Climate Mitigation vs Adaptation
24 April 2024
If you’ve seen anything about climate change in the last few years, you’ve probably come across the terms ‘mitigation’ and ‘adaptation.’ These are two different approaches to addressing climate change, though they aren’t to be siloed from each other. Linking climate mitigation and climate adaptation unlocks the systemic approach we need to confront climate change head on.
Climate mitigation involves limiting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) into the atmosphere. GHGs trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere, causing the Earth to warm and climate change to occur. Globally, the predominant cause of GHGs is from people burning fossil fuels–coal, oil, and gas. In Aotearoa, according to an inventory taken between 1990-2017, 48.1% of GHGs came from agriculture (mostly methane emissions from cow and sheep burps), while 40.7% came from energy, e.g. transport, manufacturing and electricity relying significantly on fossil fuels.
Today, the Earth is warming faster than any other point in recorded history and we are already seeing the effects of this. Think: extreme weather like increased flooding and storms, rising sea levels, melting ice caps, reduced and delayed snowfall, and so on. This disruption of our environment’s equilibrium poses a significant threat not just to humans, but to all of life on Earth.
On paper, climate mitigation is pretty straightforward, however, in practice, it’s incredibly complex and difficult to achieve. Our global society has been built to rely on fossil fuels, and so we are faced with the mammoth task of making a transition to renewable energy instead. Likewise, we need to end deforestation and instead restore the environment until net-zero emissions are achieved (aka all GHGs released into the Earth’s atmosphere are balanced out by the capture and storage of emissions in our natural environment). It’s clear that we must act now to mitigate the impacts of climate change, because I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want to risk them getting any worse.
On the other side of the same coin, climate adaptation involves preparing for and adjusting to the impacts of climate change, both current and projected. The goal of this is to build resilience to protect our communities, loved ones, and livelihoods. There are things that can be done at home, like planting trees to help keep temperatures cool inside your house and safeguarding against natural disasters by purchasing insurance and finding out where to get relief when the need arises. However, the sheer scale of climate change makes it clear that our economies and societies also need to build climate resilience.
Large-scale adaptation efforts could include updating infrastructure to withstand higher temperatures, storms, and flooding; safeguarding against landslides in mountainous areas; and even moving some communities to new locations due to rising sea levels. These efforts require government intervention and we’re already seeing this begin. There’s no doubt that this will all be expensive, but we already know how to adapt and have some experience of adapting on a global scale through the Covid-19 pandemic. Just like mitigating climate change sooner rather than later to avoid its impacts getting worse, the sooner we adapt, the more we will save financially. Not to mention, lives will be saved and risks reduced too.
Adaptation without mitigation is just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff. It’d be a waste of time and resources because we wouldn’t be addressing the root of the issue at the same time. Meanwhile, scientists tell us that many of the impacts of climate change are already locked in due to historic global emissions, even when accounting for rapid emissions cuts. This means that mitigation without adaptation wouldn’t get us very far either.
So what does it look like to unite climate mitigation and adaptation?
We know that we need to adapt to the impacts of climate change because we’re already experiencing some of these. But, the longer we take to mitigate our emissions, the adaptation burden we face will only grow. Through the government, businesses, communities, and us as individuals uniting to work towards systemic change, we can mitigate and adapt effectively before being confronted with the worst impacts of climate change. We are relatively spoiled for choice with how we adapt right now, but delaying this will only limit these choices.
The Paris Agreement sets out an example of linking mitigation and adaptation hand in hand. This is a legally binding international treaty that was signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 (aka COP21). It has the overarching goal to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” The Paris Agreement is historic in that it marks the first time a binding agreement has brought all nations together to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. While its scale is immense, it outlines a common goal for us all to work towards and there’s a sense of hope in that.
Climate mitigation and adaptation, though feasible, are two big tasks. But they’re necessary and life on Earth will be so much better if we achieve them. One thing we can do on a smaller scale is use our voices to lobby our governments to take intentional climate action to enable a future liveable world that allows our societies to thrive. There are plenty of chances to do so and they’re not as complicated as they might seem - you could vote, submit your thoughts on proposed laws, protest, and even contact your local Councillors and MPs. Our voices hold power, we just need to be empowered to use them. Just imagine what we could achieve by raising our voices together in the face of adversity.