Ghana Graduates Conference

Vulnerability and Adaptation to climate change in the Developing Countries

Iyalomhe Felix

Introduction: The global climate is predicted to change at a rate the world had never seen, perhaps into the coming decades. Indeed, variability in climate that goes beyond certain thresholds would be disruptive and hazardous to human survival and the environment. Who will be vulnerable to these and why? Because knowing who is vulnerable and why, can help us to ameliorate the present and potential effects of climate change. Accordingly we need to determine primary drivers of vulnerability in our society.

Purpose/Originality: In light of this, the paper provides an overview of the state-of –art on vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in the developing countries with particular reference to recent scientific publications, in order to outline the primary drivers of vulnerability in these regions- so that we can explicitly state why a particular region is and will be vulnerable to a certain hazard and climate change impacts. This will lead to different responses to climate change effects within these regions, in order to show how vulnerability is intrinsically linked to adaptation.

Methodology: The paper presents a conceptual framework for vulnerability and adaptation assessment which identifies a number of components that are drivers of vulnerability. It outline different dimensions where change and variations can result to vulnerability (e.g., biophysical and human systems) and the synergy between these concepts- an indication of interaction between the climate  and human systems which results to biophysical and socio-economic impacts.

Findings: Application of this framework in a theoretical analysis shown that, these regions are and will be vulnerable to different hazards and climate change impacts because of different prevalent climate system each region experiences; geographical location; natural climatic phenomena like ENSO and monsoon system and different social vulnerability.  Adaptation is dependent on the local coping strategies or traditional knowledge and the intervention of government, which also differs within these regions. In view of these, the paper briefly discuss the differences and commonalities in vulnerability, as a result of different possible drivers within the region and also how this will translate to different adaptation options, taking into account the context-specific nature of adaptation.

Implications: Causal relationship between vulnerability and it drivers, will provide room for effective capacity building - which can eventually lead to a robust adaptation strategy achievement, if given serious consideration. More so, knowing the primary drivers of vulnerability, will facilitates the linkage of developmental policies and adaptation strategies in order to reduce the effects of climate change. Therefore these strategies must be link with developmental policies, if these regions must achieve the millennium development goals by 2015 and most importantly there must be regional and international collaboration in terms of knowledge sharing on adaptation strategies and effective implementation.

Keywords: Vulnerability, Adaptation, Climate Change, Developing Countries, Commonalities and Differences.