Climate resilience
To make societies more climate resistant, politicians can encourage more climate resilient development. This kind of development has become the new paradigm for
Tools exist to measure climate resilience. They allow for comparisons of different groups of people through standardized metrics. Objective tools use fixed and transparent definitions of resilience. Two examples for objective tools are the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) and the Livelihoods Change Over Time (LCOT).[4][5] Subjective approaches on the other hand use people's feelings of what constitutes resilience. People then self-evaluate accordingly. An example is the Subjectively-Evaluated Resilience Score (SERS).[6]
Climate resilience is closely related to climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and to the concept of climate justice.
Definition
Climate resilience is generally considered to be the ability to recover from, or to mitigate vulnerability to, climate-related shocks such as floods and droughts.[7] It is a political process that strengthens the ability of all to mitigate vulnerability to risks from, and adapt to changing patterns in, climate hazards and variability.[7]
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report defines climate resilience as follows: "Resilience [...] is defined as the capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganising in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure as well as biodiversity in case of ecosystems while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation."[1]: 7
Resilience is a useful concept because it speaks across sectors and disciplines but this also makes it open to interpretation resulting in differing, and at times competing, definitions.[7] The definition of climate resilience is heavily debated, in both conceptual and practical terms.[1]: 7
Components
Currently, the majority of work regarding climate resilience has focused on actions taken to maintain existing systems and structures. This largely relates to the capacity of social-ecological systems to sustain shocks and maintain the integrity of functional relationships in the face of external forces. However, there is a growing consensus in the academic literature that actions taken to induce structural changes must also be recognized within the definition of resilience. The three basic capacities that are understood[8][9] under the common definition are absorptive, adaptive, and transformative, each of which contributes different factors to the efforts of resilience work. This includes the capacity of social-ecological systems to renew and develop, and to utilize disturbances as opportunities for innovation and evolution of new pathways that improve the system's ability to adapt to macroscopic changes.[10] [11][12]
Key aspects include: how resilience relates to
The building of climate resilience is a highly comprehensive undertaking that involves of an eclectic array of actors and agents: individuals,
By sector
Development
"Climate resilient development" has become a new (albeit contested) paradigm for
Climate resilient development "integrates adaptation measures and their enabling conditions with
To achieve climate resilient development, the following actions are needed: increasing climate information, and financing and technical capacity for flexible and dynamic systems.[7] This needs to be coupled with greater consideration of the socio-ecological resilience and context-specific values of marginalised communities and meaningful engagement with the most vulnerable in decision making.[7] Consequently, resilience produces a range of challenges and opportunities when applied to sustainable development.[15]
Infrastructure
Infrastructure failures can have broad-reaching consequences extending away from the site of the original event, and for a considerable duration after the immediate failure. Furthermore, increasing reliance infrastructure system interdependence, in combination with the effects of climate change and population growth all contribute to increasing vulnerability and exposure, and greater probability of catastrophic failures.[16] To reduce this vulnerability, and in recognition of limited resources and future uncertainty about climate projections, new and existing long-lasting infrastructure must undergo a risk-based engineering and economic analyses to properly allocate resources and design for climate resilience.[17]
Incorporating climate projections into building and infrastructure design standards, investment and appraisal criteria, and model building codes is currently not common.[18] Some resilience guidelines and risk-informed frameworks have been developed by public entities. Such manuals can offer guidance for adaptive design methods, characterization of extremes, development of flood design criteria, flood load calculation and the application of adaptive risk management principals account for more severe climate/weather extremes.[19] One example is the "Climate Resiliency Design Guidelines" by New York City.[20]
Agriculture
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) (or climate resilient agriculture) is a set of farming methods that has three main objectives with regards to climate change.[21][22] Firstly, they use adaptation methods to respond to the effects of climate change on agriculture (this also builds resilience to climate change). Secondly, they aim to increase agricultural productivity and to ensure food security for a growing world population. Thirdly, they try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture as much as possible (for example by following carbon farming approaches). Climate-smart agriculture works as an integrated approach to managing land. This approach helps farmers to adapt their agricultural methods (for raising livestock and crops) to the effects of climate change.[22]
There are different actions to adapt to the future challenges for crops and livestock. For example, with regard to rising temperatures and
Water and sanitation
Climate-resilient water services (or climate-resilient WASH) are services that provide access to high quality drinking water during all seasons and even during extreme weather events.
