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- Convenors:
-
Nimesh Dhungana
(University of Manchester)
Gareth Clay (University of Manchester)
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- Discussants:
-
Mark Usher
(University of Manchester)
Anustha Shrestha (Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-Nepal (ISET-Nepal))
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Palmer G.05
- Sessions:
- Thursday 29 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The session aims to explore the complex and uncertain relationship between Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and climate-induced emergencies. We invite theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented papers that examine the meanings, models and impacts of CNI in the context of emergent crises.
Long Abstract:
The session seeks to explore the complex and uncertain relationship between Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and climate-induced emergencies. Ranging from transport networks, electricity grids and telecommunications to water and health systems, CNIs are expected to help protect, sustain and promote human well-being worldwide. However, in recent times, CNI's ability to withstand the cascading impacts of climate emergencies has become questionable. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, for instance, has warned that even localised climate-induced hazards such as extreme heat, wildfires, flooding and landslides can have wide-reaching impacts on vital infrastructural operations (IPCC, 2022). Additionally, the push for infrastructural-driven development in some of the climate-sensitive regions of the world (e.g., the Himalayan region) has renewed public and scholarly concerns about their adverse socio-environmental consequences.
The session invites theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented papers that examine the meanings and impacts of, and alternatives to CNI in the context of emergent crises. We invite papers that critically engage with the notions of infrastructural risk and resilience across vulnerable urban, peri-urban and rural conditions. Papers that explore how communities enduring uncertain and unequal circumstances have responded to the rising threat of infrastructural insufficiencies and breakdowns are particularly welcome. We invite interdisciplinary contributions that use the lens of participation, intersectionality and justice as they pertain to climate-sensitive infrastructure. While the focus of the panel is on CNI in the Anthropocene, we are open to contributions that look at the meaning of and relationship between CNI and human well-being in conflict and war settings.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 29 June, 2023, -Navin Khadka (BBC World Service)
Paper short abstract:
Amid accelerating climate impacts and looming threat of tipping-points, even new CNIs are increasingly vulnerable. Which means they will need to be invested in again and again but adaptation finance is scarce and loss and damage fund is not ready yet. Mis-governance and geopolitics will not help.
Paper long abstract:
Countries, particularly in the global south, are already struggling to keep up with fast-paced climatic changes. As a result, not only their old CNIs are sustaining damages, but even newly built ones are increasingly unable to withstand the impacts. Ecosystem collapses and looming threat of tipping points make them more vulnerable while in many poor countries implementation of adaptation and climate-proofing plans are severely delayed due to combination of factors like bad-governance, corruption, hinderances from bureaucracy of international financing agencies, among others. In effect, even new adaptation plans become obsolete by the time they materialise as climate impacts accelerate. Meantime, global climate action and energy transition are not at all moving at the speed science requires them to. Instead, the world is headed towards locking-in certain fossil fuels for quite sometime. All this will mean more warming and worsening climate impacts which in turn will mean countries will need to invest more and again and again in CNIs. But adaptation funds in international climate finance is already so scarce and talks on materialising loss and damage fund, that was historically created at COP27, are yet to properly begin. As if all this were not enough, geopolitics in some places are making things worse. For instance, in the Himalayan region, infrastructure-building race between China and India has hastened climatic and environmental impacts resulting in the loss of both public and private properties. Highways, railways, hydropower projects built bypassing Environment Impact Assessments are already seeing huge damages.
Vishal Pathak (All India Disaster Mitigation Institute) Mehul Pandya
Paper short abstract:
The agriculture sector employs 80% of all economically active women; comprise 33% of labour and 48% self-employed farmers. Agriculture is increasingly becoming a female activity. The government has put together an impressive set of programs; paper discusses ways to strengthen women-led adaptations.
