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CLIMATE ADAPTATION

Catching maladaptation before it happens

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 617–618 (2022)Cite this article

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Years of research on adaptation to climate change shows that many efforts are counterproductively increasing vulnerability, rather than reducing it — known as ‘maladaptation’. Now a study suggests ways forward by identifying four structural challenges that need to be overcome in adaptation implementation.

Research on adaptation to climate change has sharply increased over the past decade1 and implementation of strategies and projects is rapidly following suit, although funding lags behind that for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions2. At the same time, studies indicate a lack of clarity in identifying successful3 or effective4 adaptation; as a result, projects are rarely able to address climate risk5 and can introduce a host of new problems6. While adaptation is needed more than ever, emerging evidence shows that a non-trivial number of adaptation projects are actually leading to maladaptation, which is when the adaptation process ends up making people more, rather than less, vulnerable to climate change. Writing in Environmental Sociology, Amanda Bertana et al7. attempt to address this directly through an explicit empirical exploration of the process that leads to maladaptation in order to develop a framework for how to avoid it.

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Fig. 1: Protective sea wall in Fiji.

dpa picture alliance/Alamy Stock Photo.

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  1. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    E. Lisa F. Schipper

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  1. E. Lisa F. Schipper
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Correspondence to E. Lisa F. Schipper.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Schipper, E.L.F. Catching maladaptation before it happens. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 617–618 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01409-2

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