Strategic resilience outlining a new government approach to climate change adaptation

Climate change adaptation has become an important policy goal in recent years. Governments and many voters realize that some climate change is inevitable. This is partly due to the time lag between greenhouse gas emission reductions and corresponding changes in the future climate. But it is also a sober reading of reality. Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. There is a reasonable chance that rapid emission reductions will not occur, committing the world to a changing climate for many years to come; bringing escalating impacts and risks to people, economies, and ecosystems; and reinforcing the imperative for effective adaptation.
Increasingly, the policy challenge is how to deal with this reality. Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to actual or anticipated changes in the climate to moderate or avoid harm, or to exploit beneficial opportunities (IPCC, 2019). Adaptation has become a clearer priority because the risk of high-end climate change has increased, our knowledge about impacts and vulnerabilities has improved, and there is a growing realism regarding the feasibility of adequate mitigation. Yet despite several decades of research, assessment and planning, there is little evidence that climate vulnerability has been reduced enough as a result of planned adaptation interventions (UNEP, 2024; Berrang-Ford et al., 2021). The world is clearly failing to prepare adequately for the inevitable impacts of climate change. Adaptation priorities are trumped by more “strategic” policies. Global assessments show that overall investment in adaptation at home and abroad is woefully insufficient (UNEP, 2023; CPI, 2024). This is clearly a problem. If knowledge of climate change impacts and vulnerability exists, and adaptation actions have been identified and planned, but action to adapt is not forthcoming, people and ecosystems will be negatively affected: the world becomes more at risk.
Failing to adapt is likely to result in widespread harm to people and the natural world, undermining progress in human development (IPCC, 2023). Climate change will interact with and reinforce other “megatrends” (PwC, 2024) contributing to polycrises in which no single actor is able to understand or govern the series of interrelated risks that affect decision-making and society (WEF, 2023). Thus, despite its emergence as an important policy goal, climate change adaptation is not currently treated as a strategic policy agenda within government. One reason for this is that ownership of adaptation policy is assigned to relatively weak environment ministries (Ampaire, 2020; CCC, 2025). Environment ministries are
not the most optimal actors to lead and coordinate adaptation across government. This is especially the case when adaptation is framed as a strategic policy agenda, intersecting with core pillars of domestic and international policy. This “strategic” framing is becoming more common.

source:

https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/strategic-resilience.pdf