ICARUS: Illuminating power dynamics in Cross-scale Adaptation for more Resilient and jUst futureS

In an increasingly interconnected world, climate change impacts happening locally can also cause indirect impacts in distant places.

Yet, climate change adaptation has mostly focused on addressing the local impacts, without enough consideration of broader consequences. Some scholars and institutions are nonetheless recognising the need to focus on cross-cutting adaptation challenges.

Many climate risks are unknown and society’s knowledge of direct and indirect effects are limited, which makes research on cross-scale adaptation and the social and political contexts it occurs in vitally important.

Adaptation is fundamentally about processes of social change and reducing exposure and vulnerabilities that emanate from structural and individual drivers intersecting with physical climate risks.

This project, ICARUS, will explore how power and politics intersects with cross-cutting adaptation at multiple scales to contribute towards producing more resilient and just futures.

Power, political economy, intersectionality, and complexity and collective action are the pillars of theory informing our approach.

Through multi-scale and multi-site (Skåne, Sweden and East Anglia, United Kingdom) analysis of cross-cutting adaptation, ICARUS will contribute towards improving knowledge, planning, communication, and empowerment through adaptation governance. In an unpredictable future, improving adaptation governance through such research is an urgent task.