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The document outlines the existential threats posed to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) by climate change, specifically sea level rise and ocean acidification. It emphasizes that while adaptation can reduce risks, SIDS face high per-capita costs due to a lack of economies of scale. The report advocates for integrating climate adaptation with broader development goals and transitioning to renewable energy to enhance energy security.

The document outlines the observed and projected climate impacts in Latin America, emphasizing the need for integrated adaptation and low-carbon development to protect economic growth and human security.

The document argues that disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation have evolved separately despite significant overlaps. It highlights that while DRR focuses on near-term risks and emergency management, adaptation takes a longer-term view of adjusting to climatic shifts. The brief emphasizes that both are driven by exposure and vulnerability, which are often exacerbated by poor development planning. It calls for a transformative approach that prioritizes vulnerability reduction over simple risk management, integrating human rights and sustainable development to prevent the creation of new risks.

The document outlines SEI's approach to climate adaptation, emphasizing that vulnerability is driven more by socioeconomic conditions than by climate exposure. It argues that adaptation and development are inextricably linked and that adaptation has inherent limits, meaning it cannot replace mitigation. The briefing also details SEI's global initiatives, such as the weADAPT platform and the Asia Adaptation Knowledge Platform, and identifies future research priorities including the role of gender, culture, and the private sector in adaptation.

The document outlines the evolution of weADAPT from its 2007 launch as wikiADAPT, detailing the transition from a simple wiki to a sophisticated knowledge platform. It highlights the critical role of trust, long-standing relationships, and face-to-face engagement in overcoming barriers to knowledge-sharing. Key technical improvements discussed include semantic tagging for better searchability, a user-friendly editing interface, and the creation of the Google Earth Adaptation Layer for spatial case studies. The authors argue that a successful platform must move beyond simple information supply to support actual decision-making through tools and a distributed ownership model involving expert Knowledge Partners.

The report advocates for Sweden to shift its approach to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) from a humanitarian-led response model to one integrated with sustainable development and resilience building. It highlights that disaster risk is driven more by increasing vulnerability and 'risk blindness' than by natural hazards alone. The authors recommend that the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Sida move DRR activities out of purely humanitarian departments to address underlying structural causes of risk, particularly in urban areas and among the most vulnerable populations.

The PEDRA research group focuses on the human dimensions of environmental and socio-economic risks in Asia, employing systems-oriented approaches to promote inclusive governance and resilient development. Its current work includes nine diverse projects addressing climate change adaptation in peri-urban Southeast Asia, gender inequalities in environmental conditions, disaster risk reduction in WASH systems, and the governance of the Bali Cultural Landscape.

The document argues that women's disproportionate vulnerability to climate change and environmental stress is driven by social constraints and unequal power relations rather than inherent traits. It highlights that gender-blind policies in sectors such as fisheries, disaster risk reduction, and sanitation often disadvantage women or widen existing gender gaps. The briefing emphasizes that gender intersects with age and class, meaning vulnerability is multi-dimensional. To be effective, the document asserts that interventions must move beyond simple legal changes or stereotypes and instead adopt multi-faceted strategies across household, community, and national levels.

The document argues that conventional formal institution building is insufficient for sustainable development and calls for new collaborations between governments, civil society, and the private sector. It emphasizes the need to link livelihoods in low-income regions with consumption patterns in affluent regions and to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) into development planning to build resilience. SEI highlights various projects, including palm oil governance in Southeast Asia, Arctic resilience, and sanitation in East Africa, to illustrate the need for 'hybrid accountability' and 'institutional bricolage' in governance.

The document introduces the Adaptive and Integrated Disaster Resilience (AIDR) framework, designed to address the increasing complexity and uncertainty of disasters caused by environmental and socio-economic changes. AIDR focuses on building system adaptiveness through institutional processes that operate across sectors and scales. The authors identify seven conceptual pathways to achieve this integration: integrating DRR with adaptation and development, strengthening polycentric governance, fostering collaborations, improving knowledge and information, enabling institutional learning, self-organization and networking, and providing disaster risk finance and insurance. When applying these pathways to Indonesia, the authors emphasize the need for increased resources for local multi-stakeholder collaboration and the necessity of placing communities at the center of DRR and adaptation efforts.

