Adaptation to climate change

Glossary

1. 
   Adaptation to climate change
   

Actions to reduce the vulnerability of a system to the negative impacts of anticipated human-induced climate change.

2. 
   Adaptation to climate variability
   

This involves taking action to reduce vulnerability to short-term climate shocks. Often, adaptation to climate variability will also result in adaptation to climate change. The objective of adaptation is to reduce vulnerability to climate change and variability, and enhance the capability to capture any benefits of climate change.

3. 
   Baseline
   

The baseline (or reference) period defines the climatology against which future changes are projected. For details of the baseline used for UKCP09, see the UKCP09 Index.

4. 
   Building adaptive capacity (BAC)
   

BAC involves developing the institutional capacity to respond effectively to climate change. This means compiling the requisite information and creating the regulatory, institutional and managerial conditions that are needed for adaptation actions to be undertaken.

5. 
   Change factor
   

A set of change values calculated for all Weather Generator variables for a specified future time period. The change factors are obtained by calculating the difference between the modelled baseline climate and the climate given in the UKCP09 probabilistic projections, for each 25 km grid square.

6. 
   Climate
   

Climate is typically defined as the average weather (or more rigorously a statistical description of the average in terms of the mean and variability) over a period of time, usually 30 years. These quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system.