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Climate change, one of the main global risks humankind is currently facing, became a relevant issue on the international agenda in the last few decades. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted in 1992, includes both mitigation and adaptation strategies; however, though both are considered equally important, adaptation has been historically relegated to a secondary role within the Convention. The paper first presents an overview of the trajectory of adaptation as a UNFCCC guideline, discusses its institutional evolution and the Convention’s financing mechanisms, and, finally, explores the relations between adaptation and development. The conclusions point to the insufficiency of the Convention with respect to the implementation of measures for adaptation to climate change, but highlight its relevant role as a scenario for debate, as a source of funding, and as a promoter of both national and subnational actions, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of contrasting definitions of vulnerability to climate change poses a crucial challenge for the relationship between science and public policy in the context of adaptation to climate change. After reviewing the mainstream conceptualization of vulnerability to climate change, the article criticizes the use of the risk-hazard approach as a conceptual basis for measuring that vulnerability. Using concrete examples, the article illustrates how the resulting concept of vulnerability varies profoundly with respect to the type of knowledge generated and the epistemological approach depending on whether the concept of inherent vulnerability or that of outcome vulnerability is used. The paper concludes that the use of one or the other leads to public policies that are radically different in scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]