The 'Minimum Standards for local climate-smart disaster risk reduction' guide establishes a framework for integrating future climate-related risks into local disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities. It provides two sets of standards: one for community-level implementation and another for civil society organizations (CSOs) or local government authorities supporting those communities. The guide emphasizes moving beyond 'business as usual' by utilizing weather forecasts, seasonal projections, and vulnerability assessments to create adaptive action plans.

The report examines the critical role of mangrove ecosystems in Mozambique, highlighting their value in carbon sequestration, coastal protection, and supporting fisheries. It identifies significant threats from urban growth, aquaculture, and the extractive boom in oil, gas, and mining. The author argues that Mozambique's current governance is fragmented across multiple ministries, leading to weak enforcement of environmental laws. The document advocates for the use of ecosystem valuation, Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs), and 'Blue Carbon' financing to incentivize conservation and reconcile economic growth with ecological sustainability.

The report evaluates the impact of Typhoon Nari on Da Nang's infrastructure and demonstrates that 244 households provided with storm-resistant housing support suffered no damages, contrasting with widespread destruction in the city. It argues that investment in preparedness and resilient urban planning is more cost-effective than post-disaster recovery.

The document investigates how low-income populations in the Caribbean (Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia) and the South West Indian Ocean (Mauritius, Seychelles) cope with extreme weather events. It finds a heavy reliance on 'medium level stressors' like savings and credit, which act as pseudo-insurance, and a concerning prevalence of 'high level stressors' such as 'doing nothing' (asset degradation) in the Caribbean. While there is an implicit need for microinsurance to prevent asset depletion, adoption is hindered by cost, lack of trust, and limited knowledge.

The paper argues that traditional disaster assessments rely too heavily on direct tangible costs, neglecting indirect and intangible impacts. It proposes a 'total cost' framework comprising four quadrants: direct tangible, indirect tangible, direct intangible, and indirect intangible costs. The authors review market-based, non-market-based, and economic system modelling techniques, concluding that while no single method covers all cost categories across all scales, benefit transfer is a critical tool for making comprehensive total cost estimations accessible at meso and macro scales.

The report argues that public-private collaborations (PPCs) are a strong model for leveraging the resources of both government and business to meet the growing need for climate and disaster resilience investments. It identifies six key success factors for policy-makers: building on local trust, starting small for scalability, integrating skill building, strengthening livelihoods, creating value-chain partnerships, and finding innovative infrastructure alternatives. Through nine case studies across sectors like agriculture, water, and energy, the document demonstrates that PPCs can engage a diverse range of actors—from multinationals to micro-enterprises—to deliver place-specific adaptation and disaster risk management solutions.

The report identifies Pakistan as highly vulnerable to climate change due to its geography, economic dependence on agriculture, and high poverty levels. It evaluates the 2013 National Climate Change Plan (NCCP) and the impact of the 18th Amendment, which devolved environmental responsibility to provinces. The document proposes ten priority action areas across policy, governance, technical capacity, and capacity building, while drawing lessons from adaptation planning in Kenya and the Dominican Republic.

The Climate Risk Assessment Guide – Central Asia establishes a framework to downscale climate impact understanding to support sub-national risk management. It integrates climate change assessment with disaster risk assessment, focusing on six types of capital: human, natural, social, financial, physical, and political. The methodology combines an impact-based assessment (using monetary damage and Delphi-based livelihood scoring) with a perception-based assessment to identify gaps between expert data and local views. The guide emphasizes the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for data management and provides a structured process for creating climate risk profiles to prioritize management actions.

The paper introduces a framework to analyze food system resilience to climate change, moving from the household as the locus of food security up to community and national scales. It proposes two 'spinwheel' tools: one for food security analysis and one for resilience analysis, integrating system, agent, and institutional criteria. The framework is applied through the CREFSCA project in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, utilizing the CRiSTAL tool for community-level assessments.

The report introduces a framework for assessing climate resilience in food systems, moving from the household level up to national policy. It presents two analytical tools: 'Roulette 1' for food security analysis and 'Roulette 2' for resilience analysis. The framework emphasizes that resilience is an emergent property of system interactions and suggests specific indicators for food utilization, access, availability, and supporting infrastructure. The tools are designed to be applied through participatory processes, such as the CRiSTAL-SAN tool, to help policymakers and local practitioners identify vulnerabilities and develop long-term adaptation strategies in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.