Overview

Framework providing principles, requirements, and guidelines for organizations to adapt to climate change impacts, addressing vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning

ISO 14090:2019 "Adaptation to climate change — Principles, requirements and guidelines" provides comprehensive framework enabling organizations across all sectors and sizes to systematically plan, implement, monitor, and continuously improve adaptation to current and future impacts of climate change, addressing one of the defining challenges of the 21st century as global temperatures rise, extreme weather events intensify, precipitation patterns shift, sea levels increase, ecosystems transform, and climate-related risks threaten human systems, infrastructure, economies, communities, and natural environment. Published by ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 207/SC 7 (Greenhouse gas and related activities) as the foundational standard of ISO's climate adaptation series, ISO 14090 establishes principles, requirements, and guidelines applicable to organizations of any type—businesses, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, communities, infrastructure operators, financial institutions, agricultural enterprises—seeking to build climate resilience, reduce vulnerability to climate hazards, protect assets and operations from climate impacts, ensure business continuity under changing climate conditions, fulfill fiduciary duties to shareholders and stakeholders regarding climate risk management, comply with emerging climate disclosure requirements, demonstrate climate leadership, and contribute to societal adaptation enabling sustainable development despite unavoidable climate change already underway and projected to intensify even under ambitious mitigation scenarios.

Climate change adaptation, as distinguished from mitigation, addresses the necessity of managing impacts from climate change that are already occurring or will occur even if global greenhouse gas emissions cease immediately due to atmospheric GHG accumulation and thermal inertia of climate system resulting in committed warming of approximately 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels under best-case scenarios and potentially 3-4°C or more under current emission trajectories. While **climate mitigation** focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing carbon sinks to limit magnitude of future climate change (addressed by ISO 14064 GHG accounting and ISO 14067 carbon footprinting), **climate adaptation** addresses adjusting natural and human systems to moderate harm from actual or expected climate impacts and exploit beneficial opportunities, recognizing that even aggressive mitigation cannot prevent all climate change impacts and that adaptation complements mitigation as essential climate response strategy. Organizations face diverse **climate change impacts** requiring adaptation including physical acute risks from extreme weather events (tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, severe storms intensifying in frequency, duration, and intensity), physical chronic risks from long-term climate trends (rising mean temperatures affecting outdoor work, energy demand, health, agriculture; changing precipitation patterns altering water availability, flood risk, agricultural productivity; sea level rise threatening coastal infrastructure, increasing storm surge, saltwater intrusion, erosion; permafrost thaw destabilizing foundations, releasing methane; glacier and snowpack reduction affecting water supply, hydropower, mountain hazards; ecosystem shifts affecting agriculture, forestry, fisheries, biodiversity), transition risks from policy and regulatory responses (carbon pricing, emission standards, disclosure requirements, adaptation mandates, building codes, infrastructure standards), market risks from changing consumer preferences, supply chain disruption, commodity price volatility, insurance availability and cost, and reputational risks from inadequate climate response affecting social license, stakeholder confidence, competitive position, and access to capital.

Fundamental Principles of Climate Adaptation

ISO 14090 establishes core principles ensuring effective, equitable, and sustainable climate adaptation. **Consideration of climate change context** requires that organizations understand past, current, and future climate trends and projections relevant to their operations, assets, supply chains, markets, and stakeholders over appropriate timescales (near-term 0-10 years for operational planning, medium-term 10-30 years for infrastructure investment and strategic planning, long-term 30-100 years for major infrastructure like dams, coastal protection, urban planning, forestry), using climate scenarios representing range of possible futures (optimistic RCP2.6 or SSP1-2.6 consistent with Paris Agreement limiting warming to 1.5-2°C, intermediate RCP4.5 or SSP2-4.5, pessimistic RCP8.5 or SSP5-8.5 representing high-emissions trajectories) from authoritative sources including Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports, national climate assessments, regional climate models, and specialized climate services downscaling global projections to local contexts. Climate consideration acknowledges uncertainty inherent in climate projections from natural variability, model limitations, and future emission scenarios, requiring adaptive management approaches that build flexibility, monitor climate evolution, and adjust adaptation strategies as climate understanding improves and conditions change.

