Description | The framework for the new scenarios being developed for climate research calls
for the development of a set of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), which are meant to
differ in terms of their challenges to mitigation and challenges to adaptation. In order for the
scenario process to fulfill its goals, the research and policy communities need to develop a
shared understanding of these concepts. This paper focuses on challenges to adaptation. We
begin by situating this new concept in the context of the rich literatures related to inter alia
adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience. We argue that a proper characterization of challenges to adaptation requires a rich, exploration of the concept, which goes beyond mere
description. This has a number of implications for the operationalization of the concept in
the basic and extended versions of the SSPs. First, the elements comprising challenges to
adaptation must include a wide range of socioeconomic and even some (non-climatic)
biophysical factors. Second, careful consideration must be given to differences in these
factors across scales, as well as cross-scale interactions. Third, any representation of the
concept will require both quantitative and qualitative elements. The scenario framework
offers the opportunity for the SSPs and full scenarios to be of greater value than has been the
case in past exercises to both Integrated Assessment Modeling (IAM) and Impacts,Adaptation, and Vulnerability (IAV) researchers, but this will require a renegotiation of the
traditional, primarily unidirectional relationship between the two communities. | en_US |