Beyond Risk Reduction: Leveraging Multiple Resilience Dividend Concept for Transformative Adaptation Planning

Higuera Roa, O. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7008-2257, Šakić Trogrlić, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6627-873X, Bachmann, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8974-1241, Hochrainer-Stigler, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9929-8171, & Mechler, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2239-1578 (2026). Beyond Risk Reduction: Leveraging Multiple Resilience Dividend Concept for Transformative Adaptation Planning. Climate Resilience and Sustainability 5 (2) e70054. 10.1002/cli2.70054.

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Abstract

Climate change adaptation (CCA) planning has traditionally focused on risk‐avoidance and loss‐reduction, often treating co‐benefits as secondary. This narrow perspective overlooks the wider societal, economic and environmental benefits—as well as potential trade‐offs—of CCA, leading to underinvestment and missed opportunities to advance sustainable development. To address this gap, a more integrated approach that understands CCA's multifaceted impacts is essential. This article introduces a framework for incorporating the multiple resilience dividends (MRD) lens into the entire CCA planning cycle, emphasising the comprehensive value of adaptation actions. Expanding upon the ‘triple resilience dividend’ concept, the MRD approach recognises that adaptation interventions produce diverse direct and indirect effects—both beneficial and adverse—across systems and time frames. By embedding MRD thinking into key planning stages, the article explains how CCA can shift from siloed, risk‐centric practices toward integrated, multi‐objective and transformational strategies. A heuristic coastal‐urban illustration shows in principle how MRD‐informed planning can be operationalised with existing methods and, thus, may support more equitable, cost‐effective and sustainable adaptation portfolios. Ultimately, we argue that making MRD operational can reframe CCA as a generator of multiple benefits beyond risk reduction, enabling a critical pathway to accelerate climate resilience.

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