**Risk-based approach** applies systematic risk assessment methodology identifying climate hazards (drought, flooding, heat waves, sea level rise, storms, wildfires, others relevant to organizational context), assessing exposure (which assets, operations, supply chains, communities are located in areas or conditions experiencing climate hazards), evaluating sensitivity (degree to which exposed elements are affected by climate hazards depending on design, materials, operational thresholds, dependencies), determining adaptive capacity (ability to adjust to climate impacts through resources, technology, knowledge, institutions, governance, social capital, flexibility), and characterizing climate risks and vulnerability (combination of hazard likelihood and severity, exposure magnitude, sensitivity level, and adaptive capacity constraints). Risk-based adaptation prioritizes actions addressing highest-consequence and most likely risks, focuses resources on reducing vulnerability in most exposed and sensitive systems with limited adaptive capacity, and ensures adaptation investments provide greatest risk reduction value aligning with organizational risk tolerance, regulatory requirements, stakeholder expectations, and available resources. Risk assessment integrates climate risks with other organizational risks (operational, financial, strategic, reputational, compliance) recognizing climate as cross-cutting risk multiplier affecting multiple risk categories and requiring enterprise-wide risk management integration.

**Engagement of interested parties** ensures adaptation considers perspectives, needs, priorities, rights, and knowledge of stakeholders affected by organizational climate impacts or involved in adaptation implementation including employees (health, safety, working conditions affected by climate), local communities (particularly vulnerable populations—elderly, children, low-income, indigenous peoples—disproportionately affected by climate impacts and organizational adaptation responses), customers (product and service reliability under changing climate, transparency about climate risks and adaptation), suppliers and business partners (supply chain climate resilience, collaborative adaptation, shared risk management), investors and financial institutions (climate risk disclosure, adaptation strategy credibility, long-term value protection), regulatory authorities (compliance with adaptation requirements, contributions to societal resilience), environmental and social NGOs (ecosystem protection, human rights, climate justice, equitable adaptation ensuring adaptation actions do not create or exacerbate social inequities), and scientific and technical experts (climate science, adaptation best practices, monitoring and evaluation methodologies). Stakeholder engagement identifies climate vulnerabilities and priorities, incorporates diverse knowledge systems including traditional and indigenous knowledge about climate variability and adaptive strategies accumulated over generations, builds social acceptance and legitimacy for adaptation actions, enables collaborative approaches pooling resources and expertise, addresses potential conflicts between organizational adaptation and community needs, and ensures procedural and distributional justice in adaptation planning and implementation.

**Flexibility and iterative improvement** acknowledges that climate adaptation operates under deep uncertainty about future climate conditions, evolving scientific understanding, changing socioeconomic contexts, and emerging adaptation technologies and practices, requiring adaptive management approaches that implement initial adaptation actions based on current best knowledge, monitor climate conditions and adaptation effectiveness through indicators and feedback mechanisms, evaluate outcomes comparing actual climate impacts and adaptation performance against expectations, learn from experience identifying what works, what doesn't, and why, adjust adaptation strategies and actions based on new climate information, improved understanding, changing conditions, and performance evaluation, and continuously improve adaptation building organizational adaptive capacity, resilience, and climate literacy over time. Iterative approach avoids premature lock-in to potentially maladaptive pathways, maintains flexibility to respond to climate surprises and non-linear changes, enables learning by doing where adaptation experimentation and innovation occur, and supports transformational adaptation recognizing that incremental adjustments may prove insufficient for high-magnitude climate changes requiring fundamental system transformations in technologies, institutions, behaviors, and values.

**Consideration of co-benefits and avoiding maladaptation** requires that adaptation actions be evaluated not only for climate risk reduction but also for synergies and trade-offs with other organizational and societal objectives. **Co-benefits** from well-designed adaptation include environmental benefits (ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, water quality improvement, air quality enhancement, soil conservation, carbon sequestration from nature-based solutions like reforestation, wetland restoration, urban greening), social benefits (health improvement from heat stress reduction, air quality enhancement, active transportation infrastructure; equity advancement through inclusive adaptation addressing vulnerable populations; livelihood diversification building community resilience; cultural heritage preservation), economic benefits (reduced disaster damages, business continuity assurance, operational efficiency from resource use optimization, innovation and competitive advantage from climate-smart products and services, new market opportunities in adaptation technologies and services), and institutional benefits (improved governance, stakeholder collaboration, regulatory relationships, social license to operate). **Maladaptation**—adaptation actions that inadvertently increase vulnerability, foreclose future options, create inequities, or generate negative environmental or social consequences—must be identified and avoided through systematic assessment of potential unintended consequences including burden-shifting (adaptation actions protecting one group or place while increasing vulnerability elsewhere—seawalls protecting coastal property while accelerating erosion downdrift, upstream water storage reducing downstream flows), short-termism (actions addressing immediate risks while creating long-term vulnerabilities—temporary flood defenses encouraging development in flood zones), path dependence (investments locking in particular adaptation pathways precluding potentially superior alternatives that emerge later—hard coastal protection infrastructure preventing future managed retreat or nature-based alternatives), increased emissions (adaptation actions requiring energy-intensive technologies like air conditioning, desalination, snowmaking exacerbating climate change), ecosystem degradation (hard infrastructure disrupting natural processes, reducing biodiversity, eliminating ecosystem services providing natural adaptation), and social inequity (adaptation benefiting privileged populations while neglecting or harming vulnerable groups—climate-driven displacement, gentrification from climate-resilient development, unequal access to adaptation resources and benefits).

Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment

ISO 14090 requires systematic assessment of organizational climate vulnerability and risk as foundation for adaptation planning. **Climate hazard identification** inventories climate-related hazards relevant to organizational context considering physical location and geographic exposure (coastal areas facing sea level rise, storm surge, erosion; inland areas experiencing flooding, drought, heat waves; mountain regions affected by glacier retreat, permafrost thaw, changing snow patterns; agricultural areas vulnerable to precipitation changes, temperature extremes, pests and diseases; urban areas experiencing heat islands, flooding, air quality impacts), temporal characteristics (frequency, duration, intensity, seasonal timing, rate of onset—sudden-onset disasters like floods and storms versus slow-onset changes like sea level rise and temperature trends), compound and cascading hazards (multiple simultaneous hazards like heat wave and drought, or sequential impacts like drought reducing vegetation increasing wildfire risk followed by erosion and landslides), climate variability and extremes (not just mean trends but changes in variability, return periods of extremes, tail-risk events previously considered improbable), and threshold effects where systems function within climate range but fail when thresholds exceeded (crop heat tolerance limits, infrastructure design thresholds for wind, flood, temperature, ecosystem tipping points).

**Exposure assessment** evaluates which organizational assets, operations, supply chains, markets, and stakeholders are located in areas experiencing identified climate hazards, inventorying physical assets (buildings, factories, warehouses, retail locations, data centers, agricultural lands, forests, coastal property, transportation infrastructure, utilities—water, energy, communications) with spatial mapping overlaying asset locations onto climate hazard maps showing flood zones, wildfire risk areas, heat stress regions, sea level rise inundation, drought-prone areas; operational processes dependent on climate-sensitive resources or conditions (water-intensive manufacturing vulnerable to drought, outdoor work affected by heat and storms, agricultural production depending on temperature, precipitation, and growing season, tourism relying on snow, beaches, comfortable climates, renewable energy generation dependent on solar, wind, hydro resources); supply chains including climate-vulnerable suppliers, transportation routes, logistics hubs, and critical inputs from climate-sensitive regions (agricultural commodities from drought-prone areas, components from flood-risk industrial zones, shipping routes threatened by sea level rise and storms); markets and customers whose demand may shift with climate change (heating and cooling equipment, agricultural inputs, insurance, construction materials, food preferences, recreational activities); and stakeholder populations experiencing climate impacts (employees working in affected locations or hazardous conditions, communities surrounding facilities facing compounding climate and operational risks, vulnerable populations in supply sheds or market regions).

**Sensitivity assessment** evaluates degree to which exposed systems are affected by climate hazards based on design specifications, material properties, operational parameters, dependencies, and thresholds. Infrastructure sensitivity depends on design standards often based on historical climate (buildings, roads, bridges, dams, flood defenses, drainage systems designed for historical rainfall intensity, wind speeds, temperatures, sea levels potentially exceeded under climate change), materials performance under climate stress (concrete degradation from freeze-thaw cycles or heat, asphalt rutting in extreme heat, steel corrosion from saltwater intrusion, wood rot from increased precipitation), operational thresholds (manufacturing processes requiring specific temperature and humidity ranges, cooling systems sized for historical peak temperatures, electricity generation constrained by cooling water temperature or availability, rail buckling above critical temperatures, airport operations limited by high temperatures reducing air density and lift), and interdependencies where climate impacts on one system cascade to others (power grid failure from extreme heat affecting water treatment, refrigeration, communications, transportation; flooding disrupting transportation affecting supply chain delivery, employee access, emergency response). Agricultural and ecological sensitivity depends on species climate tolerances, phenological timing (flowering, pollination, harvest synchronized with seasonal climate patterns that may shift disrupting synchrony), pest and disease dynamics (warmer winters enabling pest survival, altered moisture favoring crop diseases, vector-borne disease range expansion), soil and water resources (drought stress, waterlogging, erosion, salinization), and ecosystem composition and function (forest types shifting with temperature and precipitation, coral bleaching from ocean warming and acidification, wetland inundation from sea level rise).

