Climate Adaptation
The focus of this Flagship Destination is to improve the lives of 1 billion people by 2035 by enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, protecting ecosystems, and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a focus on climate-related extreme events.
The climate is already changing, and we are not on track to cut GHG emissions as rapidly as required to protect people and ecosystems from the damaging impacts of climate change. New solutions are urgently needed to protect vulnerable populations from extreme climate-related events such as extreme heat, floods, droughts, storms, and wildfires.
Achieving adaptive and regenerative capacity for communities and natural ecosystems at scale requires a collaborative effort among policy experts, universities, governments, NGOs, local authorities, financial institutions, corporations, and communities worldwide.
Recent News
2025 Projects
In December 2024, the Climate Adaptation Flagship selected 12 projects offering solutions that range from technology, policy, and finance interventions for climate adaptation, to data, tools, and frameworks for decision making. By driving progress across diverse domains, they bolster adaptive capacity and strengthen the resilience of communities and natural ecosystems facing climate-related extremes—all with the collective potential to improve the lives of a billion people.
Developing a Public Data Good: Climate Adaptation and Resilience Observatory
Enabling Coastal Climate Adaptation for Food Security and Marine Biodiversity Conservation
Exploration of a Role for Stanford in the Climate Risk and Resilience Insurance Ecosystem
Identifying Cultural Defaults for Climate Adaptation Among Diverse Communities
Inclusive, AI-driven use of Deliberative Polling® for Public Support of Climate Adaptation Measures
Increasing Disaster Preparedness and Risk Communication Equity Through a Community-Centered Approach
Interventions to Counter Extreme Heat: Development, Implementation, Evaluation, and Creating a Road Map for Sustainability in Climate-Vulnerable Informal Settlement Communities
Low-Cost, Energy-Efficient Air Conditioners for Extreme Heat in Developing Countries
Quantifying Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Potential for Decision Making Using Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning
Reimagining the Financing Paradigm for Technology Innovation in Climate Adaptation
Resolving Air Pollution Policy Conflicts to Scale Prescribed Fire for Climate Adaptation and Air Quality
Solutions to Heat-Related Kidney Injury Among Outdoor Laborers
2022 Projects
In 2022 the Sustainability Accelerator funded its first cohort of 31 teams. Several of these multidisciplinary projects advanced sustainability solutions in the area of climate adaptation.
Accelerating 30x30 through a collaborative regional prioritization partnership
Accelerator for environmental justice (EJ) at Stanford
Addressing blind spots in environmental justice: The Central Valley as a proof of concept
Biodiversity and people: Balancing socioeconomic development and conservation
Fighting fire with data: research-informed policy changes to mitigate health effects from wildfire smoke emissions through in-situ sampling, real-time predictions, and field studies
Performance-based co-design of natural ventilation systems to reduce cooling demand and improve thermal comfort in South East Asia
Western wildfire policy: from prescribed fire to public health
