Climate Resilience and Sustainability

About this journal

Climate Resilience and Sustainability publishes recent interdisciplinary research on the approaches, methods, and tools  that enhance the resilience of human societies, economies, or natural systems to climate change, in the context of aiming to achieve the broader UN Sustainable Development Goals. We encourage papers on policy and practice, as well as research papers, from practitioners and researchers. Papers should focus on analysis of current or proposed actions that enhance climate resilience or reduce climate change risks through adaptation; ideally, in one or more sectors.  

Human actions designed to enhance climate resilience in a single sector or region can have beneficial or adverse effects on other sectors or regions (including their climate resilience), or on other sustainable development goals. For this reason, papers that integrate insights drawn from more than one discipline (e.g.  climate science, ecology, social sciences, health science, and engineering) are particularly welcome. Other issues of interest include: 

• The benefits, dis-benefits, feasibility, effectiveness and costs of the action(s), including solutions that have not been effective or that have had dis-benefits
• Actions that enhance adaptation/resilience to climate change in multiple interacting systems – that is, that can address cascading and compounding risks
• Synergies, trade-offs and co-benefits of actions with other sustainable development goals
• Comprehensive interdisciplinary actions that have positive impacts on the climate resilience of  people and/or ecosystems; and/or sustainable development goals
• Climate resilient development pathways, including case studies
• Implications for ecosystem services and/or poverty alleviation and/or human health 
• Interdisciplinary research methods related to climate resilience
• Utilising technological innovation to promote resilience
• Actions related to the design of policy or financial mechanisms and their relationship to society (e.g. governance, equity and justice, or the economy)

Submissions should contribute significantly to the international literature, even if the focus is regional. Manuscripts should (1) cite the relevant international literature, and state the importance of the research in the international context; (2) cite or use the best available weather and climate information to inform policies and actions; (3) be written in plain language accessible to the wider audience including practitioners and the general public; and (4) should be accompanied by a cover letter explaining the relevance of the research to the scope of the journal as described above. 

Footnote: Climate resilience is the capacity of interconnected social, economic and ecological systems to cope with climate hazards and changes, responding or reorganising in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure. Resilience is a positive attribute when it maintains capacity for adaptation, learning, and/or transformation.

This is a fully open access journal.