Metrics fixation as a hidden cause of climate change maladaptation

Maladaptation remains a persistent challenge in global responses to climate change. Existing explanations typically emphasize poor planning, adaptation retrofitting, and poor understanding of vulnerability contexts. This comment advances a complementary argument: that funding agencies’ requirements for measurable outputs and replicable, scalable projects incentivize forms of adaptation prone to maladaptation. Maladaptation thus persists not as an adaptation implementation failure alone, but as a possible outcome of current funding and evaluation regimes.