An Introduction to the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humankind for several reasons but especially the potential of major life-changing and life-threatening impacts that it creates and the fact that there is a great deal of uncertainty about the magnitude of these future impacts in different regions and across different ecosystems. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has clearly stated that there is sufficient scientific evidence regarding the unequivocal warming of the climate on all continents (IPCC, 2007a). This change has been more intense during the last century and continues to speed up. The rises in sea level, the disappearance of ice, changes in precipitation and increased tropical cyclone activity seem to endorse this fact. The warming is affecting nearly all marine and terrestrial ecosystems, beginning with the Arctic and Antarctic areas and including tropical marine environments. Regional climate changes already affect (or will affect) nearly all human and natural systems.