Planning policy can play a key role in effective, equitable climate change adaptation; however, its capacity remains undermined by technocratic approaches reliant on hard measures, discounting significant research on addressing sources of social vulnerability for successful adaptation policy. Not surprisingly, little research makes use of a planning lens to explore the challenge of utilizing policy measures to address social vulnerability - particularly in relation to climate change. Through a scholarly narrative review of interdisciplinary sources an indepth understanding of climate change vulnerability is gained and its importance in successful adaptation planning demonstrated. The urgency and complexity of climate change requires overcoming socio-political barriers within the existing adaptation paradigm, balancing technocratic methods with a collaborative approach focusing on the social, economic and ethical components of vulnerability to climate change.