After the failure of #COP29, it’s time to face a hard truth: mitigation alone is no longer enough. We need deep adaptation – preparing for inevitable climate impacts while addressing systemic injustices. Those two imperatives are significant parts of what my Water Bill attempts to do.

Global warming is locked in. Even if we halted emissions today, past greenhouse gas levels ensure rising seas, extreme weather, and food insecurity. Billionaires know it; that’s why they’re building bunkers. But we need deep adaption for everyone.

COP29’s failures highlight a systemic flaw: the gap between promises and action. Vulnerable nations can’t afford to wait for Global North commitments that rarely materialise. Deep adaptation puts local resilience first.

What is deep adaptation? It’s about rethinking infrastructure, agriculture, and community planning. It centres equity, ensuring the most vulnerable have access to resources for surviving – and thriving – in a hotter, harsher world of increased volatility and scarcity.

We can’t afford to just weatherproof cities or drought-proof crops. We must address power imbalances, securing climate reparations, and reimagining economies to work for people, not profit.

This is the focus of only a few wealthy countries, who are still trying to take an extractive, planet-busting system and make it sustainable. In other words: they’re attempting to polish a turd. And it’s failing.

Whatever consensus there has been amongst elites on climate has fragmented. Trump and the far-right are a testament to this, and their political momentum is undermining even the limited agreement there was around climate action.

Even more fundamentally, COP still assumes we can “solve” the climate crisis through mitigation. But this ignores the now. Adaptation prepares for the crises already unfolding, while mitigation works to prevent future catastrophes. Both are essential.

To policymakers: the time for incrementalism is over. You’re ignoring reality if your plans don’t include radical adaptation measures alongside emission cuts. Climate justice demands both.

We must move beyond broken COP processes. Communities already lead on adaptation—indigenous knowledge, grassroots solutions, and mutual aid. These offer the blueprint for resilience.

Deep adaptation isn’t defeat. It’s humanity refusing to accept failure. We can prepare, adapt, and rebuild a just and sustainable future together. But it starts with admitting the system isn’t working.

My Water Bill has both democracy and deep adaptation at its heart. It’s a blueprint to fix our broken water infrastructure. More importantly, it empowers communities and defuses far-right talking points about powerlessness.
Decisions about ownership and priorities should be in the hands of the public, not corporations.

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