Article // Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Water and Land Context

By Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz (Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research). — Risks of climate change impacts on water and land have affected natural and human systems and are projected to increase significantly with increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. There are key risks, spanning sectors, and regions. We can adapt to climate change impacts or mitigate the climate change. Prospects for climate-resilient sustainable development are related fundamentally to what the world accomplishes with climate change mitigation. Greater rates and degrees of climate change increase the likelihood of exceeding adaptation limits and make satisfactory adaptation much costlier and difficult, if not impossible. Increasing efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change imply an increasing complexity of interactions, particularly among water, energy, land use, and biodiversity. Adaptation and mitigation choices have implications for future societies, economies, environment, and climate in the long term. Responding to climate-related risks involves decision making in a changing world, with continuing uncertainty about the severity and timing of climate change impacts and with limits to adaptation.