Whose voices, whose choices? Pursuing climate resilient trajectories for the poor
Section snippets
The concept of climate resilient trajectories
Climate Resilient Trajectories (CRTs), defined as the ways in which choices and actions lead to increased climate resilience over time, complement the original term of Climate Resilient Pathways used in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR5). Climate Resilient Pathways describe the various routes which could be followed to enhance resilience. CRTs emerged from the need to integrate climate mitigation and adaptation actions, taking into account
Areas of action: proposed CRTs for the poor
Adaptation pathways are sets of possible actions that may be implemented over time, depending on possible future economic and societal dynamics (Bosomworth and Gaillard, 2019; Fischer, 2018). Such pathways explicitly consider uncertainty and embed flexibility within planning processes. Low greenhouse gas (carbon) emission trajectories are at the heart of CRTs to harness the full potential of both sustainability and equity objectives, and to advance towards achieving the SDGs. Hedging against
Towards sustainable trajectories for transitions
CRTs demand certain prerequisites in order to yield the expected benefits. First, due consideration must be given to climate justice. A social justice approach encompasses particularism, pluralism and procedural justice (Wood et al., 2018). Procedural justice can be facilitated by recognising local people’s identities, cultures and values; and providing local people with meaningful participatory opportunities. It requires the management and challenging of power asymmetries; creating widespread
Conclusions
Improved understanding of the interactions between adaptation, mitigation and sustainable human development is needed, in order to create equitable, sustainable CRTs. This requires:
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Research that improves climate risk characterisation and identifies network-held risks associated with climate events.
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Better understanding of the role played by policy frameworks, especially in contexts where multiple decision-making processes do not sufficiently take into account the many interacting risks and
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Walter Leal is a professor at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany and Head of the Research and Transfer Centre "Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management. His research interests include climate change adaptaion, biodiversity and conservation, ecology, environmental sciences, sustainability, and higher education. He is also the editor of the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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2023, Environmental Science and PolicyPublic engagement for social transformation: Informing or Empowering?
2022, Environmental Science and PolicyCitation Excerpt :For example, the young, vulnerable, historically underrepresented, and undervalued groups should have the chance to reshape discourses (e.g., climate emergency frames) that inform public policy (Bremer et al., 2019; Patterson et al., 2021). In the context of climate change adaptation, ignoring marginalized and vulnerable communities can reinforce and exacerbate existing social inequalities and long-standing injustices, such as systematic oppression (Leal Filho et al., 2021). Thus, ethics of engagement calls for revisioning aspired level of participation, moving from being about events (i.e., completing one and then being compelled to move to the next) to focusing on prolonged interactions where peoples' moral and material claims come to light (Medvecky and Leach, 2017).
Livelihood, WASH related hardships and needs assessment of climate migrants: evidence from urban slums in Bangladesh
2022, HeliyonCitation Excerpt :Therefore, this assessment may guide both the public and private sectors in the development of effective and evidence-based programmatic interventions to improve the WASH facilities and livelihood possibilities of these disadvantaged populations. Furthermore, the participation of all essential stakeholders (e.g., governments, private organizations, policymakers, and whole communities) is required in order to meet the needs of climate migrants because literature has indicated the necessity of such integration as the effort of guaranteeing climate-resilient trajectories for the underprivileged (Leal Filho et al., 2021). Md.
Walter Leal is a professor at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany and Head of the Research and Transfer Centre "Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management. His research interests include climate change adaptaion, biodiversity and conservation, ecology, environmental sciences, sustainability, and higher education. He is also the editor of the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Lindsay C. Stringer is a Professor in Environment and Development at the Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, UK. Her research interests include land degradation, sustainable land management, livelihoods, ecosystem services, drylands, environmental policy, governance, international development, stakeholder engagement, and climate change adaptation.
Edmond Totin is a professor at the Université d'Agriculture de Kétou, Kétou, in Benin. He worked as scientist with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Mali, where he was involved in different projects relating to climate change, investigating the functioning of mechanism for stimulating science-policy dialogue.
Riyanti Djalante is an Academic Programme Officer at the United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), in Tokyo, Japan. She coordinates the Research and Policy Development stream on Global Change and Resilience, which develops approaches to address climate change, build community resilience, and reduce disaster risks.
Patricia Pinho holds a position at University of São Paulo, Department of Atmospheric Science for the Interdisciplinary Group for Climate Change Research (INCLINE), in Brazil. On the human systems side, she focuses on behavioral and institutional factors that underpin human resource use decisions, including institutional responses to the tragedy of the common pool resources and climate variability and change.
Katharine J. Mach is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a faculty scholar at the UM Abess Center, focused on environmental science and policy. From 2010 until 2015, she co-directed the scientific activities of Working Group II of the IPCC. Mach is the 2020 recipient of the Piers Sellers Prize for world leading contribution to solution-focused climate research.
Luis Ricarco Fernàndez Carril is currently professor of Philosophy at the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico City, Mexico, and serves as Lead Author for the IPCC AR6 WGII. His research interests include science, technology and environmental politics, international relations, conflict processes and the philosophy of science.
Jörn Birkmann is a professor at the University of Stuttgart, Institute of Regional Development Planning (IREUS), Stuttgart, in Germany. In addition to issues of planning and spatial governance, he has particularly worked in the area of vulnerability and risk research in the context of natural disasters and climate change in recent years and is a co-author of the World Risk Report.
Rajiv Pandey is a data analyst with 20+ years of research experience on issues of forest contribution to Himalayan Communities; and vulnerability and adaptation assessment of communities. His research interests focus on social vulnerability and adaptation, REDD + and forest transitions. He is also a member of the Sixth IPCC Assessment Report Team, Chapter VIII of WGII.
Franziska Wolf is a senior project manager at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Research and Transfer Centre "Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management, and affiliated with the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR). Among her research interests are climate change adaptation, environmental education, sustainability, and digital learning for sustainable development.