In other climate impact assessments a number of arbitrary assumptions are made about adaptation. A more realistic approach would assume that people and organisations face uncertainty about the significance of climate changes to their activities, and about the best way to respond to these risks. Climate-related adaptations will be made against the background of a number of other, perhaps more important, drivers of change. In addition, organisations face a number of informational, institutional, cultural and financial constraints on their ability to learn and to respond. Incentives to change and the capacity to change will be determined by many factors including leadership, management capabilities, organisational culture, strategy and implementation.
Adaptive capacity is a characteristic of all social, technological and economic systems.
However, the capacity of organisations to adjust or to be flexible is based on specific practices, processes, strategies and capabilities. Organisations with greater adaptive capacity will have a wider array of adaptation options available, have a greater capacity to carry these out, and face lower costs and potentially greater benefits. In principle, these attributes can be measured and evaluated, allowing the relative adaptive capacity of firms and sectors to be compared. The objective of the study is to deepen the conceptual and empirical basis for understanding adaptive capacity. In the first stage, UK companies will be compared with each other, and with companies in other regions of Europe to analyse their adaptive capacity.