Glossary term
Climate Adaptation
Subject: Sustainability and ESG, Climate Risk
Also known as: Adaptation to climate change
Climate adaptation means adjusting people, assets and systems to cope with climate impacts that are already happening or expected, so that harm is reduced and opportunities are taken.
Explanation
Adaptation deals with the effects of warming that cannot now be avoided. It can be physical, such as sea walls, drainage upgrades, heat-resistant crops or relocating a plant out of a flood zone. It can also be financial and operational: flood insurance, diversified suppliers, water recycling or changes to working hours in extreme heat. Adaptation is local, because hazards and vulnerabilities differ by place and by who is exposed. Resilience is the related idea of recovering quickly after a shock. Adaptation does not reduce emissions, so it is paired with mitigation. Organisations meet it in physical risk assessments, climate disclosures and resilience plans required by some regulators. Firms that skip it absorb the full cost of floods, heat and drought they could have reduced.
Example
A food processor has a plant on a river that now floods roughly once every five years. After a stoppage of three weeks, it raises critical equipment above the flood line, signs a back-up supplier for packaging and buys parametric flood cover. The next flood halts operations for only two days.
Not to be confused with
- Climate Mitigation
- Mitigation cuts or removes emissions to limit warming. Adaptation copes with the effects that warming still brings.