Despite evidence showing a strong relation between development and climate change, why have the two fields developed separately, and what effects has this had? There have been successful integration efforts, but most government agencies in developing and least developed countries, and most local-level development groups, still do not adequately incorporate climate change into their development activities. It is vital to the success of both development and climate change policies that climate change be incorporated into development programmes at international, regional, national and local levels.
Climate change impacts will significantly affect national development, particularly among the world’s poorest communities. So why have development and climate change not been better integrated? There are two main reasons:
- The domination of each by separate disciplines: climate change by the natural sciences and development by the social sciences.
- The different scales (both temporal and geographic) at which the problems are perceived: Many development practitioners view climate change as a long-term problem that does not compare with more urgent concerns such as food security, HIV/AIDS or pollution. Most literature could not until recently confidently predict impacts at the regional or local level and development work requires more certainty at these levels.
The challenges of greater integration between the fields of climate change and development include:
- Integration at the policy level: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the main body responsible for assessing the climate change literature, has been criticised for neglecting the climate-development nexus.
- Resolving trade-offs between development and climate change: The climate change and development agendas sometimes have conflicting interests. For example, certain development plans may increase dependency on climate-sensitive resources, such as rain-fed agriculture, thereby increasing vulnerability.
- Mainstreaming and streamlining responses: Consistent integration into other development and poverty reduction policies, planning and activities can help to ensure that adaptation policies do not work against development efforts.
- Funding adaptation policies: A major challenge is the need to separate out the additional costs of climate change adaptation from ‘business as usual’ development activities, and the difference between vulnerability to climate change and other vulnerabilities.
Progress has been made to bring the climate change and development communities closer together, but more progress is needed.
- International donor agencies need to assess the extent to which their investment portfolios in developing countries might be at risk due to climate change. They must take steps to reduce that risk.
- Developing country governments need to understand the extent to which they may be vulnerable to climate change. They must take steps to reduce vulnerability and enhance the adaptive capacity of the most exposed sectors and populations.
- Vulnerable communities, and NGOs and other agencies working with those communities, must also understand the extent to which they may be vulnerable to climate change. They must take steps to reduce their vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity.
- Less developed countries should implement their National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs).
