scholarly journals Enhancing Resilience and Justice in Climate Adaptation Laws

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Wenta ◽  
Jan McDonald ◽  
Jeffrey S. McGee
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Managing Change ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Resilience Thinking ◽  
Adaptation Law ◽  
Adaptation Processes

AbstractResilience thinking – an approach for understanding and managing change – is increasingly central to climate change adaptation law and policy. Yet the influence of adaptation law and policy on the distribution of climate impacts is often overlooked in studies of socio-ecological resilience to climate change. This article demonstrates how environmental justice scholarship helps to address this gap in the literature relating to adaptation law and resilience. Drawing on existing literature, the article identifies four principles to promote resilience and justice through climate adaptation laws. Climate adaptation laws must (i) prepare for, and respond to, change; (ii) address the distributive effects of climate change and adaptation; (iii) promote participation in adaptation processes; and (iv) cross sectors and scales. Each criterion can be implemented in part through existing legal processes, but might also be further supported by incremental law reform. Developing both resilience and justice dimensions will enhance the effectiveness of adaptation laws in addressing climate impacts.

Geohazard and Climate adaption:  impacts and interconnectivity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitar Ouzounov ◽  
Menas Kafatos ◽  
Patrick Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Seismic Energy ◽  
Small Time ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
New Information ◽  
Global Geodynamics ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Adaptation Processes

<p>The forefront of science now is in bridging fields and making connections across different disciplines, challenging our current understanding of the Earth's changes and overall state. Some of the most challenging science questions now have to do with warnings for significant geohazards and Earth-Space systems' response to climate variability affecting adaptation processes, such as geosphere changes due to climate change and resultant strategies. In recent years, the study of pre-earthquake processes has led for example to developing the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere-coupling concept. This in turn provides new information about the Earth's energy balance (Pulinets and Ouzounov, 2011). From space-born NASA and NOAA Earth observation of atmospheric conditions, we have shown the consistent occurrence of radiative emission anomalies in the atmosphere near or over regions of earthquakes, volcanoes, and geothermal fluxes. Our assessment shows that the latent heat released before major earthquakes is larger than the seismic energy released during the quake (Ouzounov et al., 2018). We find that the associated pre-earthquake phenomena for large events may create an additional thermodynamic contribution in the atmosphere and impact on climate, caused by sources of Earth de-gassing in the lithosphere and followed by ionization processes. Because of these findings, we start exploring major global geodynamics activities and their impact on atmospheric processes and climate through the geosphere coupling channels as a potential forward process of interaction between geohazards and climate adaptation. The reverse mechanism of climate adaptation's impact on geohazards is based on the initial idea that climate adaptation could force additional geohazards activities (McGuire, 2010). The removal of ice sheets may somehow or likely have permitted the release of stresses that had accumulated on previously confined faults, triggering earthquakes in the US, Canada, and Europe. How realistically is it to expect a change in the existing earthquake patterns in Europe, the USA, and Canada during climate change processes? It is plausible, but we do not yet know the answer. Our goal is to explore the coupling between geohazards processes and climate change processes through the lithosphere-atmosphere framework, focusing on dynamic environments, exhibiting a change in physical and thermodynamics processes over relatively small-time scales.</p>

Climate, Oceans, and the Law of Special and General Adaptation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Rashid Sumaila
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
General Adaptation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Adaptation Law ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
International Fisheries

This chapter describes the literature of adaptation law in the context of international ocean governance. Adaptation law consists of rules aimed at minimizing the social costs associated with human response to climate impacts. These can be used to shape the behaviour of private actors or public institutions. The law sometimes might provide incentives to make enterprises more resilient as it makes capital unnecessarily stranded during climate change. In order to illustrate the challenges of implementation in the ocean context, the chapter focuses on two examples: international fisheries and ‘mari-engineering’. International fisheries represent ongoing ocean use and regulated by a well-developed body of international law. Due to the wide range of possible climate impacts and adaptive responses, proactive changes to existing fisheries rules in anticipation of climate change fit into the category of general adaptation law, while mari-engineering is engineering the seas to slow or halt climate change impacts.

scholarly journals Climate Change Adaptation and Gender Inequality: Insights from Rural Vietnam

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Ylipaa ◽  
Sara Gabrielsson ◽  
Anne Jerneck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Feminist Political Ecology

Vietnam is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts, especially from extreme weather events such as storms and floods. Thus, climate change adaptation is crucial, especially for natural resource-dependent farmers. Based on a qualitative research approach using a feminist political ecology lens, this article investigates gendered patterns of rural agrarian livelihoods and climate adaptation in the province of Thái Bình. In doing so, we identify differentiated rights and responsibilities between female and male farmers, leading to unequal opportunities and immobility for females, making them more vulnerable to climate impacts and threatening to reduce their capacity to adapt. This research also shows that demands on farmers to contribute to perpetual increases in agricultural output by the state poses a challenge, since farming livelihoods in Vietnam are increasingly becoming feminised, as a result of urbanisation and devaluation of farming. Past and present national strategies and provincial implementation plans linked to climate change do not consider the burden affecting rural female farmers, instead the focus lies on addressing technical solutions to adaptation. With little attention being paid to an increasingly female workforce, existing gender inequalities may be exacerbated, threatening the future existence of rural livelihoods and the viability of Vietnam’s expansion into global markets.

