New Publication: Assessing climate adaptation capacity in Japan
How to assess the adaptation capacity is crucial for quantifying both current and future health impacts of climate change, as most projection studies assume a constant pace of adaptation, and assume there is no limit of adaptation. To directly evaluate temporal trends in the pace of adaptation on a nationwide scale in a straightforward manner, this recent study, led by Assistant Professor Lei Yuan, proposes a comprehensive spatial-temporal adaptation framework to assess adaptation changes over time. The local findings suggest:
• Unparalleled pace between rising temperatures and threshold temperatures in recent times in Japan from 1970s to 2010s
• Adaptation pace showed an upward trend in earlier decades but declined in magnitude in more recent years in Japan, indicating room for further adaptive capacity
by assessing the time-varying relationship between mean temperature and threshold
temperatures for the first time.
Publication details: Yuan L, Tobias A, Ng CFS, Hashizume M. Climate change and human adaptability: an integrated framework for historical insights and future capacity in Japan. Environment International, 2025.
Oral presentation of this work is also available in the ENBEL 2025 conference recordings at 2:48:40.