Policy making under scarcity: reflections for designing socially just climate adaptation policy

Limited information and insufficient resources are inherent challenges for climate policy, and policy makers must grapple with how to design and implement adaptation policies under conditions of scarcity. Drawing on empirical evidence from Honduras, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Puerto Rico, and analysis of the global landscape of adaptation finance, this perspective identifies ways that designing policy under conditions of scarcity can inadvertently lead to adaptation policies that reinforce inequality and fail to address underlying social vulnerabilities. It reflects on two sources of scarcity that impact adaptation policy—lack of data and lack of finance—and acknowledges that despite the non-ideal conditions this scarcity creates, adaptation policy will be designed under these conditions. The perspective highlights issues to be aware of when designing adaptation policy and calls for greater attention to the social justice implications in the policy design process. Limited information and insufficient resources are inherent challenges for climate policy, and policy makers must grapple with how to design and implement adaptation policies under conditions of scarcity. This perspective argues that policy making under conditions of scarcity is less likely to result in socially just policies, unless explicit measures are taken to ensure inclusive adaptation processes that address underlying vulnerabilities and inequality. Lack of data and lack of finance in particular are examined.