**Adaptive capacity assessment** evaluates organizational ability to adjust to climate impacts through financial resources (capital availability for adaptation investments, insurance coverage, access to climate finance, economic resilience to absorb climate losses), technical and technological capacity (engineering expertise, climate information and modeling, adaptation technologies, research and development capabilities, innovation systems), human and social capital (workforce skills, health, education; social networks and cooperation; trust and social cohesion; community organization; traditional and indigenous knowledge), institutional and governance capacity (leadership commitment to adaptation, integration into planning and decision processes, regulatory framework supporting or constraining adaptation, multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms, policy coherence across sectors and scales), information and knowledge systems (climate monitoring and early warning, vulnerability and impact assessments, adaptation best practices, monitoring and evaluation frameworks), and flexibility and diversity (operational flexibility to adjust to changing conditions, portfolio diversification reducing concentrated climate risk, redundancy and backup systems, modular and scalable approaches enabling incremental adjustment). Organizations with high adaptive capacity can implement wide range of adaptation actions, rapidly respond to climate impacts, learn and innovate, and transform systems when needed, while limited adaptive capacity constrains adaptation options requiring prioritization of no-regret and low-regret actions providing benefits under multiple climate scenarios with minimal downside risk.

**Climate risk characterization** integrates hazard, exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity into climate risk profiles quantifying likelihood and consequence of climate impacts on organizational objectives (revenue and profitability from market disruption, supply chain failure, asset damage, operational interruption; strategic objectives from competitive position erosion, market access loss, regulatory compliance failure; operational objectives from productivity decline, safety incidents, quality degradation; financial objectives from increased costs, asset devaluation, investment losses, insurance gaps; reputational objectives from stakeholder confidence decline, social license loss, litigation risk; compliance objectives from regulatory violations, disclosure inadequacy, fiduciary duty breach). Climate risk assessment applies enterprise risk management methodologies adapted to climate context including scenario analysis examining organizational performance under multiple climate futures (optimistic, intermediate, pessimistic climate scenarios crossed with socioeconomic scenarios representing different development pathways, policy environments, technological advances), stress testing evaluating organizational resilience to severe but plausible climate events (100-year flood becoming 20-year event, record-breaking heat wave, multi-year drought, compound disasters), probabilistic risk modeling where feasible quantifying likelihood distributions of climate hazards and impact magnitudes though acknowledging deep uncertainty limiting precise probability assignment for unprecedented climate conditions, and risk matrices plotting climate risks by likelihood and consequence enabling prioritization though subject to cognitive biases and framing effects requiring calibration and validation.

Adaptation Planning and Implementation

ISO 14090 guides development and implementation of adaptation plans translating vulnerability and risk assessment into concrete actions building climate resilience. **Adaptation option identification** inventories potential adaptation actions applicable to organizational context including **structural and physical measures** (engineered infrastructure—flood defenses, seawalls, storm barriers, drainage upgrades, building design for extreme heat, wind-resistant construction, fire-resistant materials, cooling systems, backup power, water storage; nature-based solutions—wetland restoration for flood control and water quality, urban forests for heat mitigation and stormwater management, green roofs and permeable surfaces reducing flooding and heat islands, coastal marshes and mangroves providing storm surge protection and carbon sequestration, watershed reforestation stabilizing water supply and reducing erosion, regenerative agriculture building soil health and water retention), **technological adaptation** (climate-resilient agricultural varieties and practices—drought-tolerant crops, heat-resistant livestock, precision irrigation, altered planting dates; industrial process modifications—heat-tolerant equipment, water recycling and efficiency, alternative cooling systems; energy system adaptation—grid hardening, distributed generation, demand management, renewable energy diversification; water management technologies—rainwater harvesting, water recycling, desalination, managed aquifer recharge; early warning systems, climate monitoring, decision support tools, climate services), **institutional and governance measures** (policies and regulations—building codes updated for climate projections, land use planning restricting development in high-risk areas, water allocation frameworks addressing scarcity, disaster preparedness and response protocols; organizational capacity building—climate literacy and training, dedicated adaptation roles and responsibilities, integration into strategic planning and risk management; multi-stakeholder coordination—public-private partnerships, industry collaborations, community engagement, regional adaptation planning), **financial and economic instruments** (insurance products for climate risks, catastrophe bonds and resilience bonds, climate-linked loans incentivizing adaptation, green bonds financing adaptation infrastructure, climate risk disclosure improving capital allocation, reserves and contingency funds for climate losses, diversification reducing concentrated exposure), **social and behavioral adaptation** (health adaptation—cooling centers, heat action plans, disease surveillance and vector control, health system preparedness; livelihood diversification—income sources resilient to climate variability, skills development, migration as adaptation to uninhabitable or unviable conditions; social protection—safety nets for climate-affected populations, disaster relief, climate insurance for vulnerable groups; awareness and communication—climate risk education, preparedness campaigns, behavior change promoting adaptation).

