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Beyond unintentionality: considering climate maladaptation as cyclical

Author

Listed:
  • Sameer H. Shah

    (University of Washington
    School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment)

  • Jamie A. Haverkamp

    (Bates College)

  • Celina Balderas Guzmán

    (University of Washington)

  • Megan Mills-Novoa

    (University of California, Berkeley
    University of California, Berkeley)

  • Meagan Carmack

    (University of Washington)

Abstract

Climate adaptation is imperative; however, instances of maladaptation are increasingly documented in sectors and locations around the world. Despite the prevalence of maladaptation, researchers and intergovernmental actors, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, consistently frame it as “unintentional.” Drawing from environmental injustice, critical development studies, critical race theory, and coloniality scholarship, we argue the impossibility of characterizing maladaptation—now a global-scale phenomenon—as an unintended consequence of well-intentioned adaptation planning. This paper reframes the (re)production of climate maladaptation as a foreseeable result of the unequal systems of colonial racial capitalism through which adaptation is implemented and refracted. Systems-level change that confronts uneven relations of power, rather than incremental institutional reform, can address the prevalence of maladaptation. Treated as such, tackling climate maladaptation becomes a “political project”— not merely a “planning project.”

Suggested Citation

  • Sameer H. Shah & Jamie A. Haverkamp & Celina Balderas Guzmán & Megan Mills-Novoa & Meagan Carmack, 2025. "Beyond unintentionality: considering climate maladaptation as cyclical," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(4), pages 1-19, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:178:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10584-025-03922-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-025-03922-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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