Barriers to adaptation

Barriers or constraints can include the following:

• Limited understanding of climate risks and vulnerabilities – current and projected.
• Lack of supportive policies, standards, regulations, and design guidance, encouraging status quo and/or presenting impediments to progress.
• Existing legal or regulatory restrictions.
• Lack of availability or restricted access to appropriate technologies.
• Costs of identified adaptation options when budgets are limited.
• Lack of availability of resources such as in-house expertise.
• Social/cultural/financial rigidity and conflicts.
• Short-term nature of planning horizons – necessity of realising return on investment.

There are also barriers associated with perceptions of uncertainty.

• Confidence for the long-term – mismatch between business planning horizons and timeframe of projections of climate change.
• Not seen as a big problem yet, so the temptation is to wait for the impact then react.
• Belief that the uncertainty is too great to warrant taking adaptation action now.
• Lack of useful precedents or evidence of adaptation actions – what are others doing?
• Lack of acceptance/understanding of risks associated with implementation – what if the decision is wrong?

It can be helpful to build adaptive capacity to improve the understanding of climate change, and associated risks and vulnerabilities, along with an understanding and updating of institutional and legal frameworks (i.e. those that enhance adaptive capacity).