Marianne Haines on climate adaptation policy and the agencies that need rebuilding

Marianne Haines, General Sir John Monash Scholar working in climate adaptation policy, on the scholarship year as a research sabbatical, the agencies that need rebuilding, and the political window for the work.

Marianne Haines holds a General Sir John Monash Foundation scholarship and works in climate adaptation policy. The bureau spoke to her in April 2021, near the end of her scholarship year.

"Adaptation policy is the unglamorous half of climate work."

Adaptation policy is the unglamorous half of climate work. Mitigation gets the headlines. Adaptation gets the line items in a state budget that nobody reads. The scholarship year gave me space to write about that imbalance properly.

The agencies that run adaptation in this country are not staffed for what is coming. Some of them know it. Others are working with a 1990s headcount on a 2030s problem. That gap is the work.

The Scholars · Marianne Haines · 21 April 2021 · Archived by Bridge Street Bureau