Economic Assessment of Co-benefits of Adaptation to Climate Change

Notwithstanding any mitigation efforts, adaptation to climate change is necessary to combat climate damage. The decision to implement adaptation measures should not solely be based on their mere adaptation effect but also on their ancillary effects on other domains. The authors provide a synthesis of the literature reflecting both beneficial and harmful impacts of adaptation measures on other areas. They discuss the side effects of adaptation in five different fields: (1) mitigation, (2) ecological systems, (3) economic development, (4) decisions under uncertainty, and (5) disaster resilience. Based on this broad review, they highlight the difficulty to assess co-benefits and conflicts of adaptation due to the complex interlinkages between the domains, the remaining uncertainty, and the consideration of unquantifiable values.

Reif, Christiane and Daniel Osberghaus (2020), Economic Assessment of Co-benefits of Adaptation to Climate Change, in: Wolfgang Buchholz, Anil Markandya, Dirk Rübbelke, Stefan Vögele (Eds.), Springer Climate Book Series, 197-212