| The
climate plays a crucial role in the livelihood strategies of millions of people,
and climate change is altering the timing, pattern and levels of key variables
such as rainfall and temperature, across the globe. Poor communities, who are
more dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services, are particularly sensitive
to these changing weather patterns. Livelihoods
approaches have been used extensively in work on analysing impacts, vulnerability
and adaptation to climate change, often in contrast to top-down climate
science, which tends to rely on modelling to predict impacts and develop more
generalised adaptation measures. They have also provided an important conceptual
and practical basis to bring together work on poverty reduction, disaster risk
reduction and climate change adaptation. Sustainable
livelihoods approaches have formed the basis of much of the on-the-ground vulnerability
assessments undertaken in relation to climate change. These have been able to
situate climatic factors within the context of vulnerability to a broader range
of shocks and stresses. In adapting to climate change, the approach takes existing
variability in climate as a starting point. This can then build on existing coping
and adaptive strategies from which to develop locally-tailored strategies that
can build resilience to longer term changes. Situating
climate change adaptation within broader assets and vulnerabilities has promoted
adaptation as a dynamic and flexible process. Rather than a one-size-fits-all
solution, the livelihoods approach stresses strategies that are appropriate
to local conditions, to vulnerable people's assets across a range of capitals,
and that are therefore better able to respond to changing climatic conditions.
To date, many strategies have been aimed at helping vulnerable communities to
implement 'win-win' measures (that bring immediate benefits as well as long term
basis for vulnerability reduction), and 'no regrets' measures (which will assist
poverty reduction whether or not there is human-induced climate change). | 
