Topic hub

Climate Adaptation

How passive cooling fits inside the broader response to climate change — protecting people today while reducing radiative forcing tomorrow.

The framing

Key terms in this topic

Climate Adaptation
Actions that reduce harm from a changing climate here and now.
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.
Effective Radiative Forcing
The net change in Earth's energy balance caused by a given intervention or driver.
Albedo
The fraction of sunlight a surface reflects — 0 is black, 1 is a perfect mirror.
Surface Energy Balance
The bookkeeping of energy flowing into and out of a surface at every moment.
Passive Cooling
Cooling a surface, building or space using materials and design instead of electricity.
Urban Heat IslandUHI
The phenomenon where cities are noticeably hotter than the surrounding countryside.