Isn’t adaptation a more cost effective response than mitigation?
Adaptation is a critical part of the response to climate change, not least because the world is already locked into further temperature rises over the coming decades as a consequence of past emission reductions. However, whilst adaptation is necessary and sensible is not a cheap option. The costs of making new infrastructure and buildings more resilient in OECD countries are difficult to estimate but we indicate, on the basis of previous studies, a range of $15-150 billion each year, even for lower levels of temperature increase. Adaptation in developing countries is likely to cost tens of billions of dollars a year, according to the World Bank. And adaptation can only mute the impacts of climate change; there are limits to what it can achieve. Impacts on ecosystems, for instance, may be impossible to avoid. This is particularly true at higher levels of temperature increase, where the impacts will be more severe, and the risks of abrupt irreversible impacts higher. Mitigation is the on
