Download Climate change and its socio

Climate change and its sociopolitical consequences
Patrina Dumaru
Institute of Applied Science
USP
Outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
Adaptation
Social Justice
Identity
Adaptation Aid
1. Adaptation
Adaptation: an action taken to reduce
vulnerability (e.g. building a seawall to
control coastal erosion from sea level rise)
Adaptive capacity: the ability to take
action to reduce vulnerability (e.g. training
communities to sustainably manage their
water supply)
1. Adaptation
Some key elements of adaptive capacity
according to the literature:

Economic resources (to pay for adaptation)

Awareness and Information (identification of
problems and knowledge of solutions)

Technology (the tools needed to adapt)

Skilled labour (the ability to use available
technologies)

Infrastructure (the means by which the
services, information, and resources needed to
adapt reach communities)
2. Social Justice
Who are the most vulnerable to climate change?
People or groups of people who are:
- highly exposed to biophysical risks
- sensitive to these risks
- have little capacity to manage and recover from
them
- periphery of economic and political power
- least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions
- most insecure from the effects of emissions.
(Barnett 2009)
2. Social Justice
Rural, poor and resource dependent communities
may be categorised as the most vulnerable
One way of ensuring adaptation that is equitable is
to ensure that adaptation occurs at the
community-level “as communities respond to the
localised manifestations of emerging climate
risks” (Heltberg et. al, 2009)
In Fiji (and other Pacific Islands) most communities
are resource dependent and so are sensitive to
climate change
- and most are not well supported by
government, so the means for adaptation will
have to come from within communities
3. Identity
“Many of us today are not directly or
personally dependent on the sea for our
livelihood and would probably get seasick
as soon as we set foot on a rocking boat.
This means only that we are no longer sea
travellers or fishers. But as long as we
live on our islands we remain very much
under the spell of the sea; we cannot
avoid it.”
(Epeli Hau’ofa, 2008, The Ocean in Us)
3. Identity
Lessons from the travelling circus . . .
Loring’s (2007) study of the many forms taken by
the circus over the past 150 years – enduring the
American Civil War, WWII, The Great Depression,
changing attitudes towards animals and human
rights.
“ . . .circuses have changed significantly while
sustaining a singular identity.”
3. Identity
“If a sustainable social-ecological system is
indeed one that both changes and
persists, the test of that persistence,
therefore, is not simply whether a predefined set of structures remain, but
whether or not stakeholders continue to
recognise, respect, and feel a belonging to
the system after change has happened”
4. Adaptation Aid

Aid level rise for climate change adaptation e.g.
– US$80 million to be mobilised by SPREP (PACC)
- AU$150million by Australian Govt

Niue study (Barnett 2009) found that aid for
adaptation has the potential to increase
vulnerability if not delivered with care and
purpose. The study looked at the influence of aid
on financial resources (to pay for adaptation) and
governance (how well society can steer the
adaptation process and how legitimate the
process is).
4. Adaptation Aid
Foreign aid has significantly shaped the
social political landscape of Oceania and
some studies have shown the negative
implications of aid to the sustainability of
the region.
Some questions to consider . .
So we need to ask ourselves:
1.
How do we ensure that adaptation efforts respond to the
capacity needs of the most vulnerable in our region?
2.
What are the conerstones of an Oceanian identity that
should be protected and/or enhanced in the adaptation
process?
3.
Do we have the capacity to match the influx of adaptation
aid to deliver adaptation activities in the region in a way
that is meaningful and sustainable? . . . And within the
programme time schedule?
4.
What are some key lessons from previous discussion on
foreign development aid in the region that needs to be
addressed in climate change adaptation funding
mechanism in the region?
References
Barnett, J. 2009. ‘Justice and Adaptation to Climate Change’,
in Moss, J (ed.), Climate Change and Social Justice.
Melbourne University Press.
Hau’ofa, E. 2008, ‘The Ocean In Us’, in Hau’ofa E (ed.), We
Are the Ocean: Selected Works, University of Hawaii Press.
Hedger M., Mitchell T., Leavy J., Greeley M., Downie A. and
Horrocks L., 2008, Desk Review: Evaluation of Adaptation
to Climate Change from a Development Perspective, A
study conducted by IDS, commissioned by GEF Evaluation
Office and financed by DFID.
Loring P. 2007. ‘The Most Resilient Show on Earth: The Circus
as a Model for Viewing Identity, Change and Chaos’,
Ecology and Society, 12 (1): 9