Special Issue on Assessing Climate Adaptation Progress and Gaps
DETAILS
CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue on Assessing Climate Adaptation Progress and Gaps
Journal: Climate Risk Management
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission Deadline: 6 November 2026
Introduction
Assessing climate adaptation efforts is a burning policy concern — broadly referring to two central questions:
Where do we stand on climate adaptation today?
Are we on track to adapt to future climate risks?
Answering these questions raises significant scientific challenges in terms of conceptual and theoretical frameworks, assessment methods, and the representativeness of case study applications. This Special Issue calls for papers that will advance applied research and methodological frameworks on assessing past-to-present and present-to-future adaptation progress and gaps. Novel approaches will be favoured over summaries of past works.
Scope & Significance
Recent scientific works have improved understanding of adaptation efforts from a descriptive perspective — but more is needed to address two complementary questions:
What are the cumulative results of climate adaptation today?
Are we on track to adapt to future climate changes?
This Special Issue aims to gather novel approaches to advance knowledge on how to assess current and future climate adaptation — with a multi-scale objective going from feeding international syntheses to supporting local adaptation planning.
It calls for papers developing either a backward-looking or forward-looking perspective — or both — on adaptation assessment.
Two Core Research Perspectives
Past-to-Present — Backward-Looking Perspective What are the effects of observed adaptation on current climate impacts and risks?
How can we assess adaptation results on exposure and vulnerability?
What are the key strengths and limitations of backward-looking assessment approaches?
Has adaptation to date improved adaptive capacity and/or reduced vulnerability?
What knowledge can be drawn to inform present-to-future adaptation scenarios and decisions?
Present-to-Future — Forward-Looking Perspective Are we on track to adapt to future climate risks?
What prospective methods account for different global warming and adaptation scenarios?
What are their key strengths and limitations?
What do findings tell us about future adaptation benefits, trade-offs, or limits?
Three Scientific Topics of Prime Importance
1. Adaptation Effectiveness Advancing knowledge on the effectiveness of a range of options and strategies — discussing the conditions for effective climate adaptation from both past learning and forward-looking perspectives.
2. Long-Term Adaptation Thinking, Planning, and Implementation Drawing lessons from past-to-present trajectories and forward-looking approaches to discuss adaptation goals, thresholds, and tipping points — showing either promises or pitfalls.
3. Adaptation Scenarios Discussing the conditions driving future action — and proposing new ways of thinking about the conditions under which climate adaptation has been, is, or could be effective.
List of Topic Areas
Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:
Methodological frameworks for assessing climate adaptation progress — backward and forward-looking approaches
Adaptation outcomes assessment — effects on exposure, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity
Evaluative approaches to observed adaptation results and their limitations
Prospective methods for assessing future adaptation under different warming scenarios
Adaptation effectiveness — conditions, strategies, and evidence
Adaptation goals, thresholds, and tipping points in long-term planning
Adaptation scenarios — conceptual frameworks and new thinking
Multi-scale adaptation assessment — from international syntheses to local planning
Adaptation gaps — current deficits and future shortfalls
Climate adaptation trade-offs, limits, and maladaptation risks
Sector-specific adaptation assessment — coastal, urban, agricultural, health, and beyond
Global South and equity dimensions of adaptation progress and gaps
Indicators, metrics, and data needs for adaptation assessment
Science-policy interfaces in adaptation monitoring and evaluation
Linking adaptation assessment to the UNFCCC Global Stocktake and national adaptation plans
Guest Editors
Dr. Alexandre Magnan Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand Email: alexandre.magnan@cawthron.org.nz
Dr. Alexandra Lesnikowski Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Email: alexandra.lesnikowski@concordia.ca
Key Deadlines
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 6 November 2026 (Authors may submit at any time before the deadline)
Submission Guidelines
Submit your manuscript via the official journal submission platform:
https://www.editorialmanager.com/clrm/default.aspx
When submitting, select Article Type:
"VSI: Adaptation progress/gaps"
All submissions will be reviewed by no fewer than two independent experts. All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission.
For author guidelines, visit the official Climate Risk Management journal page on the Elsevier ScienceDirect website.
Why Publish in This Special Issue?
Special Issue articles are downloaded twice as often within the first 24 months compared to regular issue articles
Special Issue articles attract 20% more citations in the first 24 months
Articles are published together on ScienceDirect — easy for researchers to discover your work
All articles reviewed by no fewer than two independent experts
About the Journal
Climate Risk Management, published by Elsevier, is a fully open access peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 10.2 and Impact Factor of 5.0. It is dedicated to advancing research on climate risk assessment, adaptation, and management — providing an international platform for interdisciplinary scholarship exploring how societies, institutions, and ecosystems can identify, assess, and respond to the risks posed by climate change across diverse scales and contexts worldwide.
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