Adaptation to Climate Change

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Foundation Elective	SHE2ED301	2

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In recent years considerable scholarship has emerged on adaptation to climate change, and this course of action has also acquired widespread acceptability in the global stage. This course will introduce the students to early attempts to develop a coherent theory on adaptation, unpack the ideological baggage of the term, trace its history in the UNFCCC, and explore the calculus between adaptation to climate risks and mitigative action to reduce emission. Discussion will then veer around the related ideas of coping, vulnerability, capacity and resilience which have now become closely associated with adaptation. Next we examine the challenge to mesh adaptation policy with development challenges, especially in the developing world. We then discuss the various limits/barriers (ecological, technological, economic, ethics, cultural, etc) for adaptive ac- tion and how these influence adaptive action and policies. The course closes with a discussion on governance at different scales of decision-making.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The course intends to develop an understanding in the students to deal with the definitional and practical challenges of adapting to climate change. It will also familiarize them with the politics in the production and dissemination of climate knowledge, and in the international negations. They are also familiarized with how adaptation responses in framed by IPCC and its limitations, and how there are alternative ways to adaptation and sustainable development.

S. No.	Module
	What is Adaptation?
	Adaptation and its limits
	The challenge of adaptation: development imperatives
	Thresholds, tipping points and implication for adaptation
	Values in adaptation and how they count
	Making adaptation happen for the common good

INDICATIVE READING LIST

Adger, N., I. Lorenzoni & K.L. O’Brien (eds.): Adapting to Climate Chage: Threshholds, values and governance. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Hulme, M., Why we disagree about climate change: Understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Klein, R.J.T. et al., ‘Inter-relationship between adaptation and mitigation’, in M.L. Parry et al., Climate Change 2007: Contribution of Working Group II to the 4th Assessment of the IPCC, 2007
Smithers, J. & B. Smit, ‘Human Adaptation to climate variability and change’ in Schipper & Burton eds., The Earthscan Reader on Adaptation to Climate Change, 2009.

ASSESSMENT