Dr Helen Adams is Senior Lecturer in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation at King’s College London. She has more than 15 years’ experience in adaptation and resilience in research, policy, non-governmental organisations, teaching and engagement settings. Helen leads the new £5 million Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) Hub.
In a recent podcast interview, we chatted about the value of transformative adaptation and the role of MACC. This blog is a summary of that conversation.
What is transformative adaptation to climate change?
Transformative adaptation is adaptation that addresses underlying problems that cause people to be exposed and vulnerable to climate change. It considers how in the adaptation process we can make things a bit better for people, so that future extreme weather events don’t affect them as badly.
It involves bottom-up grassroots approaches, where community-focused needs are brought to the table when policymakers consider adaptation.
For example, in Bangladesh, women received training in disaster risk reduction and post-cyclone response. Those women became more empowered in their community and in their local politics; there was a change in the people who were at the table making decisions about the local area.
Closer to home, in Glasgow, there’s an initiative called Climate Ready Clyde that focuses on adapting the city region to the impacts of climate change. It brings together a broad range of stakeholders to act in everybody’s best interests.
How should governments explore transformative adaptation?
We have to ensure that as many voices as possible are feeding into our understanding of how to adapt to climate change. We need procedures and processes that are equitable, fair, inclusive and co-produced.
Infrastructure is a key focus for adaptation, but equity might not come to mind when planning for it. For example, policymakers could think about how the impacts of climate change propagate through transport networks or electricity supply networks and consider social justice implications.
This could be, for instance, impacts on who owns a car or who is reliant on buses or trains. There are always equity implications in everything we do and we have to put them first.
How can we make adaptation measures more effective?
That’s where the MACC Hub comes in. Our objective is to connect the adaptation community across the UK and draw out and synthesise what works on adaptation.
There are about 20 partner organisations including knowledge exchange partnerships and universities across the four nations. We bring practitioner networks together with researchers who have access to the latest science, to trial adaptation and learn from that.
It is important that organisations understand how they can adapt to climate change within their limited time, budget and resources.
Funding is also a key aspect.
How do policymakers access the information from the Hub?
The Hub is funded by Research Councils UK and Defra, so the findings will directly inform Defra’s work on the fourth National Adaptation Programme for the UK. We’re also linked with the devolved governments. Part of our work is to respond directly to government’s questions, so we can enable transformative change within policy.
How can researchers get involved with the Hub?
The Hub is setting up processes to engage widely. There will be multiple calls to solicit input from people working on adaptation across the UK and collect examples of best practice.
Researchers and organisations can also sign up to the weADAPT website and post their case studies on adaptation.
There will also be a funding call in 2025 for research projects between local organisations and academic institutions to trial transformational adaptation.
Related links
Tidal flooding on the Clyde: Options analysis and scoping of adaptation pathways
ClimateXChange podcast
This is an amended extract from episode 5 of our podcast: Evidence for climate policy in Scotland