Several activities can improve water security and increase resilience to climate risks: Carrying out a detailed analysis of climate risk to make climate information relevant to specific users; developing metrics for monitoring climate resilience in water systems (this will help to track progress and guide investments for water security); and using new institutional models that improve water security.[27]
Climate resilient policies can be useful for allocating water, keeping in mind that less water may be available in future. This requires a good understanding of the current and future hydroclimatic situation. For example, a better understanding of future changes in climate variability leads to a better response to their possible impacts.[28]Tools
Climate resilience framework
A climate resilience framework can better equip governments and policymakers to develop sustainable solutions that combat the effects of climate change. To begin with, climate resilience establishes the idea of
Disaster preparedness protocols
At larger governmental levels, general programs to improve climate resiliency through greater disaster preparedness are being implemented. For example, in cases such as Norway, this includes the development of more sensitive and far-reaching early warning systems for extreme weather events, creation of emergency electricity power sources, enhanced public transportation systems, and more.[32]
Measurements
Governments and development agencies are spending increasing amounts of finance to support resilience-building interventions. Resilience measurement can make valuable contributions in guiding resource allocations towards resilience-building. This includes targeted identification of vulnerability hotspots, a better understanding of the drivers of resilience, and tools to infer the impact and effectiveness of resilience-building interventions. In recent years, a large number of resilience measurement tools have emerged, offering ways to track and measure resilience at a range of scales - from individuals and households to communities and nations.[33]
Efforts to measure climate resilience currently face several technical challenges. Firstly, the definition of resilience is heavily contested, making it difficult to choose appropriate characteristics and indicators to track. Secondly, the resilience or households or communities cannot be measured using a single observable metric. Resilience is made up of a range of processes and characteristics, many of which are intangible and difficult to observe (such as social capital).[34] As a result, many resilience toolkits resort to using large lists of proxy indicators.[5]
Most of the recent initiatives to measure resilience in rural development contexts share two shortcomings: complexity and high cost.[35] USAID published a field guide for assessing climate resilience in smallholder supply chains.[36]
Most objective approaches use fixed and transparent definitions of resilience and allow for different groups of people to be compared through standardized metrics. However, as many resilience processes and capacities are intangible, objective approaches are heavily reliant on crude proxies. Examples of commonly used objective measures include the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) and the Livelihoods Change Over Time (LCOT).[4][5]
Subjective approaches to resilience measurement take a contrasting view. They assume that people have a valid understanding of their resilience and seek to factor perceptions into the measurement process.[34] They challenge the notion that experts are best placed to evaluate other people's lives. Subjective approaches use people's menu of what constitutes resilience and allow them to self-evaluate accordingly. An example is the Subjectively-Evaluated Resilience Score (SERS).[6]
Related concepts
Climate change adaptation
Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to the effects of climate change. These can be both current or expected impacts.[37] Adaptation aims to moderate or avoid harm for people, and is usually done alongside climate change mitigation. It also aims to exploit opportunities. Humans may also intervene to help adjustment for natural systems.[37] There are many adaptation strategies or options. They can help manage impacts and risks to people and nature. The four types of adaptation actions are infrastructural, institutional, behavioural and nature-based options.[38]: Figure 16.5
The need for adaptation varies from place to place. It depends on the risk to human or ecological systems.[ Adaptation needs are high for food, water and other sectors important for economic output, jobs and incomes.Climate change vulnerability
Climate change vulnerability is a concept that describes how strongly people or ecosystems are likely to be affected by climate change. Its formal definition is the "propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected" by climate change. It can apply to humans and also to natural systems (or ecosystems).[42]: 12 Issues around the capacity to cope and adapt are also part of this concept.[42]: 5 Vulnerability is a component of climate risk. Vulnerability differs within communities and also across societies, regions, and countries. It can increase or decrease over time.[42]: 12
Vulnerability is higher in some locations than in others. Certain regional factors increase vulnerability, namelyDisaster risk reduction
See also
- Ecological resilience
- Resilience in the built environment
References
- ^ a b c d e f IPCC, 2022: Summary for Policymakers [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, M. Tignor, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem (eds.)]. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 3–33, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.001.
