Developing countries should focus on climate adaptation

tags: #climate #change #adaptation #mitigation #developing #country

If there is anything that can save us, it's probably technology. I've done a lot of study on governance and one thing I know for certain is that change takes a lot of time. As such, I don't believe that our governance system and institutions would be able to save us from the climate doom. Behaviors take years to change, institutions take decades to shape.

I believe that developing countries like Indonesia should focus on adaptation, not mitigation. This does not mean that we forego mitigation efforts; it only means that the focus and majority of resources should go to adaptation.

At the global scale, this is actually irrational since the cost of mitigating climate doom is miniscule compared to adapting to the irreversible change. The problem here is that the ship is stubbornly heading straight to an iceberg, so, if you don't have enough power to steer the helm and change the ship's course, it is only reasonable to make sure that the lifeboat is ready.

We also need to be picky with our mitigation efforts. Mitigation efforts should not increase climate vulnerabilities. Preventing forest fire and peatland preservation would be in line with this idea but nickel mining for making car batteries would not since the environmental costs -- e.g. groundwater pollution -- are just too high. We need to preserve as many resources (water, biodiversity) as we can in order to face the impending doom.

OK, I'll turn this into an op-ed