PhD candidate Valentina Lozano Nasi explains that people may be capable of seeking new opportunities and changing for the better because of climate change.

That is the essence of transilience, a constructed coined by Valentina in her 2023 PhD thesis: the perceived capacity to persist, adapt flexibly and positively transform in the face of adversity, such as climate change risks.

The current environmental crisis is extremely serious. We need to take urgent action and minimize the negative consequences that climate change has on our lives.

At the same time, we should acknowledge that climate change is also allowing us to reassess our practices, challenge the status quo, and develop better ways of living.

That’s at the core of transilience. This construct, which Nasi coined in her 2023 PhD thesis, comprises three components: the perceived capacity to persist, adapt flexibly, and positively transform in the face of adversity, such as climate change risks.

A series of studies showed that when people strongly perceive they can be transilient, they are more likely to take concrete action to adapt to climate change and to show better mental health.

Higher transilience means that people more strongly perceive they can persist in the face of climate change risks, have a broad range of options to deal with these risks, and can positively change by adapting to them.

In practical terms, the paper’s findings suggest that when people strongly perceive that they can not only persist but also adapt flexibly and positively transform, this actually promotes climate adaptive actions, improves well-being, and makes people more likely to support adaptation policy.

Climate change is not just doom and gloom. Actually, people may be capable of seeking new opportunities and changing for the better because of it. That is the essence of transilience.