Without the rapid implementation of pro-poor, climate-informed development policies, climate change impacts could result in 100 million more people in extreme poverty by 2030. Development policies need to consider climate risk scenarios while expanding ‘no-regrets’ social protection programmes that provide benefits to vulnerable populations under different climate ...» more
Climate change
National climate governance and politics
In the wake of the Paris Agreement on climate change, multilaterals and aid agencies are shifting significant attention to the national arena, where the fulfilment of climate commitments will depend upon new legal and regulatory frameworks, supporting institutions, and the political support within and outside the government. The characteristics of climate change—complexity, uncertainty, irreversibility, and…» more
Climate change and social development
This topic guide synthesises literature on the links between climate change and social development, and includes evidence of their interactions, lessons, approaches and tools. It considers climate change impacts and climate-relevant interventions in the following areas: five sectors: agriculture and food security, health, water, energy, and low-carbon transport; three ...» more
Seasonal vulnerability and risk calendar in Nepal
Nepal faces many seasonal disasters, including floods, landslides, fires, droughts and diseases. Findings of this rapid review indicates that: Most people are killed and injured during July–September which is in the monsoon period. Preparedness activities could take place in anticipation of seasonal disasters. The Tarai is vulnerable to floods, lightening, epidemics and ...» more
Climate finance and public finance management
Much attention has been directed at the international commitments to assist developing countries respond to climate change. This is reflected in the debate over the commitments made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: at the UNFCCC negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries committed to jointly mobilise $100 billion climate finance per…» more
Social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
This rapid literature review presents and synthesises the conceptual underpinnings and evidence on the relationship between social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Social protection instruments have been shown to be effective mechanisms for coping with shocks. The recent growth of social protection systems has shown that having systems in ...» more
Measuring disaster resilience
Several agencies have developed guidance for measuring disaster resilience. One of the most comprehensive and widely-cited frameworks is Twigg’s (2009) ‘characteristics of resilience’ framework. Based on five dimensions of resilience identified in the Hyogo Framework for Action (governance, risk assessment, knowledge and education, risk management and vulnerability reduction, ...» more
Community-based disaster risk management in Pakistan
Disaster risk management (DRM), including disaster risk reduction (DRR), has received increased attention - particularly community-based DRM (CBDRM). Despite limited implementation and very limited evidence, some findings emerge: Factors of success have included: - Work that is multi-sectoral, integrated and multi-hazard. - Good programming, with high-quality analysis, ...» more
Impact of extensive disasters
Extensive risk is defined by UNISDR as ‘The widespread risk associated with the exposure of dispersed populations to repeated or persistent hazard conditions of low or moderate intensity, often of a highly localized nature, which can lead to debilitating cumulative disaster impacts’. Examples of types of extensive disasters are given in the literature as floods, landslides, ...» more
Climate Change and Empowerment
Key findings: There is limited but growing attention to the ways in which empowerment and climate change policy and interventions interact with and benefit each other. The vast majority of this literature focuses on the empowerment of women, and centres on climate change adaptation. While the links between gender and adaptation and gender perspectives on adaptation have been ...» more
Climate Change, Empowerment and Accountability
This helpdesk research looks at how climate change policies and programmes (particularly for adaptation) can best respond to the needs of the most vulnerable. The general consensus appears to be that this requires a combination of greater investment in community-based adaptation, more decentralised planning and stronger mechanisms to link community-level decision-making with ...» more
Domestic Politics of Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry
Indonesia is the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world (after the USA and China) and about 85% of the country’s emissions are related to land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF), making it the source of one-third of global LULUCF emissions. The main proximate causes of deforestation and land use change in Indonesia are logging (both legal and illegal), ...» more
Climate Change and Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is vulnerable to climate change principally through shifting rainfall patterns and extreme events. Increased incidence of drought is expected to be a particular problem. Other potential changes include increased temperatures, localised floods and decreased/varying river flow. Climate change is expected to pose a particular challenge for food production. Reduced ...» more
Climate Change and Migration
The difficulty of making predictions of future patterns of climate change migration springs principally from the fact that, methodologically, it is very difficult if not impossible to unpack the different environmental drivers and triggers of migration. People move for complex sets of reasons of which a changing environment is only one. As such it is important to try to ...» more
Climate Change Adaptation Training
A great deal of research is beginning to emerge around climate change adaptation in developing countries. As yet, however there appears to be limited capacity to provide adaptation training, especially with a focus on social impacts and planning. Much of the training which does exist takes a technical approach or relates to specific sectors (agriculture, water etc.). This query ...» more
Climate Change and State Fragility
There is very little literature available that explicitly discusses the interplay between climate change and state fragility. The general assumption is that the social and economic impacts of climate change are likely to generate demands which they will be unable to meet and may be overwhelmed by. In fact, increased demand for adaptation and mitigation activities may divert ...» more
Climate Change and Social Protection
The primary coping strategies and protection measures identified from this Helpdesk research are: Compensation mitigation measures, such as microinsurance and weather-risk crop insurance. In some cases, safety net approaches (e.g. public works, school feeding programmes) are linked to insurance payouts. Ex-ante adaptation measures, such as crop diversification (e.g. technical ...» more
Climate change and social exclusion
Whilst there is a body of research on ‘climate change vulnerability’ which tends to conclude that poor people in developing countries are most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, very little research attempts to disaggregate ‘the poor' and look in detail at specific issues and implications for socially excluded groups.Children: The literature generally ...» more
Climate Change and Governance
By their nature, the problems created by climate change cut into the core of economic activities in fields such as transport, energy, public health, agriculture and forestry. In addition, policies linked to both reducing greenhouse gases and adapting to the impacts of climate change are closely linked to broader development issues.The risks posed both by extreme weather events ...» more
Climate change and conflict
There is very little academic research on the links between climate change and conflict. Of the few studies that are available, the findings are mixed. Most authors argue that whilst climate change may well result in increased conflict, this path is not certain. The most commonly discussed scenarios are that climate change causes resource scarcity, which prompts violent ...» more
