Climate change is a fact and needed now are ways to deal with it
that can coexist with development. The big question after the
COP17 climate change conference was how adaptation could work
with ongoing development, experts said at a recent feedback
session held at the University of Cape Town. Adapting to the
effects of climate change was imperative for poor people in
developing countries, whose lives would be most affected. It was
important to teach them how to use natural systems to adapt,
said Professor Guy Midgley, chief director of the climate change
and bio-adaptation division at the South African National
Biodiversity Institute. Speaking at the “What happened at COP17?
Hear the inside story” session, Midgley said focused water and
ecosystem-based adaptation workshops would be held for
developing countries in the next two years. An interesting
“architecture on adaptation” had emerged from the Durban
conference, he said. Through the formation of an adaptation
committee, developing countries now had a goal