Current estimates of the cost of the impacts of climate change in developing countries and of the needed adaptation measures are in very short supply, and the available ones are rather crude. To a large extent this is because this is a very new research area and no agreed methodology exists to assess the economics of adaptation to climate change, particularly in the context of more limited data.

After taking a back seat to mitigation, adaptation to climate change has come of age. It is now one of the four more or less co-equal pillars of the 2007 UN climate talks

The impacts of climate change are already becoming evident in the

This study provides guidance on linkages between the design of development programs and the objectives of adapting to climate change and limiting emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs).

Will Africa be steamrollered by climate change? The continent harbours 33 of the Least Developed Countries, is heavily reliant on agriculture and has limited economic resources to finance adaptation. Its geographic position and high sensitivity to climatic variability make it vulnerable. Large swathes of Africa

The global effort to address climate change will require action in several policy areas, and use of a multitude of policy instruments and measures. Economic and trade-related instruments will be of paramount importance in this context.

Under natural resource ecosystems shared across communities and nations, the distribution among stakeholders of risks and vulnerability to climate change is likely to be uneven on account of the nature of their stakes in the ecosystems, the degree of their dependence and the extent of degradation of the natural resources.

Recognizing that poor communities in developing countries are the least responsible for climate change but most vulnerable to its impacts, the Bali Action Plan calls for