Ten ways to support climate change adaptation planning and decision making

This policy brief from the Stockholm Environment Institute provides ten recommendations for co-designing actionable, user-focused climate services to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and policy implementation. Based on the HazardSupport project and case studies in Sweden, the brief emphasizes the need for iterative dialogue, the use of facilitators, and the alignment of climate data with existing planning tools to ensure science effectively informs adaptation planning and decision-making.

• Climate service providers should use iterative dialogue to help practitioners articulate their specific information needs and challenge the tendency to use climate data only to evaluate predefined, often technical, solutions rather than comparing alternative adaptation options.
• It is critical to assess the broader planning and decision-making contexts, as adaptation options often compete with other political agendas; for example, in Stockholm, the need for green spaces to mitigate heat competes with the need for urban densification and housing.
• To manage the tension between the long cycles of scientific research and the practitioners' need for timely, accountable decision-making, the boundaries and scope of climate services should be defined early in the process.
• Facilitators are essential in the co-design process to initiate contact between researchers and practitioners, manage power dynamics, and ensure that technical language does not exclude participants.
• Climate information should be delivered using a combination of visual and narrative formats tailored to the specific target audience, such as politicians or citizens, as stakeholders have varying levels of expertise and preferences.
• Climate services should be integrated into existing planning tools to ensure sustainability; for instance, data on green spaces for temperature regulation in Stockholm can be integrated into a Green Space Index planning tool.
• When high-resolution localized data is infeasible, researchers should use archetypes or templates as creative alternatives to illustrate the consequences of planning strategies.
• Researchers must communicate both the uncertainties and certainties of climate data, using strategies such as adding a standardized "climate factor" to current water levels to help practitioners assess margins for critical infrastructure.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2020). Ten ways to support climate change adaptation planning and decision making. https://www.sei.org/publications/ten-ways-to-support-climate-change-adaptation-planning-and-decision-making/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Ten ways to support climate change adaptation planning and decision making. 2020. https://www.sei.org/publications/ten-ways-to-support-climate-change-adaptation-planning-and-decision-making/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Ten ways to support climate change adaptation planning and decision making |date=8 January 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/ten-ways-to-support-climate-change-adaptation-planning-and-decision-making/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2020ten, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Ten ways to support climate change adaptation planning and decision making}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = jan, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/ten-ways-to-support-climate-change-adaptation-planning-and-decision-making/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }