If such comparison is not yet possible or informative, then what kind of model development might enable policymakers to understand tradeoffs between mitigation and adaptation? And what issues that cannot be included in models would also need to be considered by scientists and policymakers, and how?
SEI’s contribution to this project, which is led by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, is to analyse tradeoffs between mitigation and adaptation, and to assess the usefulness of climate impact models and integrated assessment models in informing such tradeoffs within a broader climate policy and decision-making context.
This report explores the question of whether adaptation could substitute for mitigation, and how interactions between the two might be modelled.
This brief, based on a study for the UK Government’s AVOID programme, shows why it is not realistic to expect adaptation to make up for forgone mitigation.
