While climate change and its impacts are inevitable, there is still a chance that humans can determine the rate of climate change and its magnitude. This depends on how humanity starts implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation, the IPCC report says.
Globally, we have put in place some climate change mitigation and adaptation measures that are effective. And, we are starting to see the benefits of these measures. For example, over 170 countries and several cities have included climate impacts in their planning and policies.
But, we often adopt fragmented adaptation and mitigation strategies. These strategies can also be small-scale and too incremental.
The IPCC also warns against maladaptation. This is when mitigation and adaptation efforts do more harm than good. This is a risk when we use climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that focus on the short term. Maladaptation also happens if these plans are isolated from other regions and sectors.
