The state of climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation research: strengthening knowledge base and community

Abstract

It has taken about 35 years for scientists to bring the global climate change issue to the attention of the world’s people and their leaders. With the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference of December 2009, it was hoped that the “issue identification” phase would segue at last into the “solution” phase. However, the outcome of COP15 shows that interdisciplinary work on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability is still critically needed to advance the development of the solution phase.