Indigenous communities and climate change: a Recognition, Empowerment and Devolution (RED) framework in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Nikolakis ◽  
Quentin Grafton ◽  
Aimee Nygaard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Depth Interviews

Climate change directly threatens Indigenous cultures and livelihoods across Australia's Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). Using a modified grounded theory methodology, this study draws on in-depth interviews with Indigenous leaders and elders across the MDB to highlight that climate variability and over-extraction of water resources by agricultural users directly threatens the integrity of aquatic systems. As a consequence, Indigenous cultures and livelihoods reliant on these natural systems are at risk. Interviewees identify a range of systemic barriers that entrench vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in the MDB. Building on insights from the literature and from interviews, a Recognition, Empowerment and Devolution (RED) framework is developed to establish possible pathways to support climate adaptation by rural IPs. Fundamental to this RED framework is the need for non-Indigenous socio-institutional structures to create a ‘space’ to allow IPs the ability to adapt in their own ways to climate impacts.

scholarly journals A Strategic Approach for Existing Buildings to Withstand Climate Change

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
T. Valdbjørn Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Change In Mean

Buildings play a vital economic and social role in society and are vulnerable to climate change. This paper suggests a strategic approach for existing buildings to withstand climate change. It emphasises the most likely climate impacts, including the change in mean year values as well as the extent of maximum and minimum extremes, which are pointed out and set against a background of national and international agreements. Assumptions that form the basis for the scenarios are outlined and evaluated in a Danish context and similar evaluations can be drawn for other countries. As climate change progresses, the uncertainty of the scenarios leaves major challenges that will grow far more serious, if not addressed and taken into account in building design and into a strategy for the adaptation of existing buildings. An outline of the actions needed for developing a broad strategic approach to the adaptation to climate change for buildings is given. The actions include four stages: a survey of the performance, the impact of climate change, the vulnerability of the existing building stock and climate adaptation needs. This leads to the identification of a risk-based strategic framework for adaptation to climate change based on the results of a vulnerability analysis. In addition, this paper describes some issues that must be addressed in case a strategic approach is not developed, as the building sector is continuously investing in measures to adapt to climate change.

Interdisciplinary collaboration and joint knowledge production in climate change adaptation in mountain regions in South Asia, Latin America and Switzerland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Huggel ◽  
Veruska Muccione ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Joint Knowledge Production

<p>The level of already committed climate change implies massive impacts and risks to natural and human systems on the planet which probably have been underestimated so far, as recent research and science-policy assessments such as from the IPCC indicate. Scenarios with less stringent emission reduction pose even greater risks of partly unknown dimensions. Adaptation to climate change is therefore of critical importance, in particular for countries with low adaptive capacity where climate change can seriously undermine efforts for sustainable development. Mountains are among the hotspots of climate impacts and adaptation.</p><p>Climate adaptation is fundamentally an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary endeavor. Various sources of knowledge and perspectives need to be considered and integrated to produce actionable and solution-oriented knowledge. While experiences on joint knowledge production (JKP) has been increasing over recent years there is still missing clarity how to design and implement such a process in the context of climate adaptation.</p><p>Here we analyze experiences from a new initiative and network of climate adaptation in education and research with institutions from South Asia, the Andes and Central America, and Switzerland (knowledgeforclimate.net). Partners form a highly multi-disciplinary network with diverse cultural and institutional backgrounds which is both an important asset and challenge for interdisciplinary collaboration. A core of the collaboration are case studies conducted in all six countries in mountain contexts which are developed considering different disciplinary perspectives and represent the basis for both research and teaching. JKP takes place at different levels which need to be systematically and carefully analyzed. </p><p>We find that the processes of JKP are diverse, complex, and highly dependent on the interests and roles of actors within a network. To keep such processes alive, signposts in form of analysis and intermediary products along the network lifetime should be positioned as means of stocktaking and monitoring for the future.</p><p>We suggest that existing models of JKP need to be broadened to better accommodate the high diversity and non-linearity of JKP processes. JKP does not just happen as a product of interdisciplinary collaboration but needs continuous reflection, research, update and upgrade. Trust and a range of common interests among partners in the network have been identified as key aspects in the process. A particular challenge furthermore is to dedicate enough time and resources to the framing process but then clearly moving beyond into the action and solution space. Harmonizing different forms of knowledge pertinent to climate adaptation in mountains and harvesting the diversity while accepting possibly limited consensus is essential, yet, it is not a priori predictable where this balance lies.</p>

scholarly journals Analysis of stakeholder perceptions and practices related to climate change adaptation in Burkina Faso.

