Release of JICA-RI's Book "Climate Change Adaptation and International Development" Announced at COP16's Side Event

This year’s UN Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change ended with a sign of relief. For 12 days starting from November 29, nearly 200 countries and regions gathered in Cancun, Mexico, to discuss all the significant agendas regarding this universally common concern. Unlike the bitter ending in Copenhagen last year, where the conference closed without a unanimous accord, the representatives, including those from developing countries, finally reached an agreement, pledging to responsibly participate in tackling the climate change issues under the UN-led framework this year.

Among the discussions on this matter, mitigation has been the primary category of topic in the past, but now it’s gradually expanding to include adaptation. Explains JICA-RI’s Research Associate Tomoyo Toyota, “Even if the global warming could be mitigated, its influence cannot be prevented completely and we need to adapt to coming changes.” In this trend, JICA-RI produced “Climate Change Adaptation and International Development” and announced its release at the above conference. The book, published from Earthscan, a major publishing company on the environmental issues, is a compilation of adaptation case studies in various nations and regions with contributions by leading international experts. JICA’s Senior Advisor Masato Kawanishi spoke to 150-plus professionals at the Development and Climate Days, COP16’s side event, and elaborated on the feature of the publication in brief. The announcement was positively received by the audience including attendants from World Resources Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute, and spawned new discussions among opinion leaders in the field. Kawanishi says, “The compiled cases are context specific, yet there are common subject matters. The book is to learn what they are. The latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed out the lack of the knowledge from the ground, and I believe this can serve as part of an answer.”

Related Research Project: Adaptation to and Mitigation of Climate Change in Developing Countries