While adaptation is important to reduce risk, adaptation cannot prevent all climate impacts from occurring. Adaptation has soft and hard limits, points at which adaptive actions are unable to prevent risks. Soft limits can change over time as additional adaptation options become available, while hard limits will not change as there are no additional adaptive actions that are possible. Soft limits occur largely due to constraints-factors that make it harder to plan and implement adaptation, such as lack of financial resources or insufficient human capacity. Across regions and sectors, the most challenging constraints to adaptation are financial and those related to governance, institutions and policy measures. Limited funding and ineffective governance structures make it difficult to plan and implement adaptation-related responses which can lead to insufficient adaptation to prevent risks. Small-scale farmers and coastal communities are already facing soft limits to adaptation as measures that they have put in place are not enough to prevent loss. If constraints that are limiting adaptation are addressed, then additional adaptation can take place and these soft limits can be overcome. Evidence on limits to adaptation is largely focused on terrestrial and aquatic species and ecosystems, coastal communities, water security, agricultural production, and human health and heat.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report