Adaptation and mitigation for combating climate change – from single to joint

ABSTRACT Introduction: Adaptation and mitigation are two main approaches to combating climate change. Mitigation is considered as the most important tasks in dealing with climate change in scientific research, financial support and technical practices as global warming intensifies; while currently the warming trend still cannot be reversed, and adaptation task seemed to gain urgency although it is late-starting. The synergies and tradeoffs of these two strategies revealed increasingly importance on reducing adverse climate effects. Research on synergistic relationships has developed from definition and feasible analysis, to the development of quantitative tools and exploration in practice and application, though the latter aspect is still in its initial stage. Outcomes/other: Our review shows that the traits of mitigation and adaptation, the differences and similarities between them, then illustrate the significance and mechanism of their synergies and tradeoffs. And it is explained that methods and applications of single and integrated models, and cost-effectiveness analysis. Discussion/ Conclusion: We hold the opinion that the future research and applications should be enhanced in terms of four aspects: reinforcement of interrelations and common mechanisms between mitigation and adaptation actions study; building and improving the monitoring and evaluating systems; promoting departmental and regional scale investigations and applications; and establishing policy and security systems.