In its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), published in 2014, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has once again underlined the pervasive risks of climate change, which are an increasing concern for populations, ecosystems and many economic sectors globally and at all spatial scales (IPCC 2014). According to the IPCC terminology of the previous ARs, work related to these risks were called climate change impact or climate change vulnerability assessments. Based on the conceptual progresses made through the IPCC report on managing the risks of extreme events (SREX 2012), the latest IPCC assessment report AR5 has introduced a new approach using a revised terminology, particularly the notion of ‘climate risk’ (IPCC 2012). This new concept has the following important implications:
- It contributes to an integration of the two research realms of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
- The introduction of the term risk forces the climate research community to consider explicitly the probabilities and / or likelihoods of consequences.
- Though changing climate conditions are by definition long term processes, a large proportion of related impacts are triggered by extreme events. The concept of risks is widely used to address these impacts.
- Dealing with risk is day-to-day business for many decision and policy makers and is hence for them more tangible than the notion of climate change vulnerability.
We therefore consider the new approach more likely to increase the awareness of potential climate impacts and to foster the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation.
This presentation aims to elaborate on the conceptual changes related to the introduction of the new risk-focused approach. It will point out advantages vis-à-vis previous approaches and it will scrutinise the potential cruxes in operational practice. This will be highlighted by the example of the Vulnerability Sourcebook, which was commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and developed jointly by adelphi, eurac and GIZ (GIZ 2014). Published in 2014 and already widely applied within the context of development cooperation projects in several countries (Pakistan, Burundi, Bolivia, Mauretania, Algeria, Mali), this Soucebook provides a standardised approach to assess potential climate impacts covering a broad range of sectors as well as different spatial levels. By doing so, it strongly considers the need to co-produce results with relevant experts, stakeholders and end-users. Originally developed according to the concept of the previous IPCC ARs it has recently been modified to allow for an assessment approach according to the IPCC AR5 concept.