Ecosystems of Adaptation: How Global Capital Shapes Local Adaptation Outcomes in the Global South

• In Event: Capital, Communities, and Climate: How Local and Corporate Actors Shape Environmental Futures

Abstract

Climate adaptation in the Global South receives unprecedented investment, yet benefits rarely reach the most vulnerable. This paper introduces adaptation ecosystems—the web of finance, institutions, and programs determining climate protection. Using comparative policy analysis and narrative process tracing across Lagos (Nigeria), Atsinanana (Madagascar), and Montes de María (Colombia), we examine how global capital interacts with national politics. We find that adaptation ecosystems privilege interventions legible to international funders, concentrating resources in economically significant areas while excluding informal settlements and rural communities. Rather than reducing vulnerability, these ecosystems often redistribute it, entrenching existing inequalities. These patterns serve as an early warning: the current architecture of adaptation finance actively reproduces spatial injustice and silences local priorities. We argue for urgent structural shifts, including equity-weighted monitoring and community co-design, to ensure that global climate investment serves those most at risk rather than reinforcing power imbalances.

Authors

• Qingyao Sun, Vanderbilt University

• Brianna Castro, Yale School of the Environment