PAYE ROAD BEYOND BELEM WITH DOLLARS, DATA AND DEVOTION

After starts stops at previous COPs, the Brazil summit needs to agree on mobilising adequate funds. It must also place communities at the heart of adaptation and reward regeneration of ecosystems

- RAVI S PRASAD

AS the world turns its eyes to Brazil for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) next week, negotiators are preparing to track progress on the global goal on adaptation under the Paris Agreement. At its core, adaptation is about helping societies and ecosystems cope with-and ultimately thrive amid-the climate impacts that are already here, strengthening defences against floods, droughts, and heat, securing water and food, and protecting lives and livelihoods.

But adaptation is more than infrastructure or indicators. It is about restoring the human relationship with nature that makes us care in the first place. After all, we care for what we love, and we love what we feel connected to.

In his 1997 book, Survival Strategies: Cooperation and Conflict in Animal Societies, Raghavendra Gadagkar asks whether collective good can ever triumph over self-interest. Evolution rewards both cooperation and competition, but only when the balance is right.

In the animal world, if individuals act solely for themselves, the group weakens; if the group thrives, individuals prosper too. That is precisely where humanity stands today on climate change.

Every country and every person is trying to protect their own short-term interest to grow faster, consume more, and live comfortably while the planet's balance frays. When Earth suffers, every country eventually loses. Adaptation, then, is not charity for the vulnerable; it is survival for all.