Many national climate change adaptation plans consider the need to plan over various timescales and acknowledge the essential role of local communities in addressing the changing risks. The Minimum Standards for local climate‐smart disaster risk reduction were developed as a practical checklist to help local community leaders and DRR practitioners ensure their risk reduction efforts are climate‐smart and contribute to climate change adaptation, meaning that these efforts consider the future risk patterns induced by a changing climate, often including rising uncertainties. The Minimum Standards are not idealized solutions but rather practical approaches to implement DRR activities in a way that is achievable by communities with relatively limited external support.