Socioeconomic studies on adaptation based on bottom-up approaches have been focusing mainly on local impacts of weather-related variations, thereby neglecting potential remote impacts. There is little knowledge about challenges that relate to the global and long-term character of climate change. By contrast, impact assessment studies using top-down approaches, such as multi-region, multi-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, provide a consistent framework to capture potential remote impacts, which occur through cross-sectoral and cross-regional interactions. Here we present main findings of our economic impact assessments of climate change and adaption modelling. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges for incorporating adaptation measures and policies into macroeconomic models.