This article presents a systematic and comprehensive global stocktake of implemented human adaptation to climate change. The authors screened more than 48 000 articles using machine learning methods and a global network of 126 researchers.
Assessing global progress on human adaptation to climate change is an urgent priority. While the literature on adaptation to climate change is rapidly expanding, little is known about the actual extent of implementation.
The authors systematically screened more than 48 000 articles using machine learning methods and a global network of 126 researchers. The synthesis of the resulting 1682 articles presents a systematic and comprehensive global stocktake of implemented human adaptation to climate change.
The results show that documented adaptations were largely fragmented, local, and incremental, with limited evidence of transformational adaptation and negligible evidence of outcomes that reduced risk.
The authors identify a need to improve research on global adaptation, and eight priorities for doing so. These are to:
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