An Action Theory of Adaptation to Climate Change

Due to an (effective) global environmental agreement on climate change becomes less likely in the short-term, adaptation to the inevitable consequences of global warming is now getting further emphasis. Although adaptation research is rising on the scientific agenda, this interdisciplinary field is still characterized by an evolving epistemological base. It is often difficult to operationalize theoretical concepts for concrete research design. There is wide recognition that there are crucial barriers to adaptation, but a comprehensive set of theories that explain this observation is still not in sight. The purpose of this paper is thus twofold. We first want to contribute to the clarification of the concept of adaptation in a way that makes theory applicable for designing adaptation assessments. Second, we want to supply some new ingredients to the theory of adaptation that allow for the systematic construction of meaningful hypotheses about barriers to adaptation from an actionoriented view.