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I. Adaptation Planning Policy: Getting it Right
Part 2
Climate adaptation is an issue that is fundamentally about land-use in vulnerable areas, necessitating an understanding of local context, beliefs, values, and history. Adaptation policy needs to be able to engage with and respond to local level stakeholders and the place-specific climate issues they face. Managed retreat, and adaptation more broadly, is most successful when there is sustained community engagement, strong local leadership, and community organization to facilitate a bottom-up planning process, and sufficient government capacity to support the adaptation planning process. These ingredients can lead to the creation of proactive adaptation strategies that will foster equitable climate resiliency for communities in the U.S.
Policy related to adaptation can be broken into two parts: planning and implementation. The planning process is critically important to the success of climate change adaptation, especially when aiming for a proactive adaptation strategy rather than a reactive, post-hoc one. In this section, we explore how we can translate best practices and lessons from the study of managed retreat barriers in Part 1 of this report into tangible policy solutions for proactive adaptation planning.
I. Adaptation Planning Policy: Getting it Right
Summary: Robust adaptation planning should consider information gaps as well as
psychological, financial, and institutional barriers. Equity considerations and community needs should be incorporated into early stages of adaptation planning through demand-driven research, so that adaptation decisions use the best available science and address barriers that prevent communities from taking action. Adaptation planning policy will need to be designed in a way that allows for evaluation and dissemination of learning so that adaptation remains responsive to the needs of communities.
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Building on the key take-aways from our study of managed retreat, we have identified the importance of adaptation planning policy that can do the following:
Address information gaps by providing communities with demand-driven research that they need in order to make decisions informed by the best available science. Information gaps can
exist when communities lack the data needed to inform adaptation decisions. To be of value, climate data must be available and accessible to all communities (including those that are lowresourced), accurate and consistent, and address the needs of the community (as opposed to being based on researchers’ assumptions). Access to the specific information needed to understand place-based climate change risk is critical to successful adaptation planning.
Address non-informational barriers that are preventing communities from taking action on climate adaptation.
(1) Psychological barriers. The uncertainties and complexities of climate science
result in a variety of psychological barriers that plague decision making and limit proactive adaptation action among both residents and policymakers.86 Shaping positive perspectives on adaptation and realistic expectations of climate change impacts is crucial to successful adaptation planning and implementation. However, it requires that a variety of psychological barriers be overcome, including social norms and status quo bias, as well as negative perceptions of adaptation that prevent appropriate action.
(2) Financial barriers. Very few municipalities and states have dedicated funding for
adaptation efforts or staff that specifically work on this issue.87 Limited community resources and available funding often translates to limited capacity for adaptation planning. This challenge is even more relevant for economically disadvantaged communities, particularly historically overburdened and rural communities. Equitable adaptation planning is thus an integral part of facilitating a just transition for these communities.
(3) Institutional and political barriers. The structure and scope of institutions and
political jurisdictions form an important part of the context for adaptation work. Lack of coordination and fragmented decision-making across different jurisdictions, institutions, and sectors can be a barrier to adaptation planning. The limited capacity of institutions to produce or utilize the climate information necessary for adaptation decision making is another barrier. For example, sectors such as public health, engineering, and natural resource management face an increasing need to incorporate climate information into their processes and decision-making – but professionals may lack training or capacity to do so, especially if climate adaptation was historically out of scope for the organization. Finally, lack of trust in government, science, and academic institutions can hinder adaptation planning.
86 Pasquini, L., Steynor, A., & Waagsaether, K. (2019). The Psychology of Decision-Making Under Uncertainty a Literature Review. United States Agency for International Development. 87 Bierbaum et al. (2013). A comprehensive review of climate adaptation in the United States: More than before, but less than needed. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 18, 361-406.
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Incorporate equity considerations. Adaptation programs that do not build in long-term equity
considerations in the planning stages can exacerbate existing inequities. The impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect the poor and marginalized communities who have the least access to the financial and social resources needed to prepare and respond to climate hazards.88 Local governments have increasingly included social equity language in climate action plans, yet policies tend to be superficial and rhetorical, rather than actionable.89 Adaptation planning must treat equity commitments seriously and engage diverse local stakeholders in a sustained and meaningful way, elevating the most marginalized voices, to achieve climate adaptation plans that serve to decrease, rather than exacerbate, existing social inequities.90
Be designed in a way that allows for evaluation and dissemination of policy best practices (and failures). Evaluating adaptation programs that work across different jurisdictions and