**Adaptation prioritization** evaluates and ranks adaptation options based on multiple criteria including **effectiveness** in reducing climate risks and vulnerability (magnitude of risk reduction, comprehensiveness across climate scenarios, robustness under uncertainty, transformational potential for high-impact risks), **feasibility** considering technical practicality, resource requirements, timeline, and constraints (available technology and expertise, capital and operating costs, implementation timeframe, physical and environmental limitations, regulatory and policy barriers, social acceptance, compatibility with existing systems), **efficiency** comparing costs and benefits (cost-effectiveness as risk reduction per unit investment, benefit-cost ratio though challenged by valuation difficulties for non-market impacts and deep uncertainty, opportunity cost of adaptation versus alternative investments), **equity and justice** ensuring fair distribution of adaptation costs and benefits (protection of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, participatory decision-making, compensation for adaptation-induced losses, addressing historical injustices and existing inequities, procedural fairness), **co-benefits and synergies** with other organizational and societal objectives (environmental co-benefits, health improvements, economic development, community well-being, mitigation synergies from nature-based solutions sequestering carbon, disaster risk reduction integration), **flexibility and reversibility** given climate uncertainty (avoiding premature lock-in, maintaining future options, enabling incremental implementation, adaptability as conditions evolve), and **urgency** based on risk timeline and lead times for implementation (near-term risks requiring immediate action, long-lived infrastructure decisions shaping decades-ahead vulnerability, slow-to-implement actions like ecosystem restoration or cultural change requiring early initiation). Prioritization often employs multi-criteria decision analysis, cost-benefit analysis recognizing limitations, robust decision-making under deep uncertainty, and adaptation pathways mapping sequential decisions under different climate futures identifying flexible strategies performing acceptably across scenarios with decision points triggering pathway shifts as climate unfolds.

**Adaptation implementation** requires translating prioritized adaptation actions into operational plans assigning **roles and responsibilities** (top management providing leadership, resources, and integration into strategy; dedicated adaptation coordinator or team managing implementation; functional departments—operations, facilities, supply chain, risk, sustainability, health and safety, human resources, finance—implementing sector-specific actions; external partners including government agencies, NGOs, consultants, research institutions, community organizations), allocating **resources** (capital budgets for adaptation investments, operating budgets for maintenance and program costs, human resources for planning and implementation, technical expertise and training, information and data systems, time and attention from leadership and staff), establishing **timelines and milestones** (short-term actions addressing urgent risks and building adaptive capacity, medium-term actions requiring planning and capital investment, long-term transformational adaptation, regular review points assessing progress and adjusting plans), **integrating adaptation** into organizational processes and decision-making (strategic planning incorporating climate scenarios and adaptation objectives, capital planning and budgeting considering climate risks and adaptation options, risk management frameworks including climate risks alongside other enterprise risks, procurement and supplier management addressing supply chain climate resilience, product and service development integrating climate adaptation needs and opportunities, human resources ensuring employee health and safety under changing climate, facilities and infrastructure management building climate resilience into design, maintenance, and operations, business continuity and disaster preparedness planning for climate extremes), and **monitoring and reporting** (tracking adaptation implementation progress, measuring adaptation effectiveness, reporting to management, stakeholders, and potentially regulatory or disclosure frameworks).

