Mortality from extreme weather down 99% in last century
Climate damage also declined over the past thirty years
Adaptation is profitable, mitigation is harmful
The world should focus much more on climate adaptation and much less on mitigation. This is the conclusion of the global Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL) following the international climate summit that took place in the Netherlands over the past two days.
Adaptation has already amply proven its value, while mitigation turns out to be inefficient and expensive. A ‘green recovery’ from the corona crisis with a strong emphasis on mitigation – which was constantly advocated during the climate summit – is therefore a misleading message.
The Netherlands hosted a global online conference on climate adaptation in the past two days. A great initiative! There is no better place in the world to host such a summit. Note that since 2018 the Netherlands also hosts the Global Center on Adaptation.
In the field of water protection, the Netherlands deserves the unofficial title of ‘world champion of adaptation’. We have been doing nothing else for centuries and our dikes have a flooding probability of 1 in 10,000 years while once every 100 years is common in the rest of the world. Delta science is big in The Netherlands. And Dutch experts also increasingly invest in adapting agricultural crops to changing climate conditions (drier, wetter, saltier etc.).
The CLINTEL Foundation has been a strong supporter of climate adaptation since its start in 2019. It is therefore pleased that the Netherlands has put this form of climate policy back on the international agenda. Too often and for too long, adaptation has been a neglected child.
As we stated in our founding document ‘Exploiting Climate Change’: “Many lifes have demonstrably been saved with adaptation, while the same cannot be said for mitigation (CO2 reduction) whatsoever.”
History shows the way
Now that the summit is over, CLINTEL finds it incomprehensible that all the good news that climate adaptation has brought over the past century has remained largely underexposed. Adaptation is presented as a ‘last resort’ that unfortunately has to be deployed because the Paris climate objectives (keeping the world below 2 degrees or preferably even below 1.5 degrees warming) will probably not be met. This is a great injustice to the role of adaptation. After all, adaptation has already ensured spectacular progress over the past century. Why is this not mentioned?
With two recently published graphs (see Appendix) we show how much has already been achieved, mainly thanks to prosperity and adaptation, and that there is absolutely no question of a climate crisis, as CLINTEL stated in its World Climate Declaration. The message of these graphs: ‘Mankind is increasingly able to cope with extremes. There is no reason to assume that this positive development will turn into a negative one tomorrow. Why sliding this evidence under the carpet?Appendix-press-release-CLINTEL-Download
Adaptation vs mitigation
In a 2019 report, the Global Commission on Adaptation already stated that one dollar invested in adaptation yields about four dollars in benefits. In other words: Adaptation yields prosperity. However, the Commission forgets to mention that mitigation scores much worse. Danish environmental economist Bjorn Lomborg estimates in a recent study that one dollar going to the Paris Climate Agreement (mitigation) yields only 11 cents in benefits. In other words: Mitigation yields poverty.
Conclusion
The message of the world leaders at the online adaptation top is misleading and wrong. CLINTEL’s message to the world is: ‘Increase investments in adaptation, stop pouring money in mitigation’. In other words: ‘Abandon as soon as possible the targets of the Paris
Agreement’.
CLINTEL
The Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL) was founded in March 2019 by Emeritus Professor of Geophysics Guus Berkhout and science journalist Marcel Crok. Since then, CLINTEL has rapidly grown into a global organization in 36 countries with 23 ambassadors.
CLINTEL wants to engage in a fundamental discussion with leading scientific organizations on climate and energy. To this end, it has issued a World Climate Declaration, a Scientific Manifesto with a message to all Academies of Science, a Magna Carta Universitatum with a message to all universities and its energy vision Energia Renovabilis with an energy message to all administrators and politicians.
For more information: guus.berkhout@clintelgroup.org
The post Climate Adaptation Much More Profitable Than Climate Mitigation first appeared on Friends of Science Calgary.
via Friends of Science Calgary
January 27, 2021 at 07:30PM
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