1. Introduction 4. Output
2. Aim 5. Material and preparation
3. Input data 6. Exercise instructions


Introduction

An organizations’ ability to meet and adapt to change is essential for limiting the negative impacts of climate change and for seizing any new opportunities that may arise. By drawing on the participants' experience, Exercise V will enable identification of the most critical factors that affect adaptive capacity in your local area or economic sector. The outcomes include identification of areas which are already strong and those where special attention is needed. This information is important for outlining concrete adaptive measures in Exercise VII - Integrated vulnerability assessment and action plan.

Aim

This exercise aims at identifying and ranking both internal and external factors of adaptive capacity in order to single out the most relevant ones for assessing vulnerability to climate change in your local area or economic sector.

Input data

List of key climatic and socio-economic stressors identified in Exercises II and III.

Output

A list of the most influential factors affecting adaptive capacity in your local area or economic sector.

Material and preparation

  • Material: one deck of cards (or 2 decks if you work with 2 economic sectors), Post-it notes, pens, colored tape.
  • Prepare flipchart sized paper with the IPCC definition of Adaptive Capacity 1, Adaptive Capacity 2 and 3.

Adaptive Capacity 1
Adaptive capacity is a measure of the ability of an individual, a household or an organization to adapt to change.
High adaptive capacity will even make it possible to seize opportunities caused by the change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defined adaptive capacity for climate variation and change as:
”The ability of a system to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes) to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences.”

 

Adaptive Capacity 2
What influences the adaptive capacity in your organization?
Adaptive Capacity 3
What factors influence the adaptive capacity of your area or sector?
  • Prepare flipchart sized paper with Chart A: Ladder of importance (prepare one in total) and Chart B: Ladder of difficulty (prepare one per local area or economic sector) (Table 1). If you want to end up with a matrix: prepare the matrix on a flip chart sized paper (Table 2) (Tables can be downloaded from the Related files on the right.)

Table 1. Factors of adaptive capacity according to their importance and difficulty 

Chart A. Ladder of importance

Chart B. Ladder of difficulty

High importance:  Impossible:
Medium importance:  Hard:
Low importance:  Moderate:
   Easy:

Table 2. Factors of adaptive capacity as a matrix of importance and difficulty (can be downloaded from the Related files on the right)


Easy

Moderate

Hard

Impossible

High importance        
Medium importance        
Low importance        
  • Prepare a list containing the key climatic and socio-economic stressors that were identified in Exercises II and III.

Exercise instructions

1. The Process Leader presents the exercise. The exercise consists of two main parts:

(a) Identifying what factors influence adaptive capacity, and
(b) Ranking these according how important you think they are and how hard you think they are to change.

2. Identification of factors and ranking according to level of Importance:

  • The Process Leader posts the IPCC definition of Adaptive Capacity = “depicts the ability of a system to adjust to climate change to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences” on the wall or blackboard.

  • The Process Leader places the paper “Adaptive Capacity 2” on the table:   
What influences the adaptive capacity in your organization?
  • Participants are instructed to take 5 minutes to write down on Post-It notes or similar the most important factors influencing the adaptive capacity of their own organizations. If you wish, the group members could also individually indicate the level of importance of each factor according to the value in a Deck of Cards from 2 (low) to Ace (high).

  • Now it is time to play cards. The Process Leader asks the group members in turn to select their highest level of card, for instance political support at the level of “Ace” — i.e. place the card containing what that person think is the most influential factor on the table. Each participant having notes saying political support or something similar — regardless of the value attached to it — should put their “cards” on top of the one already laying on the table. The participants should then discuss why they think this factor is important and how it affects adaptive capacity. Participants are asked to reach consensus on the importance of the factor, that is, the value attached to the card.

  • When the group has agreed, take a card with the corresponding value from the deck of cards and write the name of the adaptive capacity factor on a piece of paper and tape it to that card. Tape it on "Chart A" with the lowest values at the bottom and the highest at the top.

  • Repeat this for all factors you have identified as affecting adaptive capacity. You have now attached values to the most important adaptive capacity factors at a general level for this group spanning your respective organisations. This is the hand of cards that you currently hold. 

3. Ranking according to your local area or economic sector:

  • The Process Leader places the paper "Adaptive Capacity 3" on the table:
      
    What factors influence the adaptive capacity of your area or sector?
  • She/he also puts the lists of significant climate and socio-economic stressors that were identified in Exercises II and III.

  • Look at your hand of cards. Go through the cards one by one. Decide whether each factor is more or less important for the local area or economic sector as compared to your previous assessment. Place the card on the "Ladder of Importance" on Chart A. Make sure that you take consideration to most significant climatic and socio-economic stressors when attributing the level of importance. Take a photo when all cards have been placed on the “Ladder of Importance”.

  • Now look at the cards you ranked as having “High importance”. Go through these cards one by one. Put each card on the “Ladder of Difficulty” ranging from Easy to Impossible on Chart B according to how hard you think they are to change. Discuss the reasons why you think they are easy or hard to change, and discuss what is needed in order to make positive changes.

  • Repeat this for all cards of High importance and Medium importance. Take a photo when all cards have been placed on the “Ladder of Difficulty”.

  • If you focus on more than one local area or economic sector, repeat Step 3. You then will have two Ladders of Difficulty.

4. Discuss potential responses that you could undertake to enhance the factors of adaptive capacity. Put them on a list. What changes do you think would require extra effort? Please try to distinguish between your relative weaknesses and strengths.


Back to Exercise IV - Local sensitivity                       
Go further to Exercise VI - Responsibilities and relationships of key actors involved in change