Real-World Adaptation Applications Across Sectors

**Infrastructure and built environment adaptation** addresses climate risks to buildings, transportation, water and wastewater, energy, communications, and urban systems. Example: **Coastal city climate adaptation** facing sea level rise (0.3-1.0 meter by 2100 depending on emissions and ice sheet dynamics with potential for multi-meter rise over centuries), increased storm surge (combining sea level rise with intensifying tropical cyclones), coastal erosion, and saltwater intrusion implements multi-layer adaptation strategy including **coastal defense infrastructure** (seawalls, tide barriers, levees, dune restoration providing physical protection for high-value areas though requiring significant capital, maintenance, and environmental mitigation while potentially maladaptive if encouraging continued development in high-risk zones), **nature-based coastal protection** (mangrove and salt marsh restoration providing storm surge attenuation, wave energy dissipation, sediment stabilization, carbon sequestration, biodiversity habitat, and fisheries support at lower cost than hard infrastructure while adapting vertically to some sea level rise through sediment accretion), **building and infrastructure standards** (elevating critical infrastructure and new construction above projected flood levels, flood-proofing existing buildings, requiring setbacks from eroding coastlines, prohibiting basements in flood zones, designing drainage for increased precipitation intensity), **land use planning and zoning** (restricting new development in high-risk coastal zones, creating development buffers, designating retreat areas for future relocation, preserving natural areas providing flood storage and coastal protection, guiding growth to climate-safe areas), **early warning and emergency response** (storm surge and flood forecasting, evacuation planning and infrastructure, emergency shelters and supplies, communication systems, community preparedness education), **managed retreat** for highest-risk areas (property acquisition and relocation, rolling easements allowing landward migration of development as coastline retreats, community relocation in extreme cases balancing protection costs against community preservation), and **regional coordination** (watershed-scale adaptation across jurisdictions, shared infrastructure investment, mutual aid agreements, equitable adaptation ensuring vulnerable neighborhoods receive protection and resources comparable to affluent areas). Adaptation investment totaling $500 million over 20 years combines infrastructure ($300M coastal barriers and drainage), nature-based solutions ($80M wetland and dune restoration), building retrofits and elevation ($70M), land acquisition for retreat ($30M), and planning and monitoring ($20M), protecting $15 billion in coastal property and infrastructure, avoiding estimated $2 billion in damages from sea level rise and storms by 2050, while providing co-benefits including recreational beaches, enhanced ecosystems, improved water quality, carbon sequestration, and climate justice through equitable protection.

**Agricultural adaptation** addresses climate impacts on crop and livestock production from changing temperature and precipitation patterns, extreme weather, pests and diseases, water availability, and growing season shifts. Example: **Grain farming in semi-arid region** experiencing temperature increase (2-3°C by 2050), precipitation decline (10-20% reduction in growing season rainfall), increased drought frequency and severity, and occasional extreme rainfall events causing erosion implements adaptation portfolio including **crop management practices** (shifting to drought-tolerant crop varieties and species, adjusting planting dates to align with altered precipitation patterns and frost-free season, diversifying crop portfolio reducing vulnerability to any single crop failure, cover cropping and conservation tillage building soil organic matter and water retention capacity reducing erosion and improving drought resilience), **water management** (efficient irrigation technologies—drip systems, soil moisture monitoring, deficit irrigation strategies optimizing limited water, rainwater harvesting and on-farm storage, managed aquifer recharge during wet periods supporting groundwater sustainability), **soil health and erosion control** (reducing tillage, maintaining crop residues, planting windbreaks and shelterbelts, contour farming and terracing, preventing wind and water erosion particularly important as rainfall intensity increases while total precipitation decreases), **integrated pest management** (monitoring and forecasting pest and disease dynamics changing with climate, biological controls, resistant varieties, diversified rotations disrupting pest cycles), **livestock adaptation** (heat-tolerant breeds, shade and cooling systems, altered grazing management protecting pastures from drought stress, supplemental feeding when forage fails, animal health protocols for climate-sensitive diseases), **economic and financial adaptation** (crop insurance and climate risk products, income diversification through value-added processing or alternative enterprises, participation in carbon markets for soil carbon sequestration, climate-smart agriculture certification accessing premium markets), and **knowledge and institutional support** (climate information services providing seasonal forecasts and long-term projections, extension services on adaptation practices, farmer networks sharing experiences and innovations, agricultural policies supporting adaptation including research funding, cost-sharing for conservation practices, water allocation frameworks). Adaptation investment of $150 per hectare over 10 years (soil health practices, efficient irrigation, drought-tolerant seeds, climate information, insurance) reduces yield variability from ±40% to ±20%, maintains productivity despite 15% precipitation decline, protects soil resources, and provides mitigation co-benefits through soil carbon sequestration of 0.5-1.0 tons CO₂/hectare/year valued in carbon markets, demonstrating that well-designed agricultural adaptation enhances food security, farmer livelihoods, ecosystem services, and climate mitigation simultaneously.

