Downstream impacts occur because adaptive capacity is often unequally distributed across sectors and communities . In cities and settlements, adaptation interventions can displace ecological impacts to more vulnerable areas or directly lead to socioeconomically exclusionary outcomes , particularly when adaptation plans and actions are primarily assessed through the prism of economic and/ or financial viability . As a result, adaptation actions make only minimal contributions to the reduction of vulnerability, as the increased vulnerability of excluded communities more than offsets the decreased vulnerability of more well-off communities. Numerous examples, ranging from the mega coastal planning in Jakarta, Indonesia , fragmentation of urban infrastructure intended to promote climate resilience in Manila, Philippines , exclusionary modes of flood control in São Paulo, Brazil , strategies to reduce risks in the event of mudslides in Sarno, Italy , and involuntary community relocations in Vietnam  and Mozambique  all point to how an economic logic to adaptation can lead to exclusion of lower income, informal or minority communities in adaptation.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report