The Hidden Costs of Adaptation: Maladaptation and the Architecture of Climate Vulnerability

Climate adaptation is often portrayed as an unquestioned good, but what if some solutions actually make communities more vulnerable? This article explores maladaptation: well-intentioned interventions that inadvertently amplify risks, shift burdens onto others, or lock societies into pathways of long-term fragility. Drawing on African and global examples, the paper argues that maladaptation arises from not only from technical errors but also from deeper structural drivers; unequal power dynamics, short-term planning, and governance systems that ignore local realities. Through cases such as failing irrigation schemes, coastal defenses that worsen erosion, and livelihood transitions that undermine resilience, the article reveals the “hidden costs” of adaptation: trade-offs often obscured by political urgency or donor-driven imperatives for quick wins. The paper calls for a shift toward participatory, justice-centered, and anticipatory planning, highlighting that effective adaptation is more than a technical response; it is a governance choice that decides whose resilience is built, and whose vulnerability is reproduced.