**Business and supply chain adaptation** addresses climate risks to operations, assets, supply networks, markets, and stakeholder relationships. Example: **Electronics manufacturer** with global supply chain, water-intensive semiconductor fabrication, heat-sensitive production processes, and climate-vulnerable logistics implements adaptation program assessing climate risks revealing **physical operational risks** (heat waves affecting cleanroom temperature control and worker productivity at Southeast Asia facilities, flooding threatening coastal factories in Thailand and Bangladesh where 2011 floods caused $45 billion damages and severe electronics supply disruption, drought affecting water-intensive semiconductor fabs in Taiwan and Southwest USA consuming 20-40 million gallons per day ultra-pure water, wildfires threatening California component suppliers, tropical cyclones disrupting Asian electronics clusters), **supply chain risks** (critical component suppliers concentrated in climate-vulnerable regions, logistics chokepoints at flood-risk ports and heat-stressed airports, agricultural materials for bio-based electronics affected by drought and temperature), **market risks** (changing product requirements as customers adapt to climate—increased cooling efficiency demands, ruggedization for extreme conditions, renewable energy integration), and **regulatory and reputational risks** (climate disclosure requirements, supply chain climate diligence, stakeholder expectations for climate leadership). Adaptation actions include **facility resilience** (flood protection and elevation at coastal factories, backup power and cooling for temperature-sensitive processes, water recycling achieving 85% reclamation reducing drought vulnerability, distributed manufacturing reducing geographic concentration), **supply chain resilience** (multi-sourcing critical components reducing dependence on any single climate-vulnerable supplier, supplier climate risk assessment and engagement supporting supplier adaptation, inventory buffers for climate-disruption-prone components, logistics diversification using multiple transportation modes and routes, supplier location strategies considering projected climate risks), **product and service innovation** (energy-efficient products supporting customer climate adaptation, ruggedized designs for extreme conditions, repair and upgrade services extending product life reducing climate-intensive manufacturing), **climate risk disclosure and governance** (TCFD climate risk reporting assessing physical and transition risks, board oversight of climate adaptation, climate-integrated enterprise risk management, scenario analysis evaluating business resilience under 1.5°C, 2°C, and 3°C warming pathways), and **workforce adaptation** (heat stress management protocols, flexible work arrangements during extreme weather, climate health and safety training, just transition support for workers affected by climate-related facility changes). Adaptation investment of $50 million over 5 years (facility hardening $25M, supply chain diversification $15M, water systems $8M, climate risk systems $2M) reduces climate-related disruption risk by 60%, protects $8 billion annual revenue from climate supply chain shocks, improves investor confidence reflected in ESG ratings and cost of capital, and positions company as climate-resilient preferred partner to major customers implementing climate procurement requirements.

Integration with Climate Policy and Disclosure Frameworks

ISO 14090 supports compliance with emerging **climate adaptation policies and regulations** including European Union Climate Adaptation Strategy requiring member states and sectors to develop adaptation plans, national adaptation plans (NAPs) under UNFCCC Paris Agreement supporting developing country adaptation, infrastructure climate resilience standards (EU taxonomy for sustainable activities including climate adaptation screening, US Executive Orders on climate-resilient infrastructure and federal sustainability), disclosure requirements (EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive CSRD requiring climate risk and adaptation disclosure, SEC climate risk disclosure rules, various national climate disclosure frameworks), financial sector climate stress testing (central bank and supervisor network for greening the financial system NGFS climate scenarios, climate-related banking supervision), and supply chain climate due diligence laws. **Climate risk disclosure frameworks** increasingly reference adaptation alongside mitigation including **Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)** structuring disclosure around governance (board oversight and management role in climate risk and adaptation), strategy (climate risks and opportunities, business model resilience, adaptation strategy under multiple climate scenarios), risk management (identifying, assessing, and managing climate risks including adaptation responses integrated into enterprise risk management), and metrics and targets (climate risk indicators, adaptation metrics and KPIs, adaptation investment and expenditure, progress toward adaptation objectives), with TCFD scenario analysis explicitly requiring assessment of physical climate risks and organizational resilience under different warming pathways informing adaptation strategy. **CDP Climate Change questionnaire** extensively addresses adaptation through climate-related risks and opportunities, climate risk management processes, adaptation and resilience activities, and adaptation-related expenditure and investment. **Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)** climate standards address adaptation planning and implementation. **Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)** includes climate adaptation in sector-specific materiality frameworks particularly for climate-vulnerable industries (agriculture, real estate, utilities, transportation, extractives, infrastructure).

ISO 14090 advances **UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)** particularly **SDG 13 Climate Action** (Target 13.1 strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate hazards, Target 13.2 integrate climate measures into policies and planning, Target 13.3 improve education and capacity on climate adaptation), while supporting **SDG 1 No Poverty** (reducing climate vulnerability of poor and vulnerable populations), **SDG 2 Zero Hunger** (climate-resilient agriculture and food systems), **SDG 3 Good Health** (health system adaptation to climate health risks), **SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation** (water security under climate change), **SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy** (energy system climate resilience), **SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure** (climate-resilient infrastructure), **SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities** (urban climate resilience), **SDG 14 Life Below Water** and **SDG 15 Life on Land** (ecosystem-based adaptation), and **SDG 17 Partnerships** (international cooperation on adaptation particularly supporting vulnerable developing countries). ISO 14090 aligns with **Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction** recognizing climate change as disaster risk driver requiring integrated climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies addressing shared drivers of vulnerability (exposure in hazard-prone areas, inadequate infrastructure, weak governance, poverty, inequality), overlapping risk reduction approaches (early warning, building codes, land use planning, ecosystem protection, preparedness), and common goals (reducing disaster losses, protecting vulnerable populations, building resilience), with climate adaptation providing longer-term perspective addressing changing hazard landscape while disaster risk reduction addresses current risks and rapid-onset events.

