Paper short abstract:

Through the case of Coyuca's coastal urban-lagoon system with nearly 30,000 inhabitants and part of the Metropolitan Zone of Acapulco (ZMA) in Mexico, the paper explores the relevance, challenges and alternatives for developing adaptation strategies in small and medium size cities.

Paper long abstract:

The latest global agendas recognize the need to involve local actors, fight against gender inequality and reduce the gap between research and policies as crucial for achieving climate adaptation. Accordingly, they promote the development of bottom up strategies, gender sensitive initiatives and processes of multi-sectorial co-production of knowledge.

The paper explores the enactment of these elements in small and medium size cities, which are expected to host an important share of the world urban population, but in which the capacities and resources of state and non-sate actors tend to be limited.

The paper focuses on Coyuca's coastal urban-lagoon system in the ZMA, marked by sharp socioeconomic and spatial inequalities, and high vulnerabilities such as more frequent and severe hurricanes and floods. Specifically, it explores the learning from the implementation of Coyuca Resilient to Climate, a project financed through the Initiative Climate Resilience Cities in Latin America led by CDKN, FFL and IDRC.

The paper argues that the major challenges in the ZMA's are related to the inexistence of planning processes, the persistence of gender inequalities, and the little capacity for decision-making of local actors. It also argues that two major opportunities exist in this context: leveraging on the existing knowledge on the ground produced by several actors to adapt to climate events, and strengthening capacities of local academic, who play a key role in shaping decisions over the territory as they form the local elites of the government and civil society.

Paper short abstract:

Focusing on the case of water managers confronting climate variability, we argue that it is through an analysis of the interface of actors, institutions and physical infrastructure that climate vulnerability can be better understood, and conversely, that climate resilience might be strengthened.

Paper long abstract:

This paper uses the emerging crises in water management in North East Thailand as a case study to examine the effectiveness of existing institutional structures and processes to adapt to an uncertain future climate. We argue that it is through an analysis of the interface of actors, institutions and physical infrastructure that climate vulnerability can be better understood, and conversely, that climate resilience might be strengthened. This research has global significance as case studies of emerging water crises provide valuable insights into future vulnerabilities and the Thailand experience speaks to similar challenges across the global South. Our findings illustrate that state water managers, on the front line of dealing with climate variability, are constrained by the interaction of infrastructure that was designed for different times and needs, and of institutional structures and processes that have emerged through the interplay of often competing organisational remits and agendas. Water management is further constrained by the ways in which information and knowledge are generated, shared, and then applied. Critically the research finds that there is no explicit consideration of climate change, but rather universally-held assumptions that patterns of water availability will continue as they have in the past. Where policy responses are advocated they are largely in terms of infrastructure-based solutions. Significantly, there is no long-term planning that could be termed adaptive, but rather, a responsive approach that moves from crisis to crisis between seasons and across years.

Paper short abstract:

Whilst disability rights have been recognised within international fora, this paper analyses national policies, strategies and interviews with key informants to explore how climate policy and practice reflect these rights and the vulnerability of disabled people to climate change in East Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Normative understandings of the rights of disabled people are increasingly embraced and established, from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015). The Paris Agreement reflects this understanding and explicitly recognises the unique vulnerability of disabled people to climate change. However, in particularly vulnerable regions like East Africa the enactment of these global ambitions into national climate change policies which safeguard disabled people remains unclear.

Content analysis of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and climate strategies from 6 East African countries (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) determine the visibility and presence of vulnerable populations, and disabled people specifically, and how vulnerability is conceptualised within relevant policy instruments (in relation to adaptation, mitigation, cross-cutting issues, such as human rights and gender responsiveness, and as stakeholders and agents of change). Interviews with senior leaders within disabled people's organisations and disability-focused INGOs in Tanzania discuss the level of representation of disabled people within climate policies and role of disabled people within the policy-making process.

On a regional and national level, the status and implementation of global and national climate commitments and policies are examined and the role and visibility of disabled people in the process is analysed. Vulnerability is positioned as an appropriate concept to construct an understanding of climate change impacts, specifically on disabled people. Finally, recommendations are made to strengthen the involvement of disabled people as stakeholders and their representation within climate policy.

Paper short abstract:

This paper presents thoughts on framing an analytical approach to climate change, human mobility and local governance for the new research programme: Governing Climate Mobility (2019-2022). It reframes climate change-migration discussions by raising the importance of local-level governance in shaping households’ and individuals’ mobility options and practices. Given the challenges around climate change and mobility, the policy implications of such research cannot be underestimated.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents thoughts on framing an analytical approach to climate change, human mobility and local governance for a new research programme: Governing Climate Mobility (2019-2022). The programme examines how governance contexts affect mobility options and decisions in areas affected by climate change. Development literature and interventions have long emphasized local governance, particularly policies on government decentralisation. This focus has waned, however, in recent years just as the global governance of climate change has grown in focus. Yet attention to the local level is extremely important in understanding households’ and individuals’ climate-related mobility. Local government and informal authorities can shape both climate change responses and mobility practices, yet this role is under-researched. The paper presents key considerations when studying the linkages between climate change, local governance and mobility and raises the need to investigate how such linkages play out in contrasting political contexts. Finally, it explores the potential for a common theoretical and analytical framework across the three fields of climate change, local governance and mobility. This involves reframing climate change-migration discussions by raising the importance of governance in the local context. Given the challenges of climate change and migration that we face today, the policy implications of such research cannot be underestimated.