- ^ ISSN 2059-7037. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- PMID 34826465.
- ^ a b FAO (2016). "Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis - II" (PDF).
- ^ a b c FSIN (2014). "A Common Analytical Model for Resilience Measurement" (PDF). Food Security Information Network.
- ^ a b Jones, Lindsey; D'Errico (2019). "Resilient, but from whose perspective? Like-for-like comparisons of objective and subjective measures of resilience" (PDF). London School of Economics and Political Science.
- ^ ISSN 2059-7037. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- ^ "Gender Justice in Resilience: Enabling the full performance of the system". Oxfam.
- ^ "An Introduction to Assessing Climate Resilience in Smallholder Supply Chains" (PDF). The COSA.
- ^ .
- ^ Tompkins, Emma L., and W. Neil Adger. 2004. "Does Adaptive Management of Natural Resources Enhance Resilience to Climate Change?" Ecology and Society. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/202863/
- .
- .
- .
- ^ doi:10.1002/sd.2645.
- ISBN 9780199389407.
- ISBN 978-1-4665-1825-4.
- .
- S2CID 219884545.
- ^ New York City (2020) Climate Resiliency Design Guidelines
- ^ "Climate-Smart Agriculture". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
- ^ a b "Climate-Smart Agriculture". World Bank. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
- ^ Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). "What is Climate Smart Agriculture?" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-06-04.
- ^ "Climate-Smart Agriculture Policies and planning". Archived from the original on 2016-03-31.
- PMID 34826465.
- ^ ISSN 2059-7037. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- ^ Murgatroyd A, Charles KJ, Chautard A, Dyer E, Grasham C, Hope R, et al. (2021). Water Security for Climate Resilience Report: A synthesis of research from the Oxford University REACH programme (Report). University of Oxford, UK. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- ^ Taye, Meron Teferi; Dyer, Ellen (22 August 2019). "Ethiopia's future is tied to water -- a vital yet threatened resource in a changing climate". The Conversation. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ .
- hdl:10535/6243.
- S2CID 33966731.
- S2CID 19749797.
- ^ Schipper, Lisa (2015). "A comparative overview of resilience measurement frameworks analyzing indicators and approaches" (PDF). Overseas Development Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-01-30. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
- ^ ISSN 1757-7799.
- ^ COSA. 2017. Elena Serfilippi and Daniele Giovannucci, Simpler Resilience Measurement: Tools to Diagnose and Improve How Households Fare in Difficult Circumstances from Conflict to Climate Change. Philadelphia, PA: The Committee on SustainabilityAssessment © COSA 2017.
- ^ "An Introduction to Assessing Climate Resilience in Smallholder Supply Chains USAID Feed the Future Learning Community for Supply Chain Resilience" (PDF). Sustainable Food Lab. 2018.
- ^
- ^ Kasotia, Paritosh (2007). "The Health Effects Of Global Warming: Developing Countries Are The Most Vulnerable". United Nations.
- ^ "Unprecedented Impacts of Climate Change Disproportionately Burdening Developing Countries, Delegate Stresses, as Second Committee Concludes General Debate". United Nations. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
- S2CID 247956525.
- ^
- ^ a b UNGA (2016). Report of the open-ended intergovernmental expert working group on indicators and terminology relating to disaster risk reduction. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
- ISSN 1757-7780.
“Hallegatte, Stephane; Anjum, Rubaina; Avner, Paolo; Shariq, Ammara; Winglee, Michelle; Knudsen, Camilla. 2021. Integrating Climate Change and Natural Disasters in the Economic Analysis of Projects: A Disaster and Climate Risk Stress Test Methodology. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35751 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.