1.2.3.1 Sustainable development
Sustainable development has environmental, economic and social dimensions (see Chapter 2, Section 2.1). Properly designed climate change responses can be part and parcel of sustainable development, and the two can be mutually reinforcing (Section 2.1). Mitigation, by limiting climate change, can conserve or enhance natural capital (ecosystems, the environment as sources and sinks for economic activities) and prevent or avoid damage to human systems and, thereby, contribute to the overall productivity of capital needed for socio-economic development, including mitigative and adaptive capacity. In turn, sustainable development paths can reduce vulnerability to climate change and reduce GHG emissions. The projected climate changes can exacerbate poverty and thereby undermine sustainable development (see, for example, IPCC, 2007b, Chapters 6, Section 9.7 and 20.8.3), especially in developing countries, which are the most dependent on natural capital and lack financial resources (see Chapter 2 and Stern (2006)). Hence global mitigation efforts can enhance sustainable development prospects in part by reducing the risk of adverse impacts of climate change (see also Chapter 12).
1.2.3.2 Adaptation and mitigation
Adaptation and mitigation can be complementary, substitutable or independent of each other (see IPCC, 2007b, Chapter 18). If complementary, adaptation reduces the costs of climate change impacts and thus reduces the benefits of mitigation. Although adaptation and mitigation may be substitutable up to a certain point, they are never perfect substitutes for each other since mitigation will always be required to avoid ‘dangerous’ and irreversible changes to the climate system. Irrespective of the scale of the mitigation measures that are implemented in the next 10–20 years, adaptation measures will still be required due to the inertia in the climate system. As reported in IPCC, 2007b, Chapter 19 (and also noted in Stern (2006)), changes in the climate are already causing setbacks to economic and social development in some developing countries with temperature increases of less than 1°C. Unabated climate change would increase the risks and costs very substantially (IPCC, 2007b, Chapter 19). Both adaptation and mitigation depend on capital assets, including social capital, and both affect capital vulnerability and GHG emissions (see Chapter 2, Section 2.5.2). Through this mutual dependence, both are tied to sustainable development (see Sections 2.5, 11.8 and 11.9, 12.2 and 12.3).
The stabilization of GHG concentrations and, in particular, of the main greenhouse gas, CO2, requires substantial emission reductions, well beyond those built into existing agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol. The timing and rate of these reductions depend on the level of the climate goal chosen (see Chapter 3.3.5.1).