African Perspectives on Transformational Adaptation for Just and Scalable Adaptation Under the South African G20 Presidency

The policy brief distinguishes between incremental and transformational adaptation, highlighting that the latter is necessary when climate impacts cross viability thresholds. It identifies significant barriers to transformational adaptation in Africa, including financial gaps, weak legal frameworks, and a lack of standardized metrics. The authors recommend that South Africa's G20 presidency champion the development of adaptation scenarios, the enactment of climate change laws, and the creation of an Africa-based framework for measuring systemic impact to move beyond reactive, short-term climate responses.

• Transformational adaptation differs from incremental adaptation by focusing on changing the underlying root causes of vulnerability and altering fundamental system attributes, such as norms, values, and power distribution, rather than simply maintaining a system's integrity.
• Transformational adaptation becomes essential when climate impacts cross 'viability thresholds' or 'coping ranges,' beyond which existing systems can no longer be sustained.
• Africa faces six primary challenges in implementing transformational adaptation: a lack of definitional consensus and metrics, limited access to flexible adaptation finance, weak legal and institutional frameworks, the risk of top-down technocratic approaches, high political and social transaction costs, and a shortage of documented African case studies.
• Current adaptation finance for Africa is often conditional, targeted toward mitigation, and reliant on bureaucratic multilateral funds, necessitating a shift toward non-conventional sources like debt-for-climate swaps and voluntary carbon markets.
• South Africa's 2024 Climate Change Act provides a model for transformational adaptation by mandating the use of adaptation scenarios (warmer/drier, warmer/wetter, and hotter) to shift from reactive to proactive decision-making.
• Kenya's Climate Change Act of 2016 (amended 2023) demonstrates how legislation can foster accountability and locally led action by mandating five-year National Climate Change Action Plans and protecting rights to public participation and indigenous knowledge.
• The Climate Investment Fund (CIF) utilizes a programmatic framework for transformational adaptation based on five dimensions: relevance to context, systemic change, speed of change (just transition), scalability, and sustainability.

APA

ADHIAMBO, P., MULAMA, L., NAALAMILEY, C., MUTHONI, F. K., AWOLALA, D., & WAMUKOYA, G. (2025). African Perspectives on Transformational Adaptation for Just and Scalable Adaptation Under the South African G20 Presidency. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SAIIA_PN_20_ADHIAMBO-et-al_G20JustScalableAdaptation-2.pdf

Chicago

ADHIAMBO, PETRONILA, LEON MULAMA, COMFORT NAALAMILEY, FREDRICK K MUTHONI, DAVID AWOLALA, and GEORGE WAMUKOYA. African Perspectives on Transformational Adaptation for Just and Scalable Adaptation Under the South African G20 Presidency. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2025. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SAIIA_PN_20_ADHIAMBO-et-al_G20JustScalableAdaptation-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=ADHIAMBO |first1=PETRONILA |last2=MULAMA |first2=LEON |last3=NAALAMILEY |first3=COMFORT |last4=MUTHONI |first4=FREDRICK K |last5=AWOLALA |first5=DAVID |last6=WAMUKOYA |first6=GEORGE |title=African Perspectives on Transformational Adaptation for Just and Scalable Adaptation Under the South African G20 Presidency |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=20 October 2025 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SAIIA_PN_20_ADHIAMBO-et-al_G20JustScalableAdaptation-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{adhiambo2025african, author = {ADHIAMBO, PETRONILA and MULAMA, LEON and NAALAMILEY, COMFORT and MUTHONI, FREDRICK K and AWOLALA, DAVID and WAMUKOYA, GEORGE}, title = {{African Perspectives on Transformational Adaptation for Just and Scalable Adaptation Under the South African G20 Presidency}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SAIIA_PN_20_ADHIAMBO-et-al_G20JustScalableAdaptation-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }