Environmental impacts of climate change adaptation

Thursday, 25 May 2017 Read 1113 times Written by TCCN

Environmental impacts of climate change adaptation

Álvaro Enríquez-de-Salamanca a,*, Rubén Díaz-Sierra b, Rosa M. Martín-Aranda c, Maria J. Santos d

^aUniversidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)/Draba Ingeniería y Consultoría Medioambiental, Cañada Nueva, 13, 28200 San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain

^bDepartamento de Física Matemática y de Fluidos, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain

^cDepartamento de Química Inorgánica y Química Técnica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain

^d Department of Innovation, Environmental and Energy Sciences, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3572 TC Utrecht, Netherlands

Abstract

Climate change adaptation reduces adverse effects of climate change but may also have undesirable environmen-tal impacts. However, these impacts are yet poorly deﬁned and analysed in the existing literature. To comple- ment this knowledge-gap, we reviewed the literature to unveil the relationship between climate change adaptation and environmental impact assessment, and the degree to which environmental impacts are included in climate change adaptation theory and practice. Our literature review showed that technical, social and eco- nomic perspectives on climate change adaptation receive much more attention than the environmental perspec- tive. The scarce interest on the environmental impacts of adaptation may be attributed to (1) an excessive sectoral approach, with dominance of non-environmental perspectives, (2) greater interest in mitigation and di- rect climate change impacts rather than in adaptation impacts, (3) a tendency to consider adaptation as inherent- ly good, and (4) subjective/preconceived notions on which measures are good or bad, without a comprehensive assessment. Environmental Assessment (EA) has a long established history as an effective tool to include envi-ronment into decision-making, although it does not yet guarantee a proper assessment of adaptation, because it is still possible to postpone or even circumvent the processes of assessing the impacts of climate adaptation. Our results suggest that there is a need to address adaptation proactively by including it in EA, to update current policy frameworks, and to demand robust and reliable evaluation of alternatives. Only through the full EA of ad- aptation measures can we improve our understanding of the primary and secondary impacts of adaptation to global environmental change.

Abbreviations: EA, Environmental Assessment; EIA, Environmental Impact

Assessment; GHG, Greenhouse gas; IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; SEA, Strategic Environmental Assessment.

Corresponding author at: Cañada Nueva 13, 28200 San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain.

E-mail addresses: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Á. Enríquez-de-Salamanca), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (R. Díaz-Sierra), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (R.M. Martín-Aranda), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (M.J. Santos).