Izumi Tsurita

How Adaptive Policies Are in Japan and Can Adaptive Policies Mean Effective Policies? Some Implications for Governing Climate Change Adaptation

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most climate change (CC) vulnerable regions in the world due to the relatively high proportion of its population depending on climate-sensitive sectors, dense population living in CC vulnerable geographical locations, and poor development of risk-governance systems. The national communications submitted by the developing countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) showed gaps in its capacity, including research, to effectively cope with CC impacts (Kreft et al., 2011). The need for enhanced adaptation research and policy-making capacity in developing Asia was recognised in a series of stakeholder consultations conducted by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the work was carried out at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (Pereira et al., 2011).

Approaches to Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study of Agricultural Initiatives in Japan

Climate change (CC) impacts are threatening around the globe and they are not limited to developing countries. CC adaptation in developing countries is mostly focused on community-based adaptation to help the poorest and the most vulnerable societies by empowering communities to become resilient to CC impacts (Huq and Reid, 2007; Ayers and Huq, 2009). In contrast, developed countries are presumed to have a low vulnerability to CC (Ford and Berrang-Ford, 2011). As a result, not many studies are conducted in the developed countries to see the effectiveness of policies and actions taken for CC adaptation. However, as the adaptation is location specific and solutions and approaches are diverse (Agrawal, 2010), it is worthwhile understanding cases in developed countries.