Climate change adaptation is not a standalone issue. It needs to be considered as part of broader systems, including policies and interactions across a range of scales and sectors.
When considering adaptation action, we need to address not only our technical capacity to respond, but also leadership and policy drivers, power dynamics, inter-institutional systems, knowledge flows and issues of fairness and justice in how decisions are made. The Traction framework has been developed to help explore these factors and identify what enables change at the local level. It is by generating and sharing this understanding that we can achieve greater progress.
The Traction framework offers a powerful means to plan and review the progress of adaptation action in line with global, national and local agreements and policies. The enablers converge with the adaptation action attributes in the Paris Agreement, and respond to the demands of the IPCC’s 2022 report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
Enablers
Five broad enablers have been identified that are important in enhancing adaptation response:
Enabler 1:
Policy and leadership contributing to visioning, goals, targets and outcomes
Our policies, legislation and leadership help to set goals, targets and outcomes for us to adapt to climate change. Climate adaptation needs to be embedded across a broad range of policy areas including health and wellbeing, social welfare, food, transport, environment and infrastructure and at a range of scales. Policy coherence is required so that our adaptation actions do not undermine or conflict with other policies but rather reinforce and offer synergies to increase our adaptive capacity to climate change.
Enabler 2:
Governance processes and capacity to respond, including financing
Our governance processes and structures help to define and develop adaptation pathways. The pathways we follow, both by formal enforcement by state agencies in line with policy frameworks, and informal means through civil society networks, advocacy and community mechanisms will take us on different journeys to a climate-resilient society. Embedded in this is the need for the financial resourcing and the capacity, knowledge and experience that enable us to make informed decisions, including experience driven by local realities.
Enabler 3:
Synthesis and use of knowledge
Our adaptation actions need to be supported by the best knowledge and evidence available at the time of taking action, with those of us who have the responsibility for developing plans and policies having a good understanding of the knowledge and evidence behind climate change adaptation and its relation to other policies and aspects of daily life. This builds upon what is important for people and places, as well as scientific evidence and data.
Enabler 4:
Collaboration, coordination and inclusion of civil society and the voices of communities
Effective adaptation action involves not only working across policy areas but bringing different parts of society together to work collaboratively on climate change responses, where our communities and civil society are involved in decision-making processes in a way that is fair and inclusive.
Enabler 5:
Ethics and Justice
The people and places that are most vulnerable to climate change impacts must be given full consideration when planning our adaptation responses, fully embedding considerations of fairness. Some groups and communities are disproportionately impacted by the changing climate or may have limited means to participate in addressing climate action; this demands understanding and responding to gender and intersectional equity. Communities impacted by issues of vulnerability, inequality and disadvantage must be a part of collaboration and engaged in our framing of what are fair and just priorities for climate action. The voices of those most impacted by the changing climate need to be part of solution-building. Recognising this requires exploring underlying power dynamics that compound disadvantage; and creating space for reflective learning.