This module provides participants with a detailed understanding of key terms and concepts that are important in adaptation. it examines why adaptation interventions often fail or even make things worse and sets out principles for just, effective and sustainable adaptation. By the end of the module, participants will have a clear understanding of different types of and approaches to adaptation and how they relate to each other, as well as to concepts such as risk, resilience and vulnerability. They will be able to deploy these concepts in practical ways to understand climate change risks and impacts in a way that addresses the role of both physical hazards and socially-mediated vulnerabilities.

This module consists of the following two sessions, each of which includes short interactive exercises. Sources are provided throughout the module, with links to further information. It also includes an optional detailed exercise that is included when it is incorporated into our Adapting to Climate Change course.

I. Key concepts in adaptation

• Adaptation, maladaptation, adaptation gaps and deficits
• Adaptation as risk reduction
• Different types of adaptation
• Incremental versus transformational adaptation
• Beyond narrow risk reduction – transformative adaptation
• Resilience and its relationship with adaptation
• A continuum of adaptation responses

II. Principles for good adaptation

• How adaptation interventions can make things worse
• Why adaptation fails
• Participation, inclusion and co-creation
• Plural knowledge approaches, culture and heritage
• Governance and finance
• Addressing unintended consequences
• Locally-led adaptation principles
• Other sets of adaptation principles
• Three pillars for just, effective and sustainable adaptation

Exercise

Participants are provided with a range of adaptation actions and are asked to assess what type of adaptation they represent, consider how effective they are likely to be over different timescales, identify potential maladaptation risks, and suggest ways in which these maladaptation risks might be addressed.

This is the second module in our Adapting to Climate Change course. The two taught sessions also form part of our Adaptation Literacy course.