Vulnerability, Adaptation and Climate Disasters: A Conceptual Overview
Farhana Yamin; Atiq Rahman; Saleemul Huq (2005)
How can locally identified adaptation needs be linked to national and international policies? What kind of institutional frameworks are required?
This IDS Bulletin overview article brings together insights from the country case studies, future climate research agenda, and Linking Climate Adaptation (LCA) Network rationale and plans set out in the rest of the Bulletin. In the context of several international frameworks addressing climate change and poverty – the Hyogo Framework; the Kyoto Protocol; the Gleneagles Summit Agreement and the Millennium Development Goals, the article asks what impact these might have on the poor and others vulnerable to climate change. The LCA Project aimed to ensure that poor people benefit from adaptation processes rather than having the risks caused by climate change shifted in their direction.
The article emphasises that:
Local determination of needs is important because adaptation is highly context specific.
The magnitude, geographic scale and ongoing long-term nature of climate hazards necessitates addressing the structural causes of vulnerability that cannot be addressed in a piecemeal, project-by-project fashion.
The authors conclude that
Climate vulnerability analysis should be incorporated systematically into the three main policy and institutional frameworks relevant for adaptation: development, disaster relief and climate change; and these domains should be linked more closely in policy and institutional terms.
The climate change regime should play a bridging role to reorientate development and disaster relief towards tackling the structural causes of vulnerability.
Communities must take centre stage in conducting vulnerability analysis and institutional support should be provided to support their agency in efforts to enhance their long-term capacities for adaptation. |
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