Climate Change Adaptation (Adaptation) is the process of changing existing systems to more effectively respond to expected and unforeseen future effects of climate change on the actor.
Public Adaptation planning, the focus of most Adaptation scholarship, takes one of three general forms.
1) Resistance: Resistance strategies attempt to negate the effects of climate change through infrastructure projects like seawall construction or through societal changes like increased training for heat-related illness for nurses. Resistance responds directly to acute effects of climate change which makes it important to improving day-to-day conditions; however, because climate change’s impacts are so broad, overreliance on resistance can easily lead to ballooning costs for relatively ineffective solutions.
2) Transformation: Alternatively, institutions can choose to break with the status quo and transform their operations to more appropriately meet present and future conditions. For instance, a beachfront city, wary of rising tides, may refuse to grant permission to build along the existing coastline and encourage building above the projected sea level in 50 or 100 years. Transformation can address underlying impacts but can also be costly and politically challenging.
3) Move: If conditions become too extreme for resistance or transformation, the final option is to relocate. Climate Change has already forced millions into displacement due to extreme weather, changing weather patterns, and scarcity of basic needs. Most are domestically displaced, seeking refuge in areas less affected by Climate Change. In the U.S. this could mean a major relocation from the South to the North. Naturally, movement is the last resort and tends not to be a part of any long term planning.
Private sector adaptation remains understudied, but private collaboration is necessary to successfully adapt. Private institutions can play much the same role as public ones, even in spaces where they lack the same governmental authority. For example, maintaining secure supply chains through changing conditions is of the highest importance to both national security and private companies. By adapting their supply chains to meet the challenges of an increasingly volatile climate, private companies can help maintain smooth business and protect the public from supply shocks. In fact, because big corporations have tens-of-thousands of supply chain partners spanning the globe, some companies can have greater influence on supply chain policy than local governments. This is a primary function of Private Climate Governance in which the private sector takes the traditional role of public institutions. Private companies can play a significant role in adaptation that public governance cannot or does not address.
