Climate change is here, and its impacts are growing more severe. The impacts from severe droughts, fiercer storms, heatwaves, sea level rise and more disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.  

Global efforts to slow climate change are promising, but insufficient. In addition to preventing the worst impacts of climate change, the world must invest in adapting to already present impacts. Climate resilience saves lives, reduces poverty, addresses underlying inequalities and delivers strong economic returns.

Building climate resilience cannot happen without climate adaptation—or, actions taken to ensure that communities and countries alike can withstand climate risks. Accelerating adaptation means making climate risks visible, factoring those risks and adaptation responses into government and business decisions, supporting locally led adaptation and mobilizing finance for climate-resilient solutions. 

WRI works to build resilience by advancing critical adaptation initiatives and research across multiple areas. Some of these areas include: 

  • Developing the long-term capacity of developing countries’ central ministries (finance, economies and planning, agriculture) to understand and manage climate risks. 
  • Catalyzing a paradigm shift for adaptation so that communities and local actors have greater power and resources to build climate resilience. 
  • Advancing climate resilient agriculture solutions by scaling up investments in digital climate advisory services, creating demand-driven approaches to research and development and promoting transformative approaches to adaptation. 
  • Supporting the scaling up of nature-based solutions for adaptation by engaging with governments, funding institutions and practitioners to develop and strengthen commitments, investments and partnerships. 

These initiatives build off WRI’s work, including that of the Global Commission on Adaptation, of which WRI served as a managing partner. They seek to advance the bold recommendations from the Commission’s Adapt Now report. 

Image Credit: CIAT/Flickr