Adaptation needs and options

Since the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), the framing of adaptation has moved further from a focus on biophysical vulnerability to the wider social and economic drivers of vulnerability and people’s ability to respond (robust evidence, high agreement). These drivers include the gender, age, health, social status, and ethnicity of individuals and groups, and the institutions in place locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally. Adaptation goals are often expressed in a framework of increasing resilience, which encourages consideration of broad development goals, multiple objectives, and scales of operation, and often better captures the complex interactions between human societies and their environment. The convergence between adaptation and disaster risk management has been further strengthened since AR4, building on the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX). {14.1-3}.