As with a leaky boat, the first step to combatting climate change is reducing emissions. UNDP’s mitigation projects range from developing new technologies and increasing energy efficiency measures, all the way through to switching over to renewable forms of electricity generation.

Everybody plays an essential part, from individuals modifying their habits and purchasing greener products, to governments setting targets, providing incentives, and encouraging investments.

Adaptation

Climate change adaptation allows individuals, communities and nations to respond more effectively to current and projected climate changes. It involves engineering solutions like building flood-control gates in vulnerable areas to agricultural practices better adapted to droughts and warmer seasons as well as behavioral and policy adjustments.

Adaptation must go hand-in-hand with mitigation efforts, which aim to lower greenhouse gas emissions while increasing carbon sinks that remove it from the atmosphere. Mitigation measures involve both cutting heat-trapping emissions from sources (e.g. switching to renewable energy) and expanding sinks (e.g. planting forests).

Studies on both mitigation and adaptation have found that social factors, including income and education levels, significantly impacted these decisions. This indicates that future climate change mitigation and adaptation decisions may compound current disparate impacts by wealth; moreover, many cost-effective adaptation actions carry substantial carbon footprints which compound existing disparate impacts further.

Mitigation

Imagine your boat has experienced a leak. In order to keep afloat, it will require both fixing the holes as well as taking action against any further water entering through leaks. This is what mitigation entails: slowing or stopping greenhouse gas emissions which threaten irreversibly to raise Earth’s temperature beyond an livable threshold.

There are various ways to reduce emissions, from switching to renewable energy to making buildings, transport, and food systems more energy-efficient. But the most crucial step in mitigating climate disaster and keeping global warming below 1.5degC is acting now – dramatically cutting greenhouse gas emissions is the only sure way.

The IPCC Special Report on 1.5degC defines mitigation as any human action taken to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or enhance sinks, such as deforestation reversal, stove design improvement or the creation of underground metro systems and cycle paths. Mitigation covers an array of measures taken by humans ranging from deforestation reversed and improving cook stove design through to high tech subways systems and cycle paths being implemented globally.

Regulatory Approaches

Numerous regulatory approaches can be employed to combat climate change, such as restricting greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation and transmission, establishing thermal comfort standards in buildings and public spaces, improving energy efficiency for lighting, appliances and heating systems, changing agricultural practices to decrease methane and nitrous oxide emissions and restoring natural ecosystems that absorb excess rainfall.

Evidence continues to accumulate demonstrating the benefits of investing in adaptation can reduce long-term risks; however, mitigation must go hand in hand with reduced GHG emissions for them to be effective. Maladaptation – where attempts at adaptation actually increase vulnerability and risk – is a serious threat and should be treated as such.

The PRA requires firms to report on how they identify, assess and manage financial risks related to climate change within their governance and risk management processes in a way which is proportionate to their business strategy and risk appetite. This should involve short and long term scenario analysis as appropriate.

Carbon Pricing

Carbon pricing is a crucial method of climate change mitigation that balances economic incentives with environmental goals. It can take the form of either direct payment obligations (taxes, charges or levies) or through an emissions cap-and-trade system – commonly known as cap-and-trade systems.

Businesses and governments alike are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprints through driving behavioral change, accelerating innovation and adoption of low-carbon technologies and fuels, investing in sustainable solutions across value chains, carbon pricing helping drive this shift by making fossil fuels less competitive.

However, it is essential to acknowledge that carbon pricing should not be seen as the only means of mitigating climate change; rather it should be considered one among many strategies. More targeted instruments like regulatory policies that set fuel standards or feebates that impose fees or rebates based on emissions intensity for products (for instance cars and appliances) or firms (like power generators or steel producers) such as vehicles are key additions that must complement carbon prices.