Hope as an enabler of climate change adaptation

Adaptation to climate change continues to fall short of needs. Emerging research in psychology and other social sciences suggests that hope may be an important emotion and cognitive process for enabling climate action, and for keeping despair at bay. Drawing on and extending this research, we present a theoretical model to show how hope has the capacity to be a powerful driving force for adaptation. We suggest that hope can, in theory, spur adaptation to climate change in situations where individuals and collectives identify adaptation goals and pathways to achieve those goals; and that effective collective adaptation can in turn reinforce hope. We propose a program of systematic research in communities experiencing climate change impacts to assess the relationship between hope and adaptation, and explore conditions where hope could be leveraged to promote much-needed momentum in climate change adaptation. Hope has the capacity to be a powerful driving force for adaptation. Hope can, in theory, spur adaptation to climate change in situations where individuals and collectives identify adaptation goals and pathways; likewise, effective collective adaptation can reinforce hope.