors suggest that upgrading living conditions in vulnerable\ncommunities \u2014 which might mean improving housing, water, sanitation, drainage,\nand waste management \u2014 will build resilience and strengthen their adaptive\ncapacity. More climate-resilient infrastructure adds about 3 percent to upfront\ncosts but provides $4 in benefits for every $1 of cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improved\ndryland agriculture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investing\nin drought-resistant crops and modernizing irrigation systems could help\nprotect small-scale farms from rising temperatures. If nothing is done, the\nreport says, global crop yields could shrink by 30 percent by mid-century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mangrove\nprotection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mangroves\n\u2014 trees that grow in coastal swamps \u2014 reduce the impact of storm surges that\nthreaten coastal communities. According to the report, mangrove forests prevent\nmore than $80 billion per year in losses from coastal flooding and protect 18\nmillion people. They also contribute just over $40 billion annually to sustain\nlocal fisheries. (Incidentally, mangrove forests are also an\nincredible natural carbon sink<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making\nwater resources more resilient<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investing\nin water infrastructure and natural watersheds could expand access to clean\nwater. Today, 3.6 billion people don\u2019t have enough water for at least one month\nout of the year. Failing to act could expose an additional 1.4 billion people\nto water shortages by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019s gonna foot the bill for all this, you may ask? The report recommends a combination of the public sector, private sector, and international financial support in developing countries, though it adds that \u201cmoney is not flowing at the pace or scale needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originial article\nsource<\/a> – https:\/\/grist.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paola Rosa-Aquino To avoid the worst consequences of global warming,\u00a0report\u00a0after\u00a0report\u00a0has stressed the importance of cutting emissions. But with unusually intense weather events wreaking havoc all over the world \u2014 from\u00a0Hurricane…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}