Investigating adaptation to climate change in the French vineyards
2014
BOYER, JAMES | Ollat, Nathalie | Touzard, Jean-Marc | Viguié, Vincent
The aim of this article is to lay out a series of questions that are currently occupying Social Science researchers, concerning the impact of climate change on the vine and wine sector. The challenge lies in evaluating the cost of the transition from one system to another through an integration of the direct and indirect effects of climate change. This adaptation, whether reactive or anticipatory, combines technical and organizational innovation with localization strategies and institutional changes. Such actions could either try to maintain as much as possible the existing situation or could try to bifurcate towards deep changes, entailing very different costs. Owing to the multitude of uncertainties at play, not to mention the necessity for continuous adaptation to an ever changing climate, these costs are not easy to specify. This article will illustrate two sets of measures for wine cultivation adaptation: measures with "no regrets", which offer immediate benefits, and "reversible and flexible" measures, which limit the inertia of wine-cultivating systems. In spite of the difficulties however, what stands out is the evident re-enforcement resulting from the collaboration between researchers and political and economic actors. In the field of wine cultivation, these collaborations can follow two paths: a study of the diversity of existing wine-growing systems and genetic resources, and the possibility of more radical technological and social experimentation.
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