ABSTRACT

This article examines whether the use of climate change as a ‘spice’ in order to attract donor funding may instead exacerbate existing environmental problems. The World Bank’s latest adaptation project in coastal Bangladesh aims to create higher and wider embankments against rising sea levels. This disregards a long history of how embankments, by stopping beneficial monsoon inundations, result in dying rivers and damaging floods that devastate rural livelihoods. Bangladeshi ‘development brokers’ must therefore balance their roles as project employees supporting embankments as adaptation, and as locals knowledgeable about their harmful effects. The article shows how donors, NGOs, consultants and government bodies with different agendas, priorities and knowledge backgrounds ‘translate’ climate change to legitimise their activities. It contributes to debates about the politics of environmental knowledge production by arguing that development brokerage helps explain why some climate adaptation projects increase environmental vulnerability, while others address local needs.

摘要

本文探讨了使用气候变化作为“调味品”以吸引捐助者资金是否可能反而会加剧现有的环境问题。世界银行在孟加拉国沿海的最新适应项目旨在建造更高、更宽的堤防以应对海平面上升。这无视了堤防如何通过阻止有利的季风洪水导致河流枯竭和破坏农村生计的破坏性洪水的悠久历史。因此，孟加拉国的“发展经纪人”必须平衡他们作为支持堤防适应的项目员工和了解其有害影响的当地人的角色。本文展示了具有不同议程、优先事项和知识背景的捐助者、非政府组织、顾问和政府机构如何“翻译”气候变化以使其活动合法化。