This presentation wrestles with the promises of adaptation in the context of climate risks in the Pacific region. Drawing together theorising from critical development studies, and empirical research conducted in small island states in the Pacific region and at the World Bank, I question the promise of circulations in the name of climate change adaptation, while also asking how this promise works for development actors. By historicising and contextualising the policy, financial, and scholarly mechanisms through which adaptation has been folded into the world and business of development, I posit the emergence of a Pacific Adaptation Complex. The Pacific Adaptation Complex consists of heterogeneous elements that work together to build an agenda for change in pursuit of governance through adaptation and development. This agenda is sustained by the circulation of highly celebrated experiments with finance, policy-making, and climate science.

Forced resettlement in response to climate change raises critical questions of justice at multiple scales. Unlike migration, which tends to reflect people’s agency in response to changing environmental and economic risks and opportunities, resettlement is often imposed by the state. Although often premised on the assumption that it will reduce vulnerability to climate change, resettlement can create new environmental, social and economic challenges for people. This paper seeks to contribute to a rethinking of the concepts of justice and resilience in relation to climate-related resettlement, with a particular focus on the ‘climate hotspot’ of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The concept of just resilience is proposed as a lens through which the consequences of resettlement for people’s connections to place, each other and familiar ways of life can be understood. Through attention on the procedures underpinning decision making on resettlement, the distribution of outcomes, and recognition of diverse knowledge the concept of just resilience can potentially support communities and governments to better anticipate and resolve some of the humanitarian, livelihood and ecological challenges associated with resettlement.

For thirty years, the majority of attempts to implement effective and sustainable climate-change adaptation in Pacific Island Countries has failed. The reasons for this are many but among the most common are (1) the treatment of island contexts as similar to those of (small) continents, (2) the ineffective communication of climate change and adaptation strategies, (3) the (novel) monetization of climate-change adaptation, and (4) an indifference to understanding the preferred adaptation outcomes of Pacific Island people. A different approach is needed as the effects of climate change on Pacific Island communities and livelihoods become ever more exigent.

The aim of the research is to examine urban green infrastructure (UGI) as a strategy for climate change adaptation for slum dwellers in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In Bangladesh and elsewhere in the Global South urban slum dwellers are often wells of knowledge on sustainable practices through their prior backgrounds in rural areas. Due to poverty and frequent natural hazards many rural people take shelter in informal settlements in cities. One of the prime challenges of urban slum dwellers is to harness this knowledge considering their changed circumstances. Several issues such as land insecurity, space constraints, incomes, crime, and other social issues have created strains on slum dwellers’ lives and livelihoods. One important aspect that can enhance slum dwellers’ resilience capacity is harvesting latent knowledge in new environments. This contribution draws upon semi-structured in-depth interviews with slum dwellers in Kurail slum, Dhaka. From the narratives of slum dwellers in Kurail slum I explore how latent knowledge on UGI can serve a source of community resilience for them in precarious urban settings. The research project will further explore the opportunities and constraints of mobilizing UGI in Dhaka, Bangladesh.