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-553
Author(s):  
Z.N. Gahi ◽  
M.K.A. Kablan ◽  
O.J.G. Kpan ◽  
K. Dongo ◽  
M. Badolo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Burkina Faso ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Rainfall Variability ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Stakeholder Perceptions ◽  
Depth Analysis

Burkina Faso, like other Sahelian countries, has experienced a profound change in its climatic regime,with the new context characterised by high rainfall variability with an overall downward trend and ashortening of the seasons. The future rainfall pattern anticipates a decrease in the frequency of lowrainfall (0.1 to 5 mm per day), a lengthening of the average duration of dry sequences, and an early endand late start of rainy seasons. The objective of this study was to perform an in-depth analysis of stakeholder perceptions about agricultural water (AgWater) resources sustainability, practices in the context of climate variability and change in Burkina Faso. Interviews were held with institutional actors involved in water resources decision making and initiatives (Government, Research, Non-Governmental Organisations) in the country. In addition, based on four main criteria (climate condition, type of farm and crop, type of AgWater sources, reliability of AgWater), three agricultural sites were investigated using household surveys. The results showed that organisations and farmers in Burkina Faso were aware of climate impacts and had initiated and implemented for many years, diverse options and water control mechanisms for AgWater adaptation. However, there were still gaps in strategies for adapting the water sector to climate threats. Institutional bodies had not got yet attained capacity to sustainably anticipate the effects of climate change on AgWater. There was a lack of mainstreaming hydroclimate services at farm levels, especially for the dry season crops; lack of on-farm flood control mechanisms, absence of a clear gender approach and no standardised monitoring system, Farmers also lacked anticipatory resilience strategies, particularly those who used water sources that were considered as “reliable” then. In general, most of the climate adaptation initiatives implemented lacked synergies, sustainability, and were uncertain about sound water resource management such as moving towards “no regret” and “win-win” options.    

LIFE URBANGREEN: Innovative technological platform to improve management of green areas for better climate adaptation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Viskanic ◽  
Alice Pasquinelli ◽  
Alessio Fini ◽  
Piotr Wezyk
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Urban Green Areas ◽  
Green Areas

<p>Climate change is a serious and cross-cutting issue: urban areas are particularly sensitive to climate impacts, especially to heatwaves, floods and droughts. Typically, urban phenomena (such as the ‘urban heat island effect’ – where the urban area is significantly warmer than the surrounding rural areas) and the impacts of extreme weather events demonstrate the high vulnerability of cities.</p><p>Specific urban adaptation strategies are therefore needed to make cities more resilient. In this context, green areas and green infrastructures are seen among the most widely applicable, economically viable and effective tools to combat the impacts of climate change and help people adapt to or mitigate adverse effects of this change.</p><p>LIFE URBANGREEN is a European Funded project dealing with climate adaptation through the maximisation of ecosystem services provided by urban green areas maintained in an innovative way. The main expected result is a smart, integrated, geospatial management system, to monitor and govern all activities related to urban green areas, maximizing ecological benefits.</p><p>Five innovative modules are being developed within the project, aimed at:</p><ul><li>providing irrigation to trees only when and where actually needed</li> <li>reducing the carbon footprint of maintenance activities through a more efficient job planning</li> <li>quantifying ecosystem services provided by green areas</li> <li>monitoring health conditions of trees using remote sensing data</li> <li>increasing citizen participation in urban green management</li> </ul><p>The project involves 5 Italian and Polish partners:</p><ul><li>R3 GIS (GIS software company and project coordinator, Bolzano, Italy)</li> <li>University of Milano (scientific coordinator, Milano, Italy)</li> <li>ProGea 4D (remote sensing company, Krakow, Poland)</li> <li>ZZM (manager of urban green areas in Krakow, Poland)</li> <li>Anthea (manager of urban green areas in Rimini, Italy)</li> </ul><p>Also, the National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan, under the coordination of Prof Yuei-An Liou, supports the project and participates as external partner and will test some innovations of the LIFE URBANGREEN Project in Taiwan.</p><p>During the EGU conference, results obtained during the first two years of the project will be presented. More information on the project is available at www.lifeurbangreen.eu</p>

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