The Short-Term Planning Bias in Adaptation: A Survey Experiment in Bangladesh

• In Event: Time Horizons and Geography in Environmental Policy

Abstract

Some 30 years after climate finance came under discussion at international conferences, most funding remains dedicated to mitigation, with little to address adaptation. This study seeks to understand the demand for adaptation funding “on the ground.” We find, in a survey experiment in Bangladesh, one of the most climate-vulnerable nations on earth, that a short-term bias exists. Respondents repeatedly favored disaster relief and the construction of embankments, which offer more immediate relief but lower impacts over time than the development of flood-resistant rice seeds. Despite perceived inefficiencies, respondents felt that government construction of embankments would make them safer than if non-governmental organizations built the embankments. While respondents said that NGOs might spend funds more efficiently on producing weather-resistant rice seeds, they were about 12 percent less likely to think rice seeds were a proper priority when compared with embankments and disaster relief. The authors contextualize the results and convey that more broadly, short-term bias diminishes planning for climate adaptation.

Authors

• Todd A. Eisenstadt, American University

• Matthew Wright, University of British Columbia