Climate change is intensifying, bringing more frequent and severe heatwaves, floods, storms, and droughts that threaten communities worldwide. As these impacts grow, societies must adapt—but resources are limited, and not everyone can afford protection or is willing to accept high risks. In her book Sink or Swim, Susannah Fisher argues that we must confront difficult decisions about adaptation, including where to live, how to manage migration, and how to reshape global food systems to ensure resilience and enough food for a growing population.
The upcoming COP30 conference in Brazil will focus on mobilizing finance to help low-income countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts. At the 2022 UN climate conference in Azerbaijan, governments pledged to raise at least $300 billion by 2035, with a target of $1.3 trillion from public and private sources. However, many high-income countries have not met their commitments, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates a massive funding gap of $187 billion to $359 billion annually for adaptation in lower-income nations.
More money is crucial, but it alone cannot solve the problem. Adaptation efforts have historically been small-scale and incremental, relying on measures like early-warning systems, cooling centers, and flood barriers. These are helpful, but they won’t be enough to address the escalating risks from heatwaves, flooding, crop failures, and potential ecosystem collapse. We must tackle the tough questions that lie ahead.
One of the most challenging decisions will be relocating communities from low-lying coastal areas. While planned relocations have occurred in countries like China, Fiji, India, Japan, the Philippines, and the US, the process is complex and often meets resistance. For example, residents in Wales recently learned that future maintenance of their town’s sea defenses was uncertain, highlighting the risks faced by many coastal communities across the UK and beyond.
Governments will need to decide which areas to protect and which to allow retreat, ensuring meaningful community consultation and support for those forced to relocate. Another critical choice involves balancing diversity and productivity in the food system. Climate change makes food systems fragile, with a heavy reliance on a limited number of staple crops and varieties. A more diverse system with built-in redundancy would be more resilient, but achieving this requires trade-offs with efficiency and productivity. Governments must invest in diverse food varieties, support local food systems, and establish broader trade relationships, even though these actions may increase short-term costs.
Addressing these difficult decisions—along with challenges in migration, water use, and biodiversity—requires significant public and private investment, as well as compromises and short-term political costs. Ignoring these hard choices risks trapping us in the escalating chaos of the climate crisis.
As Susannah Fisher concludes in Sink or Swim, the world must confront these challenges head-on to adapt to a changing climate. The time to make tough decisions is now
