Climate Mitigation Versus Adaptation

Climate mitigation is the practice of limiting the global temperature increase to a manageable level. This can be accomplished by reducing sources of greenhouse gas emissions (such as the burning of fossil fuels) and removing carbon from the atmosphere through the creation and maintenance of carbon sinks (such as forests).

Even if mitigation is successful, it’s impossible to undo the impacts that climate change has already had on Earth. Climate adaptation is a response to the current and future impacts of climate change. It ensures that human populations can survive and thrive through increasingly extreme weather. This might look like recycling water, building sea walls and creating climate-resilient infrastructure. 

An example of climate mitigation can be seen in the Global South and specifically in Egypt, where Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority established a carbon credits market. Companies that want to mitigate their emissions can purchase these credits to sequester carbon—for example, by planting trees with smallholder farmers. To make this effective, an official framework/regulation was issued requiring large companies to report their emissions, and to offset 20% of their emissions through carbon credits. 

Another example of climate adaptation is one of the EU funded projects in collaboration with Interreg Next Med Programme, NBS4MED which explores Nature-Based Solutions for climate-resilient Mediterranean cities, with high dense population and urban buildings. The project partners work together on presenting scalable, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable solutions in urban planning to respond to current and future climate change impact.