Adapting to climate change pays off: investing 1,800 billion yields 7,100 billion
Environment — di Valentina Neri
Climate change adaptation is an economic opportunity not to be missed. According to Bill Gates, Ban Ki-moon and Kristalina Georgieva.
Adapting to climate change pays off: investing 1,800 billion yields 7,100 billion
Climate change adaptation is an economic opportunity not to be missed. According to Bill Gates, Ban Ki-moon and Kristalina Georgieva.
Hurricanes, floods, droughts, rising sea levels. Climate change is making its effects felt in increasingly tangible and sometimes dramatic ways, as evidenced by the frequent humanitarian emergencies that are already affecting forced migration today. But if the international community works hard on adaptation, the benefits will be immense — for ecosystems, people and cities, but also for the growth of our economy. So says the Global Commission on Adaptation, led by a roster of highly respected names: philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and newly appointed Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva.
Today, the Global Commission on Adaptation calls for accelerating action to face up to the challenge of our changing climate. No time to waste - early action is life saving and cost-effective. Read the report + join the call to #AdaptOurWorld ow.ly/oaZL50w46X7
What are climate change adaptation measures
The tools we have at our disposal against climate change can be divided into two broad categories: mitigation and adaptation. These are two approaches that are not in conflict with each other, but go hand in hand. Closing a city centre to traffic is a typical mitigation policy, because it prevents greenhouse gases — responsible, according to 97 per cent of scientists, for raising global temperatures — from being released into the atmosphere. The same can be said of using energy from renewable sources, planting new trees and so on.
Read also: Climate change is the greatest threat to the economy and society. And we're just watching
Adaptation measures, on the other hand, start from the assumption that climate disruption is already under way and that the global community must try to limit the damage. The first report published by the organisation gives a few examples. "A young woman in Bangladesh hears the siren warning of an approaching typhoon and moves her family to safety. A farmer in Zimbabwe uses a new drought-resistant variety of maize. In Denmark, engineers redesign city streets to make them less prone to flooding. An executive in Indonesia uses water-risk data and maps to guide his investments. In Colombia, a city planner decides to paint rooftops white to protect buildings from excessive heat." Concrete, effective choices that are becoming ever more widespread. Choices that represent both a moral responsibility and an economic imperative.
Adapting to climate change requires support from governments and businesses to ensure those most at risk have the opportunity to thrive. A new report from @GCAdaptation lays out steps we can take to address this urgent issue. b-gat.es/31Eb6iK
An incredibly worthwhile investment
The Global Commission on Adaptation report puts forward striking figures. Suppose that, over the decade 2020–2030, 1,800 billion dollars are invested worldwide across five different areas: strengthening early warning systems, retrofitting infrastructure to make it resilient, improving agricultural production on dryland farms, protecting mangroves, and improving water management systems. That investment would ultimately yield 7,100 billion dollars in net economic benefits.
There is more, because adaptation actions generate a "triple dividend", which the report illustrates through a number of real-world cases. The first factor is that of avoided losses. An early warning system activated 24 hours before a storm or heatwave, for example, reduces future damage by 30 per cent. In developing countries, spending 800 million dollars on these technologies can prevent losses of between 3 and 16 billion dollars a year. The second pillar of this triple dividend is that of straightforward economic benefits: drip irrigation technologies were developed for areas where water is scarce, but are becoming increasingly common because they boost crop productivity.
Finally, there are the social and environmental benefits. Mangrove forests protect 18 million people from coastal flooding, averting economic losses of 80 billion dollars every year. That is without counting the positive impact on fishing, forestry and recreational activities, estimated at 40–50 billion a year. Adding all these figures together, it emerges that every dollar invested in protecting and restoring mangrove forests is returned multiplied up to tenfold. "Adaptation is not only the right thing to do," comments Ban Ki-moon, "it is also the smartest way to boost economic growth and build a resilient world."