Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Technologies

Climate change adaptation is nothing new. Since the beginning of life on Earth species evolved to fit their environment and ecosystems adapted to changing climates. Climatic conditions have changed dramatically even during the relatively short history of mankind. What is new, however, is the accelerated pace at which climate is changing paired with the immense pressure on our ecosystems and high specialization of our socio-economic systems. While rapidly changing climate conditions have in the past been the demise of species that failed to adapt and let in several occasions to mass extinctions in the history of the Earth.

Fortunately humanity in its adaptation response is not limited by slow paced evolutionary processes. Just as the current climate and resource crisis is of our own doing and brought about by short-sighted exploitation of natural resources for economic systems that are fixated on growth rather than sustainability, it is in our hands to overcome the largest collective challenge in human history. Innovative adaptation approaches based on solid science, capacity building and collective action through information and communication are elementary in order to overcome this challenge.

Our Projects in the area Climate Change Adaptation are funded by the COMET programme of FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency) within the "alpS - Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Technologies".