Conceptualizing climate vulnerability: Understanding the negotiating strategies of Small Island Developing States

Oculi, Neil; Stephenson, Scott R.

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2018.03.025

“…There are many studies with different conceptual frameworks for flood vulnerability, risk assessment, and adaptation. For instance, Oculi and Stephenson (2018) observed that one of the earliest "frameworks" of adaptation were based on three attributes: climatic-stimuli, the system that is adapting, and method of adaptation. They also recognized that adaptation strategies can be grouped by timeframe of interest, types of behavior, sector, scale, and level of governance.…”

Section: An Overview Of Conceptualization Of Flood Risk Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do-It-Yourself Flood Risk Adaptation Strategies in the Neighborhoods of Kano City, Nigeria

Barau

¹

,

Wada

²

2021

African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

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The urban poor in developing countries is hit hardest by climate-related extreme events such as flooding. Also, informal settlements lacking municipal support and immediate public response to flooding incur losses and thus exacerbate their sufferings. Left out or left alone, the vulnerable people from some parts of the ancient city of Kano develop their own efforts to protect themselves against the recurrent flood events. Hence, this chapter examines the nature of community-driven do-it-yourself (DIY) adaptation The data was collected through field-based surveys, interviews, and questionnaires to enable in-depth analysis of the problem from socioecological point of view. The results identified flood drivers to include the nature of surface topography, torrential rainfalls, lapses, and inadequacies in the availability of drainage infrastructure and human behavioral lapses in drainage management. On the other hand, the DIY adaptation manifests in the use of sandbags, de-siltation of drainage, construction of fences, and drainage diversions. It is important to highlight that DIY adaptation is a good strategy; however, municipal authorities must come to the aid of such communities and revisit the absence of urban planning by supporting them through capacity building to find more effective solutions to the challenges of the changing climate and environment.

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“…Performing this status claim is what underlies the broader vulnerability debate. There is an extensive academic debate around defining and measuring vulnerability, the concept of which has itself evolved over time (Betzold and Weiler, 2018: 40-41;Ciplet et al, 2013;Oculi and Stephenson, 2018). A range of different indices have been developed to produce climate vulnerability "rankings," such as the Global Climate Risk Index by NGO Germanwatch, the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, or the Climate Change Vulnerability Index by advisory group Verisk Maplecroft.…”

Section: Agency In Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A range of different indices have been developed to produce climate vulnerability "rankings," such as the Global Climate Risk Index by NGO Germanwatch, the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, or the Climate Change Vulnerability Index by advisory group Verisk Maplecroft. Depending on their purpose and definition of vulnerability, such indices weight indicators differently, producing different results (Füssel and Klein, 2006;Oculi and Stephenson, 2018). But in the UNFCCC negotiating process, the vulnerability debate is ultimately a political one due to the perception that it prioritises the allocation of adaptation finance.…”

Section: Agency In Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fear here was that they would then fall behind African countries in any prioritisation of climate finance, a situation perceived as unfair, especially as some African countries (including those vocally supporting Africa's vulnerability claim) were also middle-income countries or oil-exporting economies. In this way, allocating adaptation finance has become a "wedge issue" among developing countries (Ciplet et al, 2013;Oculi and Stephenson, 2018).…”

Section: Counter-reactive Sequences: Reactions To the Agn's Vulnerability Claimmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Colombia also took the lead in subsequently establishing the Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC) as a formal negotiating coalition in 2012, together with seven other Latin American states (initially Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru; and in 2015, Honduras and Paraguay). While AILAC addressed issues spanning the entire Paris Agreement negotiating agenda, one uniting factor was articulating their shared vulnerability to climate impacts, even while all were middle-income countries -this being a basis for their positions that developing countries should also be taking on mitigation commitments as well as receiving support for adaptation (Edwards et al, 2017: 72;Oculi and Stephenson, 2018). For AILAC, avoiding any specification of priorities in adaptation support that excluded Latin American countries was a key goal in the Paris Agreement negotiations (Edwards et al, 2017: 78-79), and they thereby engaged in a "strategic campaign" to thwart the adaptation clause (Article 7) from including any specific group of developing countries (Fry, 2016: 107).…”

Section: Counter-reactive Sequences: Reactions To the Agn's Vulnerability Claimmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Special Circumstances” and the Politics of Climate Vulnerability: African Agency in the UN Climate Change Negotiations

Chan

¹

2021

Africa Spectrum

3

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African countries are well recognised as being among the worst affected by the impacts of climate change. However, efforts to secure recognition of these “special circumstances” of African countries within the UN climate negotiations have been unsuccessful, despite this being a continental priority prior to and following adoption of the Paris Agreement. Such status is linked to global priorities for funding adaptation to climate change. This article explores why some other groups of developing countries have been successful in securing such recognition when African countries have not. It provides a historical institutionalist explanation of the path-dependent politics of such institutional recognition, emphasising the timing of when different groups have advanced vulnerability claims, which shapes the opposition that African countries have encountered in their efforts, as relative late-movers, to exercise agency. It highlights contestation surrounding what “vulnerability” to climate impacts means, and how this contestation has divided Global South solidarity.

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Do-It-Yourself Flood Risk Adaptation Strategies in the Neighborhoods of Kano City, Nigeria

Barau¹,

Wada²

2021

African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

1

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The urban poor in developing countries is hit hardest by climate-related extreme events such as flooding. Also, informal settlements lacking municipal support and immediate public response to flooding incur losses and thus exacerbate their sufferings. Left out or left alone, the vulnerable people from some parts of the ancient city of Kano develop their own efforts to protect themselves against the recurrent flood events. Hence, this chapter examines the nature of community-driven do-it-yourself (DIY) adaptation The data was collected through field-based surveys, interviews, and questionnaires to enable in-depth analysis of the problem from socioecological point of view. The results identified flood drivers to include the nature of surface topography, torrential rainfalls, lapses, and inadequacies in the availability of drainage infrastructure and human behavioral lapses in drainage management. On the other hand, the DIY adaptation manifests in the use of sandbags, de-siltation of drainage, construction of fences, and drainage diversions. It is important to highlight that DIY adaptation is a good strategy; however, municipal authorities must come to the aid of such communities and revisit the absence of urban planning by supporting them through capacity building to find more effective solutions to the challenges of the changing climate and environment.

show abstract

Conceptualizing climate vulnerability: Understanding the negotiating strategies of Small Island Developing States

Cited by 11 publications

References 31 publications

Do-It-Yourself Flood Risk Adaptation Strategies in the Neighborhoods of Kano City, Nigeria

Do-It-Yourself Flood Risk Adaptation Strategies in the Neighborhoods of Kano City, Nigeria

“Special Circumstances” and the Politics of Climate Vulnerability: African Agency in the UN Climate Change Negotiations

Do-It-Yourself Flood Risk Adaptation Strategies in the Neighborhoods of Kano City, Nigeria

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