Local-government leaders and climate teams
Officials aligning climate priorities with institutional mandates, public decisions, and continuing delivery.
Standard Book
Local Climate Adaptation
Planning, Governance, and Finance for Resilient Communities
ISBN 978-1-991367-14-3 · Global Climate Solutions · First EditionKnowledge for practical climate action.
Floods, heat, and drought become recurring crises when public responsibilities, essential services, and investment decisions fail to keep pace with changing risks. How can local institutions turn adaptation commitments into lasting protection?
Written for local leaders, planners, infrastructure managers, and community practitioners, Local Climate Adaptation connects risk assessment with governance, finance, and delivery. It offers a structured approach to difficult choices about land, housing, water, ecosystems, public health, and interconnected services.
Explore how unequal vulnerability changes priorities, how participation can influence decisions, and how appraisal, budgets, procurement, and maintenance shape results. Examine service dependencies and residual risk alongside the distribution of benefits, costs, and responsibilities across people and places.
The book also explains how monitoring, learning, decision triggers, and flexible pathways help institutions revise action as conditions change. Use its analytical framework to clarify trade-offs, retain future options, and make adaptation an accountable public responsibility beyond individual projects.
A framework for informed decisions and accountable action.
- 01
Assess local climate hazards, unequal vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and dependencies across essential systems.
- 02
Assign adaptation responsibilities and connect participation, multilevel coordination, and public accountability.
- 03
Integrate land use, housing, water management, infrastructure continuity, and nature-based measures into local planning.
- 04
Evaluate affordability, health, relocation, livelihood security, and the distribution of adaptation benefits and burdens.
- 05
Connect investment appraisal to local budgets, intergovernmental support, procurement, maintenance, and delivery.
- 06
Build decision-focused evidence, monitoring indicators, learning processes, and flexible adaptation pathways.
Contents
View the full contents 11 sections
- Introduction
Why Local Adaptation Determines Climate Resilience
- 01
Understanding Local Climate Risk and Adaptive Capacity
- 02
Governing Adaptation Across Institutions and Scales
- 03
Planning Land, Water, and Settlements for a Changing Climate
- 04
Adapting Essential Infrastructure and Public Services
- 05
Using Nature and the Built Environment to Reduce Risk
- 06
Centering Equity, Health, and Social Protection
- 07
Financing and Delivering Local Adaptation
- 08
Building Local Evidence, Learning, and Accountability
- 09
Strategic Pathways for Local Climate Adaptation
- Conclusion
Making Adaptation a Durable Local Public Responsibility
For readers turning evidence into action.
Planners and housing practitioners
Professionals managing settlement patterns, tenure, water, ecological space, and development trade-offs.
Infrastructure and public-service managers
Teams protecting service continuity across water, energy, transport, digital, health, and emergency systems.
Public-finance and development professionals
Practitioners connecting adaptation priorities to appraisal, budgeting, funding, procurement, and maintenance.
Community organizations and adaptation researchers
Readers examining participation, equity, evidence, learning, and accountability in local climate decisions.
Robert C. Brears
Robert C. Brears is the founder and editor-in-chief of Global Climate Solutions. His work connects climate resilience, water security, nature-based solutions, sustainable finance and the transition to more resilient cities and industries.
View author profile →Publication information.
- Format
- EPUB · Paperback
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publication
- 2026
- Publisher
- Global Climate Solutions
- eBook ISBN
- 978-1-991367-14-3
- Paperback ISBN
- 978-1-991367-15-0
- Language
- en-US
Explore the subject.
Local climate riskAdaptation governanceResilient servicesEquity and public healthAdaptation financeEvidence and accountability
Read the book
Local Climate Adaptation
Floods, heat, and drought become recurring crises when public responsibilities, essential services, and investment decisions fail to keep pace with changing risks. How can local institutions turn adaptation commitments into lasting protection?
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