Paper long abstract:
The effects of climate change -phenomena such as an increase in temperature, decrease in soil moisture, change in the weather pattern, loss of top fertile soil, loss of freshwater supplies, and increase in forest fires will creep on different sectors. And, ice melting, rising sea levels, and changes in rainfall may intensify hydrometeorological hazards. India, with limited resources and a high poverty rate, are more vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Women’s increased vulnerability to climate change and reduced access to climate-smart agricultural infrastructure and practices can be attributed to limited land ownership, poor access to credit, reduced access to information and formal extension, and time pressures from multiple domestic and productive demands on their time. Successful migration and high remittances can boost agricultural production and women’s empowerment, new possibilities for women and youth for climate-smart agriculture infrastructure-development.
The paper is a policy review of agriculture infrastructure and climate policies, programme, and supplement that with group discussions with women farmers, as they are key intermediary organizations with infrastructure and resources that can support women’s access at multiple levels. The review explore vital areas, such as improvements in infrastructure, extension, climate information, access to credit, and social insurance. The main factors limiting the implementation of adaptation measures are low levels of investment in workforce training and research infrastructure. Infrastructure and institutions are not used to or adapted to supporting working women. The paper identifies key issues, challenges, and opportunities and recommend possible solutions for strengthening the agriculture sector, especially for women farmers.
Uma Pradhan (University College London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores a case of reconstruction of school infrastructure after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and offers a critical frame to understand infrastructural-driven development as it relates to the tenuous nature of state-building project amidst existing social inequalities in education.
Paper long abstract:
Sunaulo School's new school infrastructure was spectacular. The new school buildings were inaugurated by Nepal's Prime Minister marking the fourth anniversary of a massive earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25, 2015. These new buildings were part of the government's long-term 'build back better' plan to transform 1000 government schools into 'model schools’ by 2022 - Sunaulo School was one such 'model schools’. The next-day local newspapers commended these shiny new palace-like buildings expressing a hope that this infrastructure would translate into quality education. The new school buildings, in this context, offer a critical frame to understand infrastructural-driven development as it relates to the tenuous nature of state-building project amidst existing social inequalities in education. As the rich literature on infrastructure point out material infrastructure is closely linked with the lived experience of unequal provisioning and differentiated social membership. These practices are not necessarily the enactments of vain affective attachment to material things. But rather, they reveal all manner of possibilities for exercising claims through material practices of negotiation. In the context of Nepal, where the education quality in government schools has remained an enduring challenge, new school infrastructure was utilised to shift the narrative from difficult issues of social inequality in education to more visible proofs of physical reconstruction. This paper, thus, questions the relationship between the reconstruction of school infrastructure and the project of state-building, both materially and discursively.
Suresh Bhattarai (ISET-Nepal) Kanchan Mani Dixit (Institute for Social and Environmental Transition Nepal) Anustha Shrestha (Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-Nepal (ISET-Nepal))
Paper short abstract:
Electricity is swiftly replacing other conventional energy sources in Nepal. If left unchecked, the hydropower sector, which susceptible to extreme weather conditions , could see an unheard-of outcome.
Paper long abstract:
Hydro-generated electricity, which accounts for 3.4% of the total energy of Nepal, has been acclaimed as a game changer in terms of sovereignty, poverty alleviation, food security, green energy, replacement of imported energy, and commodity with export potential. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), an authorized body to oversee generation, transmission, and distribution, aims for 100 % of the population having access to electricity from national grid by 2024. NEA projects consumption of electricity reaching 700 kW/per person in 5 years and is expected to rise to 1500 kW in 10 years.
Electricity is predominantly used for cooking, lighting, running family businesses and factories, irrigation, health services, and communication and transportation. Whilst the electricity, as a system, is now a lifeline of both city and rural settings, it is exposed to multiple threats such as technical, financial, political, and extreme weather. The latter has seen phenomenon rise in Nepal putting the sensitive sectors under unprecedented risk. Though "infrastructure" is the most used word among experts and the general public, the impact on them unfolding into large-scale damage, is often ignored.
This paper explores the likelihood of cascading impact of the disruption of electricity in multiple sectors. It presents assessment of the technical and non-technical perception of experts and electricity user on the likely impact of the disruption under the two scenarios: 24 hrs. and 7 days.
The finding of the study is expected to stimulate policymakers to realize the need for policy toward the safeguarding critical infrastructure in Nepal.