Compelled to Compete: Rendering Climate Change Vulnerability Investable

Abstract

The imperative for vulnerable populations to adapt to greater environmental variability is increasing in lockstep with the onset of wide-ranging climate change impacts. However, while critical adaptation research emphasizes the necessity of addressing the underlying drivers of vulnerability to climate change, mainstream approaches to adaptation stress economic growth as a prerequisite for climate responses. Accordingly, capital-intensive adaptation measures promote competitiveness to spur economic growth in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, where more than 18 million people face environmental hazards such as seawater intrusion, flood, drought and cyclones. This study evaluates competitiveness as a mandate for effective climate change adaptation. It finds that adaptation can advance either competition or vulnerability reduction, but it cannot logically or pragmatically pursue both.The author thanks the anonymous referees for their helpful comments as well as Daniel Esser, Jamey Essex, and the participants of the Research-in-Progress Series workshop hosted by the Development Geographies Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers and the German Development Institute (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik) in January 2021. This workshop yielded insightful questions and comments that were invaluable to the development of the article. Field research for the study was made possible by grants from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers and the Institute of Human Geography, to which the author is indebted for their support.

Accumulation by adaptation

“…This vagueness deflects attention away from industrialized countries' responsibility and historical debt toward the massive 'adaptation finance gap' and how to bridge it by whatever means (Khan et al, 2020;UNEP, 2021). Consequently, government, development, and financial organizations go to considerable lengths to 'unlock' private adaptation finance, in part by making climate vulnerability attractive to investors (Thomas, 2023).…”

“…Meanwhile, these organizations frame vulnerability to climate change in part as a function of economic isolation, therefore many adaptation interventions focus on increasing market enrollment and access (Friedman, 2023; Taylor, 2013). However, greater dependence on markets increases precarious groups' exposure to such risks as price shocks and competition (Felli and Castree, 2012; Thomas, 2023). Furthermore, shifting away from subsistence practices toward extractive commodity‐based production often yields uneven benefits and resource degradation (Paprocki, 2019; Work et al., 2019).…”

“…Neoliberal climate governance frames privatization as necessary for continued economic growth, which ostensibly generates adaptation benefits but instead primarily serves governmental, corporate, and non‐profit organizations (Alonso‐Fradejas, 2021; Thomas, 2023). While private property redistributes and concentrates the commonwealth in the hands of a few, the absence of clear property titles may conversely exclude vulnerable groups from public resources.…”

“…Although post‐colonial countries may no longer be actively colonized by occupying states, they continue to suffer under coloniality, which ‘survives colonialism’ (Maldonado‐Torres, 2007, p. 243). There is a clear spatiality to accumulation by adaptation, whereby development agencies carve out their respective spaces for adaptation interventions, laying claim to landscapes through a competitive process to establish markets for their expertise (Thomas, 2023). As Kasia Paprocki (2018: 10) trenchantly observes of the adaptation regime in Bangladesh, “The map recalls those produced at the Berlin Conference during the Scramble for Africa, as do frequent comments by representatives of various agencies referring to their project sites in the possessive case (e.g., “That's one of our polders”).”…”

“…This vagueness deflects attention away from industrialized countries' responsibility and historical debt toward the massive ‘adaptation finance gap’ and how to bridge it by whatever means (Khan et al., 2020; UNEP, 2021). Consequently, government, development, and financial organizations go to considerable lengths to ‘unlock’ private adaptation finance, in part by making climate vulnerability attractive to investors (Thomas, 2023). Their efforts include ‘de‐risking’ adaptation through public‐private partnerships, subsidies, blended finance, and tax incentives that displace risk onto the public while minimizing costs and ensuring returns for private investors (Bigger & Webber, 2020; Bracking & Leffel, 2021; Pauw, 2015).…”