Climate change adaptation will involve changes that cut across human socioeconomic systems in ways that affect virtually all aspects of life. Consequently, any attempt to assess priorities, capabilities and research gaps on climate change and poverty reduction risks either becoming fragmentary or massive and without focus. This is particularly true in the diverse cultural, geographic and economic context of Asia where both the direct impacts of climate change and the adaptive responses that emerge is heavily mediated by local conditions.

This report presents the results from a gap analysis to identify areas where a strategically targeted research and capacity building programme could support adaptation to climate change. Furthermore, this report focused on the underlying systemic factors that enable or constrain vulnerable people in vulnerable locations from adapting. 

Key issues highlighted in all the regions include:

Improved understanding of climate impacts including vulnerability influencing factors;
Capacity building of key stakeholders at local and national levels;
Economic evaluation of interventions;
Access and equity;
Political viability; and
Governance and the interaction across scales and sectors of government organizations.

The paper finds that climate change is anticipated to have major impact across South Asia and South East Asia due to the directly vulnerable large proportion of the population engaged in primary livelihoods and a combination of geographic and other features in the natural environment. There is also reasonable consensus on the broad nature of future climate change in different regions of China.

Key research priorities identified are factors enabling & constraining autonomous adaptation, role of migration, management of & production in critical but less researched ecosystems, health systems, governance of adaptation across scales, knowledge systems for dealing with uncertainty, social security & protection systems to support climate adaptation, local disaster risk reduction & resilience, water allocation, management & governance in conditions of relative scarcity & abundance, role of financial mechanisms in spreading risks and livelihood security for small farmers & fishing communities

Key actors that will be particularly important in catalyzing effective adaptation include:

Policy making agencies operating across sectors at a national level;
Sector-specific organizations;
Research & policy networks;
Local & regional governments;
Private sector organizations;
Scientific & educational research institutions; and
National & international NGOs.