Final Activity Report Summary - AVODACC (Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: Development and Application of an Anatomy of Climate-related Vulnerabilities of the Framework convention on climate change)
Another major research area was the improvement of methods for climate change vulnerability assessment. The fellow developed a conceptual framework of vulnerability to climate change that integrates the main research traditions of vulnerability assessment: natural hazards, political economy, social geography, and resilience. This work clarifies the widespread conceptual confusion in vulnerability research and facilitates the integration of these diverse research traditions in efforts to reduce the risks from global climate change. The fellow further identified criteria for selecting key vulnerabilities of climate change, which assist stakeholders in defining dangerous levels of climate change. These criteria were applied for selecting key vulnerabilities in the Working Group II contribution of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, to which the fellow contributed as author and review editor.
The expertise of the fellow was requested by scientific institutions and stakeholders worldwide. The fellow gave several invited presentations (including a keynote presentation) at international conferences and other scientific meetings, he advised national governments and the European Commission on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, and he contributed to the 2007 report of the United Nations' Special Expert Group on Climate Change.