Climate Change Adaptation And Development

Climate change poses multiple challenges to development. It affects lives and livelihoods, infrastructure and institutions, as well as beliefs, cultures and identities. There is a growing recognition that the social dimensions of vulnerability and adaptation now need to move to the forefront of development policies and practices. This book presents case studies showing that climate change is as much a problem of development as for development, with many of the risks closely linked to past, present and future development pathways. Development policies and practices can play a key role in addressing climate change, but it is critical to question to what extent such actions and interventions reproduce, rather than address, the social and political structures and development pathways driving vulnerability. The chapters emphasise that adaptation is about much more than a set of projects or interventions to reduce specific impacts of climate change; it is about living with change while also transforming the processes that contribute to vulnerability in the first place. This book will help students in the field of climate change and development to make sense of adaptation as a social process, and it will provide practitioners, policymakers and researchers working at the interface between climate change and development with useful insights for approaching adaptation as part of a larger transformation to sustainability. Review: This book represents a substantial addition to the growing body of knowledge in the field of adaptation to the consequences of climate change. It does it not just by bringing together a series of analysis of specific adaptation challenges but also, and possibly much more valuable, by highlighting the need for transformation of the development process itself in pursuit of durable resilience. We are bound to hear more about this concept as the understanding of enabling conditions for adaptation becomes more transparent. It is an aspect of sustainability, in a warming world, that is both urgent and critical. -Walter Vergara, Former leader of the Global Expert Team On climate change adaptation at the World Bank and Former head of climate change at Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Senior Fellow World Resources Institute, USA Although everyone talks about the relationship between adaptation and development, very few initiatives - if any - take a radical enough approach for sustainable adaptation to happen. This book, edited by dedicated ambassadors of the message that transformational development is necessary, will have a profound impact on our understanding of these issues. -Lisa Schipper, Adaptation and Vulnerability Researcher and Research Associate, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK This book is a first rate and stimulating contribution to the complex issue of climate change adaptation and development. It is an authoritative and meticulously researched treatise that contributes to critical understanding by unravelling the intertwined relationship between climate change adaptation and development. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in any aspect of climate change adaptation and development. -Youba Sokona, Special Advisor of Sustainable Development, South Centre, Switzerland, Co-Chair Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III and Member of Future Earth Science Committee Climate change adaptation projects are expected to increase in numbers. There is a need for an inclusive approach, engaging with local communities, and paying attention to vulnerability aspects. Therefore, this book is highly recommended reading to all development and climate change policy-level stakeholders, financiers, and practitioners. -Heidi Hautala, Member of the Development Committee of the European Parliament and former Minister for International Development of Finland The old fault-lines of whether vulnerability is structural or technical emerge in the new challenges of adaptation. Dabbling at the edges is not enough. Take the concrete lessons in this book as your evidence for profound ch