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APPENDIX B Panel on Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change: Statement of Task T he Panel on Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change will describe, analyze, and assess actions and strategies to reduce vulnerability, increase adaptive ca- pacity, improve resiliency, and promote successful adaptation to climate change in different regions, sectors, systems, and populations. The panel will draw on existing reports and assessments and use case studies to identify lessons learned from past experiences, promising current approaches, and potential new directions. The issues and examples considered by the panel should be drawn from a variety of regions and sectors, focusing on domestic actions but also considering international dimensions, and should cover a range of temporal and spatial scales. The panel will be challenged to produce a report that is broad and authoritative, yet concise and useful to decision makers. The costs, benefits, limitations, tradeoffs, and uncertainties associated with different options and strategies should be assessed qualitatively and, to the extent practicable, quantitatively, using the scenarios of future climate change and vulnerability provided by the Climate Change Study Committee. The panel should also provide policy-relevant (but not policy-prescriptive) input to the committee on the following overarching questions: ⢠What short-term actions can be taken to adapt effectively to climate change? ⢠What promising long-term strategies, investments, and opportunities could be pursued to adapt to climate change? ⢠What are the major scientific and technological advances (e.g., new observa- tions, improved models, research priorities, etc.) needed to promote effective adaptation to climate change? ⢠What are the major impediments (e.g., practical, institutional, economic, ethi- cal, intergenerational, etc.) to effective adaptation to climate change, and what can be done to overcome these impediments? ⢠What can be done to adapt to climate change at different levels (e.g., local, state, regional, national, and in collaboration with the international commu- nity) and in different sectors (e.g., nongovernmental organizations, the busi- ness community, the research and academic communities, individuals and households, etc.)?
