It happened on the island of San Giorgio…
The
International Workshop on the
Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change – organized jointly by ICCG, FEEM and OECD on the island
of San Giorgio at the beginning of April – brought together
leading economists and experts engaged in groundbreaking research
for the first time. The focus was assessment methods to choose optimal
response strategies for a changing climate.The body of literature on the economics of adaptation to climate change is still small and fragmented, especially if compared to the literature which deals with optimal mitigation strategies.
There is not clear evidence on what is the effective capacity of economic and social systems to adapt, what will be the costs of adaptation and what is the scope for public intervention and international aid.
As a consequence there are still not obvious prescriptions to guide the work of International Agencies that will manage funds to ease the way towards adaptation nor there are insights on what are the implications of adaptation for optimal mitigation targets.
Workshop participants have acknowledged these difficulties and have animatedly discussed methods and conclusions of their studies. However, among the many uncertainties, some shared views start to emerge.
In
particular, workshop participants acknowledged unanimously that economically
efficient stabilization targets need to account for adaptation possibilities,
which reduce the incentive to pursue extremely costly emissions reductions.
Also, while some forms of adaptation will necessarily need public intervention
because of coordination problems, private actors -such as farmers- will adapt
a great deal to a new climate autonomously, even in the absence of special policies
or funds. 
More on this Workshop: Background :: Objective :: Structure :: Program :: Location :: Secretariat :: Papers and Presentations
For questions and comments on this Workshop, please contact: emanuele.massetti@feem.it
