Mitigation and Adaptation are essential to fight climate change. They work together to significantly reduce the risks of climate change.
Mitigation actions reduce, restrict, or remove GHGs from the atmosphere. Mitigation targets the source of climate change (GHG emissions) by reducing the amount released into the atmosphere or by enhancing carbon sinks that remove GHGs from the atmosphere. The aim of mitigation is to reduce the magnitude of climate change to levels that are manageable.
Adaptation actions prepare for, adjust to, or cope with the impacts of climate change. Adaptation aims to reduce exposure, decrease sensitivity, and increase adaptive capacity. In other words, adaptation works to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to climate change. Adaptation must address the root causes of vulnerability (e.g., access to safe food, water, shelter, clean air; access to health services; ending racism) as well as address the symptoms (e.g., new health risks; building strong infrastructure).
The Mitigation-Adaptation Nexus
The nexus between mitigation and adaptation reflects the connections that link the two. Both approaches to climate action are interconnected and synergistic. They work together for more significant influence on reducing vulnerability than either could alone. Adaptation offers benefits for mitigation and vice versa.
Mitigation reduces the magnitude of climate change that adaptation would need to manage – making adaptation more feasible. Similarly, adaptation actions often contribute to reducing atmospheric GHG reducing the challenges and costs of mitigation.
Sometimes, climate mitigation and adaptation can be in conflict or have trade-offs that must be considered. For example, air conditioning is a method to adapt to extreme heat, which can hinder mitigation efforts by contributing to GHG emissions, particularly when energy sources are not green or sustainable.
