Centering equity and sustainability in climate adaptation funding

Climate change poses a growing threat to the lives and livelihoods of more than three billion people living in highly vulnerable areas. Despite recent financing designated for climate adaptation, current support is only a fraction of what is needed and lags behind the accelerating pace of climate impacts. To achieve equitable and sustainable adaptation, we propose four evidence-based guidelines for funding and developing adaptation projects: uphold community autonomy, be transformative, avoid maladaptation, and integrate across sectors. Upholding community autonomy prioritizes bottom-up approaches that support local engagement and decision-making. Being transformative involves funding nonlinear proposals and developing novel funding mechanisms in order to shift away from incremental change. Avoiding maladaptation means ensuring that adaptation projects are proactive, flexible, and supportive of natural ecosystem services to prevent increasing vulnerability and exposure to climate impacts. Integrating across sectors involves addressing the intersections between human and environmental systems and using multiple sources of knowledge when developing projects. We illustrate these guidelines in action by exploring these principles in the context of adaptation to coastal hazards. By adopting these guidelines, funding for climate adaptation can support frontline communities facing the most severe consequences of climate change and address some of the underlying conditions that contribute to vulnerability, delivering broader societal benefits.