Hard and soft paths for climate change adaptation

By Benjamin Sovacool. 2011

157 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Amory Lovins’ distinction between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ paths of energy technologies is applied, mutatis mutandis, to humanity's efforts to adapt to climate change. It is argued that hard adaptive measures involve capital-intensive, large, complex, inflexible technology and infrastructure, whereas soft adaptive measures prioritize natural capital, community control, simplicity and appropriateness. The prevalence of these two types of adaptation pathways is illustrated through two case studies from the Maldives: The Safer Island Development Program and the Integrating Climate Change Risks Program. Policymakers must be aware that hard and soft adaptation measures may trade off with each other, and give both paths due consideration.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Global and Planetary Change, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/863fd5c31f5d928bd534e5cbe610ce7069aa0787

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

1. L. Berrang‐Ford
2. J. Ford
3. A. Lesnikowski
4. Magda Barrera
5. S. J. Heymann

Citations in the corpus

• How to Track Adaptation to Climate Change: A Typology of Approaches for National-Level Application (2013, background): “…which prioritize measurable “hard” interventions with readily visible impact, downplaying “softer” adaptations which may be more likely to be effective in reducing vulnerability (Campbell et al. 2000, Laville 2000, Rychetnik et al. 2002, Adger et al. 2005, Preston et al. 2009, Sovacool 2011).”