Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation: Adaptation and Mitigation through Land Preservation and Management

Mitigation measures are those actions that are taken to reduce and curb greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation measures are based on reducing vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Mitigation, therefore, attends to the causes of climate change, while adaptation addresses its impacts.

Climate actions have often fallen into one of two strategies: mitigation efforts to lower or remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, and adaptation efforts to adjust systems and societies to withstand the impacts of climate change.

Climate change shapes the way land is able to support supply of food and water for humans. At the same time the land surface interacts with the overlying atmosphere, thus human modifications of land use, land cover and urbanisation affect global, regional and local climate.

Land-based adaptation and mitigation options are closely related to region-specific features for several reasons. Climate change has a definite regional pattern with some regions already suffering from enhanced climate extremes and others being impacted little, or even benefiting. From this point of view increasing confidence in regional climate change scenarios is becoming a critical step forward towards the implementation of adaptation and mitigation options. Biophysical and socio-economic impacts of climate change depend on the exposures of natural ecosystems and economic sectors, which are again specific to a region, reflecting regional sensitivities due to governance.

Tzu Chi participating in COP26

The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is partaking in COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, to join in on dialogue surrounding action and collaboration towards the goals set forth by the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).