Harnessing Current Government Practices to Plan for and Adapt to the Risks and Uncertainty Posed by Climate Change

The paper proposes a framework of seven adaptive policy-making practices, divided into planned and autonomous adaptability, to help governments navigate unpredictable climate impacts. Based on research in Canada and India, the authors suggest that while these practices exist, they are often used ad hoc and should instead be integrated into a systematic approach of continuous policy piloting to overcome political and fiscal barriers.

• The authors propose that current government practices are sufficient to address climate-related risks, provided policy-makers adopt a new appreciation for the value of adaptive policies in an unpredictable world.
• Adaptive policy-making is categorized into two typologies: planned adaptability, which focuses on anticipating risk through analysis and triggers, and autonomous adaptability, which strengthens the ability of stakeholders to respond to unforeseen events.
• The framework identifies seven specific practices for creating adaptive policies: integrated and forward-looking analysis, built-in policy adjustments, formal policy review and continuous learning, promoting variation, multi-stakeholder deliberation, enabling self-organization and social networking, and decentralization of decision-making.
• To overcome political resistance to 'experimentation,' the authors suggest framing all policy implementation as a 'continuous policy pilot,' allowing for testing, evaluation, and adjustment before national rollout.
• Promoting variation—implementing multiple small-scale interventions rather than one large solution—is identified as a risk-management approach that increases the likelihood of success in complex systems.
• In the context of massive capital infrastructure like hydropower, where pivoting is difficult, the authors recommend applying diversity by investing in more, smaller-scale projects and power sources that are not correlated to drought risk.

APA

Swanson, D., Roy, D., Nair, S., & Tyler, S. (2010). Harnessing Current Government Practices to Plan for and Adapt to the Risks and Uncertainty Posed by Climate Change. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-1-response-3.pdf

Chicago

Swanson, Darren, Dimple Roy, Sreeja Nair, and Stephen Tyler. Harnessing Current Government Practices to Plan for and Adapt to the Risks and Uncertainty Posed by Climate Change. World Resources Institute, 2010. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-1-response-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Swanson |first1=Darren |last2=Roy |first2=Dimple |last3=Nair |first3=Sreeja |last4=Tyler |first4=Stephen |title=Harnessing Current Government Practices to Plan for and Adapt to the Risks and Uncertainty Posed by Climate Change |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2010 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-1-response-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{swanson2010harnessing, author = {Swanson, Darren and Roy, Dimple and Nair, Sreeja and Tyler, Stephen}, title = {{Harnessing Current Government Practices to Plan for and Adapt to the Risks and Uncertainty Posed by Climate Change}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2010}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-1-response-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }