This essay examines the relationship between international adaptation efforts with regard to climate change and disaster management policy. Reviewing the respective United Nations frameworks for both climate and natural disasters, we find many shared interests and opportunities for collaboration. To better unite these areas of law, we suggest focusing on two concepts relevant to both fields: global group responsibility and a focus on local action and socio-economic conditions. While these ideas may at first seem in conflict, we will show how each is critical to policy initiatives in both fields and can therefore serve as important points of intersection. We illustrate our claim by way of two very different case studies. The first examines the recent international negotiations over loss and damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which have now erupted into a major debate about the North's responsibility to the South. The second case study examines a relatively small climate resilience project, funded by a private foundation, in the Indian city of Surat, a global center for textile manufacturing and diamond polishing, which is also prone to enormous coastal floods. The relative success realized here suggests the promise of integrating local organizational methods into a global commitment to climate adaptation. The example suggests how wealthy actors (in this case a foundation) can guide and empower vulnerable communities by tapping into local values and existing networks. Our aim is to begin a conversation about the relationship between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.