What we can do to minimise, or at least reduce, the risks to life from such events – as well as more gradual changes – is what climate adaptation experts think about all the time. The president of Cop30 in Brazil, André Corrêa do Lago, called for the UN climate change conference to be a “Cop of adaptation”. But within wealthy countries, adaptation can appear more as a technocratic challenge than a political one. Under the terms of the UK’s Climate Change Act, the government is legally obliged to do so, and to regularly review its preparations. Catastrophic floods in Asia and worsening droughts in Africa this year point to the growing need to accelerate climate adaptation.

Source: The Guardian December 27, 2025 10:00 UTC