**Climate finance and investment** increasingly supports adaptation with multilateral climate funds (Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, Global Environment Facility), national adaptation funding mechanisms, development finance institutions prioritizing climate resilience, private sector adaptation investment (insurance, resilience bonds, climate-linked loans), and blended finance combining public and private capital, though adaptation finance remains far below estimated needs of $140-300 billion annually for developing countries alone and significantly below mitigation finance, partly from adaptation's local, context-specific nature complicating standardization and scalability, difficulty demonstrating clear returns on investment especially for public goods like ecosystem protection, attribution challenges isolating adaptation benefits from background climate variability, and limited private sector business models for adaptation versus clearer mitigation opportunities in renewable energy, efficiency, and carbon markets. ISO 14090 supports adaptation investment by standardizing adaptation planning and implementation demonstrating due diligence and climate risk management to investors and lenders, enabling adaptation project development with clear objectives, baselines, metrics, and monitoring frameworks necessary for finance, facilitating adaptation co-benefits quantification (disaster risk reduction, ecosystem services, health improvements, productivity gains) strengthening investment case, and providing framework for adaptation disclosure and reporting enabling climate finance tracking and accountability.

As climate change accelerates with global temperature already 1.1°C above pre-industrial and heading toward 1.5°C by 2030s even under optimistic scenarios, climate impacts intensify affecting every region and sector with over 3.6 billion people currently highly vulnerable to climate change, economic losses from climate disasters exceeding $200 billion annually, ecosystems degrading threatening services supporting human well-being, and climate tipping points approaching potentially triggering irreversible changes (ice sheet collapse, permafrost carbon release, Amazon rainforest dieback, coral reef extinction, ocean circulation shifts), while emission reduction progress lags requirements for Paris Agreement goals making additional warming inevitable requiring adaptation at unprecedented scale and urgency. ISO 14090 provides essential framework enabling systematic, effective, equitable adaptation building resilience of human and natural systems, reducing climate vulnerability particularly for most exposed and least resourced populations, protecting development gains from climate reversal, seizing adaptation opportunities, avoiding maladaptation, and ultimately enabling humanity to manage unavoidable climate change impacts while pursuing ambitious mitigation limiting long-term warming, together charting pathway toward climate-resilient sustainable development within safe operating space respecting planetary boundaries while meeting human needs and aspirations equitably for all people today and future generations facing climate-altered world requiring unprecedented adaptation and transformation.

Purpose

To provide organizations with a systematic framework for adapting to the current and future impacts of climate change, enabling resilience through vulnerability assessment, adaptation planning, implementation, and continuous monitoring and improvement

Key Benefits

• Systematic assessment of climate change vulnerabilities and risks
• Enhanced organizational resilience to climate impacts
• Proactive adaptation reducing climate-related business disruption
• Integration of climate adaptation with existing management systems
• Better informed strategic planning considering future climate scenarios
• Reduced physical, transition, and liability risks from climate change
• Identification of adaptation opportunities and co-benefits
• Improved stakeholder confidence and regulatory compliance
• Protection of assets, operations, and supply chains from climate impacts
• Enhanced reputation and competitive advantage through climate leadership
• Support for climate risk disclosure (TCFD, CDP, ESG reporting)
• Contribution to sustainable development and community resilience

Key Requirements

• Understanding organizational context and climate change relevance
• Commitment from top management to climate adaptation
• Assessment of current and projected climate change impacts
• Use of appropriate climate scenarios and projections for planning
• Identification of climate vulnerabilities, exposures, and sensitivities
• Evaluation of organizational adaptive capacity
• Development of adaptation options addressing identified vulnerabilities
• Prioritization of adaptation actions based on effectiveness and feasibility
• Implementation planning with roles, responsibilities, and resources
• Integration of adaptation into organizational processes and decision-making
• Monitoring and evaluation of adaptation effectiveness
• Regular review and updating as climate knowledge and circumstances evolve
• Communication and reporting on adaptation actions and outcomes
• Engagement with stakeholders including vulnerable communities

Who Needs This Standard?

Organizations seeking to build climate resilience, risk managers addressing climate risks, infrastructure operators, water and energy utilities, agricultural businesses, coastal and flood-prone businesses, supply chain managers, government agencies, investors and financial institutions managing climate risk, and any organization facing current or future climate change impacts.

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