Earlier in October, I had the privilege to attend the 8th Adaptation Futures Conference 2025 (AF2025) in the picturesque city of Christchurch in New Zealand. Situated by the River Avon, the city hosted one of the first climate change adaptation conferences in the Pacific region, bringing in around 1500 delegates from more than 90 countries. In this article, I have tried to highlight some of the key insights from the conference, backed by a desk review.
Unlike other international conferences, the adaptation futures conference is mostly academic in nature; however, there was strong representation from practitioners and funding agencies, indicating growing interest among funding agencies to collaborate with academia. In addition, the Indigenous Peoples remained the heart of the conference, as they brought in the local wisdom and lived experiences, while showcasing their culture and resilience to the climate crisis.
The islands are not sinking, but the sea is rising
In the opening plenary of the conference, many key issues, such as climate justice, just transition, adaptation finance, and adaptation priorities, were discussed. What stood out to me the most was the importance of ‘framing the words.’ In the climate change arena, a new jargon emerges now and then, before it becomes a buzzword and a trend. But it is important to understand the appropriateness of using the jargon and trendy words, and whether they truly describe the real-world scenario. The framing of the appropriate words and phrases in the climate change arena is crucial as it connects various groups of the audience, from the community to the policy makers, that can motivate actions and drive major outcomes.
Adaptation is not a charity but a moral duty
One of the fundamental discussions in the climate change discourse is finance for mitigation and adaptation. In the current context, the funding is largely skewed towards mitigation due to its clear financial returns, tangible benefits, and measurability. Such high interest and investment in mitigation measures lead to inadequate adaptation finance, and as a result, the adaptation finance gap widens significantly, around 12-14 times less than the current needs of the developing countries annually. Above all, the inadequate finance jeopardizes climate justice and equity, as the least greenhouse gas (GHG)-emitting, vulnerable countries need to bear a heavy financial burden from the anthropogenic climatic impacts. Therefore, the notion of adaptation finance as an ‘aid’ or ‘charity’ should be reconsidered and should be emphasized as a moral and ethical duty and obligation rooted in global responsibilities, particularly by the developed nations with higher GHG emission records. In this regard, choosing life over short-term financial gain should be the driving force to accelerate finance for adaptation.
What could improve finance for adaptation?
A recent report published by the Global Subsidies Initiative highlighted that a reduction of 6-13% GHG emissions can be achieved by 2050, by the removal of fossil-fuel-based subsidies to consumers and to society. For climate change mitigation initiatives, such quantitative facts and figures add great value. However, for adaptation, it is much more difficult to quantify the benefits as ‘adaptation’ is a continuous and highly contextualized process. Nevertheless, with the development and shortlisting of the indicators under the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), there remains hope to better manage and access the adaptation interventions and finance flow at the local level, which yet remains under 10% of the global finance investment.
At the AF2025, a session supported by the Adaptation Fund, highlighted the necessity of adaptation finance. The session highlighted the importance of a data-driven approach to document the social and economic risks generated by climate change and the financial and economic returns from adaptation projects. Also, the finance for adaptation should be patient, predictable, and long-term, which would largely focus on institutional capacity development at the local level.
Building social walls instead of sea walls
An example drawn by one of the Māori leaders at the AF2025, signifying the necessity of adaptation finance and capacity enhancement, it is equally important to invest both in hard and soft adaptation interventions. While there is a growing interest in tangible hard adaptation interventions, such as the construction of sea walls to prevent coastal erosion, it is also important to enhance the resilience of the local community to respond during a crisis situation. The capacity enhancement initiatives are less expensive, yet much more effective at the community scale. However, soft adaptation initiatives require a whole-of-society approach, where inclusion is a must.
Copyright and copyleft of information and knowledge
Inclusion has been a key element of discussion at the AF2025. With advancements in climate science and information, climate projections are more accurate and reliable than ever before. Nonetheless, these scientific and technocratic understandings should also be comprehensive and accessible at the local level and for the front-line communities bearing the impacts of climate change. Local communities and the Indigenous Peoples around the globe hold age-old wisdom and strategies to combat the impacts of climate change that have sustained them through various adversities. Yet, many of their context-specific and effective solutions are considered ‘unscientific’, whilst their access to technocratic information is curtailed due to copy ‘right’ issues. Hence, the question arises: Are we getting better at inclusion?
One way to ensure inclusion is to decolonize the mind, body, and soul and adopt a holistic approach, limiting the barriers to access to information, and at the same time acknowledging the sustained adaptation practices that are locally grounded. A knowledge co-production approach: Local to Global and Back to Local can be patronized, where the local communities hold substantial ownership of knowledge and information. Failure to ensure local ownership will be the failure to ensure sustainability.
We move by the speed of trust
‘Building trust’ is a key element in the climate arena, and in AF2025, it was repeatedly highlighted. Trust can drive promises into reality, ensuring the achievement of greater success collectively. Through trust, cooperation, accountability, transparency, and equity is ensured. It is also the language to reach the community, and vice versa. It is trust that accelerates a resilient and sustainable climate future.
