Maladaptation to Climate Change: A Risk for Investment Profitability?

This article outlines the theoretical framework of both adaptation and maladaptation. The literature dedicated to climate change adaptation shows that resilience is the concept that has to be favoured in the reduction of maladaptation risk. A tool dedicated to avoidance of maladaptation is briefly exposed in the last section of this article.

This tool would evaluate projects on four main themes, namely water uses, energy uses, structural dependence (through networks) and functional dependence to climate change of the various links lying in the project value chain. This could be a first step towards the adoption of a complementary approach of the environmental impact study, in which would be assessed, not the impact of projects on the environment, but the possible impact of the environment on the project, due to future climate changes. Such reflection seems essential, particularly in the framework of the EFSI (European Fund for Strategic Investments) which aims to result in investments of €315 billion (of whom €16 billion come from the EU budget) across the EU by 2020, or European regulation proposal on ELTIFs (European Long Term Investment Funds) in order to avoid waste of public and private money.