| Summary: | Not Available From the Co-Chairs of the Task Force on Climate Change, Vulnerable Communities and Adaptation While government representatives negotiate international policy frameworks to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and researchers continue to debate the science and impacts of climate change, climate-induced changes to physical and biological systems are already being detected. Retreating glaciers, longer growing seasons, shifting eco-zones and thawing permafrost have all been observed in different regions around the world. Compounded by human pressures and modifications to the environment, these changes threaten to further entrench global inequities, as those with the least stand to suffer the most. There is a pressing need to develop response measures that will address current development disparities and protect vulnerable communities from the longer-term impacts of climate change. In 2001, IUCN – The World Conservation Union, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) joined forces to launch an international research and policy initiative on Climate Change, Vulnerable Communities and Adaptation. Guided by a multi disciplinary Task Force, this initiative represents a confluence of four distinct, yet decidedly relevant, communities working on vulnerability reduction in the face of climate change. These experts—from the fields of disaster risk reduction, climate change, conservation and poverty reduction—first met following the release of the IPCC Working Group II’s latest assessment of climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and the conclusion of the Marrakech Accords to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In view of the expanding body of knowledge on climate change impacts and new funding opportunities for climate change adaptation, the Task Force set in motion a collaborative effort to inform and influence how the world undertakes and invests in climate change adaptation. The Task Force believes ...
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