Outlook on climate change adaptation in the Tropical Andes mountains

Limitations to analysis

The analyses presented in this outlook have some limitations and caveats. Firstly, because many policies have been formulated they may not yet have been implemented or yet have results or impacts; therefore, it is difficult to assess policy performance. Also, most adaptation policies fail to include monitoring mechanisms, which makes it difficult to assess their effectiveness. Monitoring effectiveness is further complicated when multiple policy instruments are used to address the same issue, or when instruments yield unintended effects. In other words, social and economic policies not intended to reduce climate change risks also affect the degree of adaptation (e.g. programmes for poverty alleviation that decrease population vulnerability). Furthermore, there are policies with unexpected or unintended impacts on adaptation. For instance, trade agreements that promote water-intensive crops can increase pressure on water resources and provisioning ecosystems. Instruments 1, 2, A1, A2 and C2 correspond to different policies and sectors (A, B) that, whether coordinated or not, affect the environment. Adaptation policies rarely indicate which instruments address which vulnerabilities, nor whether they focus on mountains or other ecosystems. Therefore, progress on adaptation and on other issues results from different policies and targets different sectors. This mix of policies makes attribution and measuring effectiveness challenging. There are at least two ways to frame the lack of focus on adaptation in mountains. The first

Policies and instruments targeting the environment. Source: IEA Community Learning Platform – Graphic 4

Countries’ architecture for policy instruments

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