Best Practice in Climate Change Adaptation

Abstract

Climate change adaptation has become a core business for international organizations, firms, and all levels of government in almost every country. Practitioners seek to implement adaptation in the face of myriad barriers and uncertainties and so seek guidance as to what constitutes best practice. Such guidance is diffused across publications on adaptation decision making, effectiveness, evaluation, justice, governance, monitoring, pathways, and planning, which propose a mix of process‐based and normative criteria. All of these have value but taken together do not provide succinct guidance for practitioners. Here we suggest that for practitioners, best practice is a pragmatic matter of doing the best with the knowledge and resources available at any given time to initiate a process most likely to lead to a reduction in vulnerability. We propose seven elements for best practice adaptation based on common findings from these diverse literatures, suggesting that it requires processes that are: evidence‐based, intentional, well‐governed, inclusive, iterative, well‐timed, and sustained. We explain each of these elements and provide references for further information. This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for Adaptation Policy and Governance > Governing Climate Change in Communities, Cities, and Regions