Human beings used to adopt a number of strategies to tackle the impacts of weather like crop diversification, irrigation, water management and so on. But climate change introduces novel risks as drought, heatwaves, hurricanes or scarcity of crop productivity.
Thus, it is important to find new approaches of adaptation to the climate impacts and strategies of mitigation (e.g., strategies to reduce CO2 emissions).
Adaptation practices refer to actual adjustments, or changes in decision environments, which might ultimately enhance resilience or reduce vulnerability to observed or expected changes in climate. The array of potential adaptive responses available to human societies is very large, ranging from purely technological (e.g., sea defences), through behavioural (e.g., altered food and recreational choices), to managerial (e.g., altered farm practices) and to policy (e.g., planning regulations).
Adaptation and mitigation can be complementary but mitigation will always be required to avoid dangerous and irreversible changes to the climate system. In fact adaptation alone is not expected to cope with all the projected effects of climate change, and especially not over the long term as most impacts increase in magnitude.
The end products of CIRCE will be the Final Report - Regional Assessment of Climate Change in the Mediterranean (RACCM), a decision support system tool for adaptation and mitigation strategies tailored specifically for the Mediterranean environment. The RACCM will be produced in close consultation with stakeholders, also through workshops, consensus conferences and focus groups, in order to take into account the different needs of the Mediterranean region.

At the end of June 2009, IDDRI e CIRED-Meteo France, partners of CIRCE, have produced the report "The future of Mediterranean. From impacts of climate change to adapatation issues", available here.