The Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) Hub is a £5 million UK-wide collaboration led by King’s College London, bringing together academics and policymakers to help the UK prepare for the impacts of climate change. Funded by UK Research & Innovation and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the Hub aims to deliver faster and more impactful action to help all four nations adapt to extreme weather and other effects of a changing climate.
Climate change is already affecting people, communities, public services, infrastructure and economies. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions remains essential, some degree of climate change is unavoidable. Finding ways to anticipate, manage and respond to its impacts via adaptation is therefore critical to fostering more secure futures.
The MACC Hub coordinates and translates knowledge on what works in climate change adaptation, addressing barriers including public awareness, policy, legislation and access to climate data. Its ambition is to ensure that generated evidence is used by the people and organisations making decisions about the future.
A key strength of the Hub is its emphasis on connecting research with policy and practice. Climate adaptation is not simply an environmental or technical challenge. It involves questions about how governments make decisions, how communities respond to risk, how resources are allocated and whose needs are prioritised. Effective adaptation therefore requires expertise from across the social sciences as well as the natural and environmental sciences.
The Hub's work demonstrates the importance of understanding the social dimensions of climate risk. Climate impacts are not experienced equally, and factors such as income, housing, health, geography and access to resources can shape people's vulnerability and ability to adapt. Ensuring that adaptation is effective therefore also means ensuring that it is fair.
This makes MACC a strong expression of the Secure Futures vision of King’s Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. Secure Futures is about understanding the forces that will shape the world ahead and developing the knowledge, capabilities and partnerships needed to respond to them. Climate change is one of the clearest examples of a challenge that requires societies to anticipate rather than simply react.
MACC demonstrates how social science can contribute directly to this ambition. By bringing together evidence, policymakers and practitioners, it helps move from understanding climate risks to identifying practical responses. Its focus on translating knowledge into action also reflects a wider SSPP commitment to research that makes a tangible difference beyond the University.
The MACC Hub embodies a central principle of Secure Futures: anticipating major challenges, understanding their human consequences and using research to help societies adapt and thrive in a changing world.