No change from climate change: vulnerability and small island developing states

Abstract

Climate change is frequently touted as the biggest development challenge that faces humanity. Such rhetoric may be distracting from other development challenges which need to be addressed simultaneously with climate change. This paper uses the case study of small island developing states (SIDS) affected by climate change to explore how focusing on climate change can depoliticise the challenges that they face. Three linked points of depoliticisation through climate change are exemplified: emphasising the hazard, avoiding other long‐term development challenges, and shifting focus away from opportunities for reducing vulnerability, including during community reconstruction. Examples cover scientific and policy discussions, from inside and external to SIDS. Links are made with migration narratives, especially learning from the past and the importance of not rebuilding communities with the same vulnerabilities as before. The fundamental challenge is not so much addressing the hazard of climate change per se, but why SIDS peoples often do not have the resources or options to address climate change and other development challenges themselves. In this regard, climate change brings little that is new to SIDS which continue to be marginalised.

The national and local politics of climate change adaptation in Zimbabwe

“…1 Indeed, consistent with Hickey and Bracking (2005), recent work has argued that climate change adaptation in vulnerable countries operates within an intentionally depoliticized space (Kelman, 2013), and that this may lead to the perpetuation of political systems that may result in long-term maladaptation (Lockwood, 2013). The examination of these dynamics in Zimbabwe -a country with widely recognized challenges of governance and politics -can help to illustrate some of the opportunities for addressing the consequences of climate change and facilitating its incorporation into a national political agenda even in conditions that may be seen as unfavourable.…”

“…The relative weakness of the state therefore means that the state and civil society can operate in closer partnership than might otherwise be the case -but may suggest that the issue of climate change itself has been "depoliticized" (Arnall, Kothari, & Kelman, 2013;Kelman, 2013). As described above, there is some evidence that climate change is functioning in this way at this moment in time although it might be the case that it is political but not openly contentious.…”

Relationality and island studies in the Anthropocene

“…Through slavery, oppression and capitalist exploitation, these islands had little choice. But being merely resilient also offers little transformative weight when it comes to the massive political might of the industrially polluting nations of the world in the Anthropocene, and the violence of international capitalist exploitation that prevents islands from recovering effectively from environmental disasters (Kelman, 2014;Papetti, 2017;Pugh, 2005;2013b;Reid, 2017). Indeed, there is now one particularly famous quote which appeared on placards scattered around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, attributed to Tracie Washington of the Louisiana Justice Institute, which said: "Stop calling me resilient.…”

Gendered consequences of mobility for adaptation in small island developing states: case studies from Maafushi and Kudafari in the Maldives

“…For instance, discourses on adaptation on islands that focus on their isolation and geography sometimes end up disguising the historical and cultural experiences of global changes and perniciously shift focus away from pressing issues in the adaptation process (Farbotko, 2005;Kelman, 2014). This is not to disregard the importance of understanding the vulnerabilities and risk stemming from island geography.…”