Adaptation spinoffs From technological and socio-economic Changes - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 164

that global change is one of the major factors shaping the vulnerability and
livelihood opportunities of households (see O'Brien and Leichenko 2000), then
it is imperative that local adaptive responses are compatible with these changes
(Eriksen et al. 2011). Moreover, since vulnerability is nested in these changes
(Adger et al. 2009), it is affected through substantial feedbacks and linkages
that negatively affect the poorest countries and households to a greater degree
(Mattoo and Subramanian 2009).
Supporting and promoting climate adaptation strategies for resource-
poor households involves mainstreaming them with other policies, including
development aid. Climate change scholars and policy-makers underscore the
need to nurture synergies and avoid, where possible, ill-informed trade-offs
and conflicts between climate change- and development policies and objectives
(Klein et al. 2005; Smit and Wandel 2006; Sharma and Tomar 2010; Román and
Hoffmaister 2012). This is challenging: whereas short-term coping activities
normally fit within the time frame of a development project, the planning
and execution of longer-term adaptation strategies may fall outside (Janetos
et al. 2012). Responses to climate change can be seen as prime opportunities
for promoting alternative pathways - for instance through organic agriculture,
water harvesting and rapid public transport. Sustainable adaptation in many
instances calls for entirely new societal structures, innovations and mindsets
than what current development programmes are based upon. As Román and
Hoffmaister (2012) point out, developing countries may not need to reduce
their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but they could select developmental
paths that avoid increased emissions or even reduce them.
The spinoff term as used here - to refer to externalities with the potential for
improving adaptation to the impacts of climate variability and change - is related
to other concepts in recent literature. Co-benefits are 'a potentially large and
diverse range of collateral benefits that can be associated with climate change
mitigation policies in addition to the direct avoided climate impact benefits'
(Bollen et al. 2009:5). They include effects from other policy goals, but the term
commonly does not include new responses that arise after a policy has been
implemented. Maladaptation refers to changes that achieve a positive outcome
but concurrently lessen adaptive capacity for other outcomes. For example,
converting mangroves to shrimp farms increases farmers' incomes but also
heightens their vulnerability to coastal hazards (Adger 2003). Fazey et al. (2011)
describe maladaptive trajectories of change as dynamic processes and responses
of individuals and communities to societal changes that, when combined, act to
create negative effects. On the Solomon Islands, for instance, communities that
previously were affluent in subsistence resources are now negatively stressed
due to population increase and planned interventions focusing on monetary
gain. Spinoffs encompass the unintended effects of planned or responsive
actions, but also of unplanned, opportunity-driven trends that have a potential
for positively affecting the adaptive capacities of local communities to climate-
related phenomena.