Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-1 (section)

=== FAQ 1.4 | What is transformational adaptation? ===

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''Continuing and expanding current adaptation efforts can reduce some climate risks. But even with emission reductions sufficient to meet the Paris Agreement goals, transformational adaptation will be necessary.''

Over six assessment reports, the IPCC has documented transformative changes in the Earth’s climate and ecosystems caused by human actions. These changes are now unequivocal and projected to become even more significant in the years and decades ahead. This AR6 report also highlights climate adaptation actions people are taking and can take in response to these significant changes in the climate system.

Some adaptation is incremental, which only modifies existing systems. Other actions are transformational, leading to changes in the fundamental characteristics of a system. For instance, building a seawall to protect a coastal community from flooding might exemplify incremental adaptation. Changing land use regulations in that community and establishing a programme of managed retreat might exemplify transformational adaptation. There is no definitive line between incremental and transformational adaptation. Some incremental actions stay incremental. Others may expand the future space of solutions. For instance, including climate risk in mortgages and insurance might at first seem incremental but might lead to more transformational change over time.

Transformation can be deliberate, envisioned and intended by at least some societal actors, or forced, arising without explicit intent.

Deliberate transformational adaptation is not without risks because change can disturb existing power relationships and can unfold in difficult to predict and unintended ways. But transformational adaptation is important to consider because it may be needed to avoid intolerable risks from climate change and to help meet development goals as articulated in the SDGs. In addition, some types of societal transformation may be inevitable and deliberate rather than forced transformation and may bring society closer to its goals.

Some types of transformation may be inevitable because the amount of transformational adaptation needed to avoid intolerable risks depends in part on the level of GHG mitigation. Low concentration pathways consistent with Paris Agreement goals require deliberate transformations that lead to significant and rapid change in energy, land, urban and infrastructure, and industrial systems. Even with low concentration pathways, some transformational adaptation will be necessary to limit intolerable risks. But with higher concentration pathways, more extensive transformational adaptation would be required to limit (though not entirely avoid) intolerable risks. In such circumstances, insufficient deliberate transformation could lead to undesirable forced transformations.

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