Climate Adaptation
Climate adaptation means preparing for and coping with the impacts we're already living with — heat waves, floods, water stress. It sits alongside mitigation (cutting emissions) as an essential part of the response.
Scientific detail
Climate adaptation encompasses interventions that reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to climate hazards. Passive cooling is a first-order adaptation lever for heat: it protects human health, secures food and water systems, and reduces peak energy demand — all without requiring reliable grid infrastructure. The IPCC AR6 identifies heat adaptation as a critical priority for tropical urban populations.
Related terms
Climate Resilience
A community's ability to withstand, recover from and continue functioning through climate stress.
Adaptive Mitigation
Interventions that adapt to warming today and reduce warming tomorrow.
Urban Heat Island
The phenomenon where cities are noticeably hotter than the surrounding countryside.
Passive Cooling
Cooling a surface, building or space using materials and design instead of electricity.
Where this concept shows up on MEER
Explore in topic hubs
Curated collections of MEER research, projects, publications and stories that feature this term.
Climate Adaptation
MEER's approach to climate adaptation: adaptive mitigation, radiative forcing, resilience, and the policy context around passive surface cooling.
Communities & Stories
Human stories, community reporting and field partnerships that ground MEER's science in the lives of the people most exposed to extreme heat.