On the left-hand side of the continuum, the most vulnerability-oriented adaptation efforts overlap almost completely with traditional development practice, where activities take little or no account of specific impacts associated with climate change, and have many benefits in the absence of climate change.

On the far right, highly specialized activities exclusively target distinct climate change impacts, and fall outside the realm of development as we know it. Their benefits will materialize only in the event of climate change. In between lies a broad spectrum of activities with gradations of emphasis on vulnerability and impacts.