Developing an integrated risk governance framework to support climate adaptation policy making in China

Earth’s climate has changed and will continue to change. On the one hand, climate risks affect all aspects of society although the impacts are either having great uncertainties or even unpredictable. On the other hand, due to the even faster changes of the economy and society, human actions are beginning to play a dominant role in Earth?s natural environment change. As a result, many potential risks including climate change arise as a result of complex processes in the social-ecological system (SES). Our understanding of the Earth’s past is therefore no longer a reliable guide to meet challenges in the future world.
In recent years, climate change has become a dominant issue in China?s development policy arenas with a significant shift from mitigation to adaptation for better responding climate change impacts. Attempts have been made to meet growing public needs on issues of climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation.
In this presentation, a systematic, integrated risk-based approach is proposed based on the new integrated risk governance framework developed in the international risk research community, i.e., the integrated risk governance theory in the context of social-ecological system framework, complex dynamic system science, orderly adaptation concept, visualization science and policy interactive platform, green growth development, Maslow’s theory of needs, happiness-based economy and new classic economics based on specialization and the division of labor.