Adaptation involves all decisions or activities aiming at "adjusting natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities".
(UNFCCC glossary, 14 August 2007)
These decisions/activities can then be classified according to binary characteristics: anticipatory / reactive, autonomous / planned, private / public.
(Müller & Hepburn, 2006)
From a climate policy point of view, adaptation includes among other things R&D funding, technology transfer, monitoring and estimations of future climate impacts, financial means to help countries that will most probably be victims of future climate impacts, etc.
However, following the IPCC definition of adaptation, measures aiming at covering damages from unavoided climate impacts (e.g.: relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction, etc.) or indirect effects ("impacts of response measures") are not taken into account.
Some multilateral funds have been set up to support financially adaptation measures (cf. the Special Climate Change Fund of the UNFCCC created by the CoP7 in 2001 ; the Least Developed Countries Fund financed by voluntary contributions of industrialized countries ; the Adaptation Fund established under the Kyoto Protocol in favour of developing countries that are Parties to the protocol ; the Strategic Priority on Adaptation fund of the GEF Trust Fund) but bilateral agreements are the commonest funding solution.
The greatest challenge related to this topic consists in estimating the cost of adaptation measures at the present time and in the future for developed as well as for developing countries.
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