Climate adaptation
Maladaptation
Definition
Maladaptation refers to adaptation actions that lead to increased risk of adverse climate-related outcomes, increased vulnerability to climate change, or diminished welfare, now or in the future (IPCC AR5). The concept, elaborated by Barnett and O'Neill (2010), includes measures that increase emissions, disproportionately burden the most vulnerable, have high opportunity costs, reduce incentives to adapt, or lock in inflexible pathways.
References
Supports definition and framing.
Overview
What it means
Examples include sea walls that encourage development in hazard zones, air conditioning that raises emissions and energy poverty elsewhere, and irrigation that depletes shared aquifers. Maladaptation often emerges from short planning horizons and siloed decisions.
How it is used
Adaptation planners and funders screen projects for maladaptive risks; national adaptation plans and climate-risk assessments increasingly require maladaptation analysis.
Why it matters
Poorly designed adaptation can waste scarce climate finance and entrench vulnerability; avoiding maladaptation is essential to effective, equitable adaptation.