Adaptation to climate change in developing countries is essential, and important progress is being made. Details of vulnerability, adaptive capacity and the adaptation programming required for some communities and sectors are becoming clearer. But important questions remain unanswered. At what point, if any, is adaptation achieved? Should funding be mainstreamed with ODA or separated in vertical funds? How can adaptation be mainstreamed more effectively into development programming? More fundamentally, the goals and processes of adaptation are not agreed. Is the aim to save lives and livelihoods, to promote long term development, or to curtail conflict and international migration? Should adaptation be pre-emptive or responsive? And at what scale should adaptation be managed and financed? Current development and humanitarian institutions are challenged by conventional long-term planning. How can they best respond to the uncertainty inherent in climate change?

ODI welcomes Gunilla Carlsson, head of the Commission on Climate Change and Development, and Swedish Minister for International Development, to discuss progress and flashpoints in the international political arena on adaptation. Professor Barry Smit, leading climate adaptation specialist and Lead Author of the IPCC Adaptation Practices chapter, will discuss recent scientific developments in research on adaptation, with a focus on what adaptation means for communities, for agriculture and for the vulnerable Inuit people of the Arctic.