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Responding to adaptation emergencies

Nature Climate Change volume 5, pages 6–7 (2015)Cite this article

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The impacts of extreme events are triggering action and reaction — sometimes in unexpected ways. Confronted by 'adaptation emergencies', the private sector is rapidly innovating climate risk management, but governments must also fulfil their responsibilities.

Recent extreme weather events have demonstrated the vulnerability of people, infrastructure and economies in many parts of the world: droughts and bushfires in the USA, Russia and Australia; floods in Kashmir, Thailand and the UK; Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Haiyan; landslides in Japan and China. These events have claimed many lives and generated catastrophic economic losses with global impacts, including systemic disruption to supply chains and hikes in the prices of products from grain to computer chips1. Unexpected weather extremes have exposed the fragility of many social and economic systems and the frailty of adaptation responses at local, regional and global levels. Governments have been taken by surprise. These events have also shown that climate change is deeply unfair in its impacts, which brings into sharp relief the winners and the losers, globally and regionally. This generates a new class of governance problems for governments, businesses and international organizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jim W. Hall is at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK,

    Jim W. Hall

  2. Frans Berkhout is in the Department of Geography, King's College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK, and is the Interim Director of Future Earth,

    Frans Berkhout

  3. Rowan Douglas is at the Willis Research Network, London EC3M 7DQ, UK,

    Rowan Douglas

Authors
  1. Jim W. Hall
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  2. Frans Berkhout
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  3. Rowan Douglas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jim W. Hall.

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Hall, J., Berkhout, F. & Douglas, R. Responding to adaptation emergencies. Nature Clim Change 5, 6–7 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2467

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