Effective climate adaptation must be imaginative and inclusive

Abstract

The lived experiences of the full diversity of people facing climate change must be taken into account for climate adaptation to be effective and to avoid maladaptation.A daptation to climate change is tricky, especially when the impacts and challenges facing communities around the world are so diverse. Discussions between researchers, practitioners, indigenous communities and policy makers at the Adaptation Futures conference held in Montreal, Quebec, from October 2-6, 2023 (https://adaptationfutures.com/) made it clear that a change in mindset is required. We must acknowledge the different needs of the populations and embrace the diversity of approaches to achieve effective adaptation. Only by strengthening inter-cultural and cross-sector collaborations will we be able to implement solutions that profoundly transform societies and infrastructures.Self-transformation and climate justice are key in adaptation. Right in the first plenary speech, Sheila Watt-Cloutiere, an Inuit environmentalist and Citizen Advocate on Environmental, Cultural and Human Rights at Siila-Simply Independent, Canada, laid the groundwork for successful and effective climate adaptation. She called for more imagination, empathy and personal transformation in adaptation and emphasised the need to innovate ourselves. The three keywords 'inclusivity', 'innovation' and 'imagination' resonated across all sessions of the conference.At numerous panels, indigenous communities from North and South America expressed great concerns about the increasing disregard for indigenous voices in the development of local solutions. Because indigenous and western knowledge are complementary, in combination they can create a shared worldview that helps avoid maladaptation. Yet indigenous knowledge is not adequately recognized in climate action assessments and policies 1 . New ideas for adaptation, for example coming from Indigenous arts, must be pursued. But forums and structures where knowledge is co-created in an inclusive and equitable manner including all forms of expression are lacking.

The Virtual Water Gallery: Art as a catalyst for transforming knowledge and behaviour in water and climate

“…While superficially, imagination appears contradictory to communicating scientific facts, they are complementary. Indeed, it has been argued that effective climate adaptation must be imaginative and inclusive [28]. As the frequencies and magnitudes of water-related natural hazards are increasing around the world, some events are outside of the historical ranges in the collective memory [29].…”