Climate Adaptation, Sustainability, Ethics, and Well-Being

Dear Colleagues,

Global climate change is already negatively affecting and expected to have more dramatic effects on the livelihoods and well-being of communities around the world. There is a growing urgency in the need for robust adaptation strategies to alleviate human vulnerability to climate change impacts, which should be carefully balanced and coordinated with climate change mitigation and sustainable development priorities.

Adaptation policies and strategies face numerous ethical dilemmas through their inevitable trade-offs with other sustainable development and human well-being goals. A significant body of transdisciplinary scholarly and traditional knowledge indicates that deep, transformative, long-term, and system-wide adaptations are urgently needed to overcome the global climate crisis, which is exacerbated by growing social inequalities. Building a sustainable future for all requires transformative adaptation approaches driven by the prioritization of community happiness, solidarity, reciprocity, environmental ethics, and the recognition of the intrinsic value of nature. Ethics of human–environmental interactions are an essential but frequently missing foundation in existing sustainability and climate adaptation policy frameworks.

This Special Issue questions the adequacy of prevailing discourses on sustainable development and climate adaptation policies that are driven by economic growth goals, environmental utilitarianism, and a globalized culture that equates well-being with consumerism. We argue that fundamentally new models of human–environmental relationships are urgently needed, driven by priorities of sustainable community well-being, solidarity, equity, and the recognition of the intrinsic value of nature.

There is an emerging body of scholarship, empirical data, and indigenous and community knowledge on diverse aspects of human well-being, climate adaptations, land ethics, and human development. However, there is a significant gap in understanding the deep cause–effect relationships between adaptation strategies, sustainability, well-being, and ethical considerations in different cultures and at an individual, community, and global scale. The goal of this Special Issue is to provide a platform for this important scholarly discourse.

This Special Issue of Sustainability is therefore dedicated to the nexus between climate adaptations, sustainability, environmental ethics, and well-being. We invite original research articles and bibliographic reviews from all disciplinary fields, including reanalysis of local case studies worldwide, innovative theoretical and methodological frameworks, quantitative and qualitative assessments, applied and analytical studies, and reflective papers on existing and planned initiatives at various spatial and temporal scales.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• The reconceptualization of human vulnerability and justice in climate adaptation policies.
• Climate change mitigation and adaptation synergies and trade-offs, including the risks and challenges of maladaptation.
• Climate action, adaptation, and resilience planning and mainstreaming at various scales.
• The integration of indigenous and traditional knowledge in sustainability and adaptation planning.
• The relationships between human well-being, sustainability, and societal views of nature.
• Ethical frameworks for a just sustainable transition and climate adaptation.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion in climate adaptation and sustainability agendas.
• The role of sustainability education in building community resilience and transformative adaptations to climate change.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Yours faithfully,

Prof. Dr. Elena Lioubimtseva
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• human–environmental interactions
• vulnerability
• resilience
• transformation
• environmental ethics
• happiness
• well-being
• community
• transdisciplinary
• justice