Introduction

The Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has begun to focus its attention on establishing mechanisms by which the incremental costs of adaptation to long-term climate change by developing countries might be supported by developed countries through their contributions to one or more adaptation funds. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), has continued its interest in the interface between adaptation to climate change and climate variability, on the one hand, and sustainable development, on the other. Notwithstanding significant effort to promote cross-fertilization across these interests, it is not obvious that either process will, without some guidance, allow climate issues to gain access to the deliberations that are conducted behind the closed and sometimes locked doors of what might be termed the “decision-intensive ministries” – the ministries within which development planning is conducted and by which development policies are implemented. This short paper offers some thoughts (hypotheses, really) about how the climate community might use the emerging links between researchers' understandings of how adaptations work and practitioners' understandings of how attractive development might be promoted.

Of course, it is not the case of that decisionmakers concerned with development issues do not recognize the possibility that climate change may cause harm over the long term. The doors are closed primarily because the decisionmakers already have full plates. They worry about how to promote economic growth and productivity gains.