Implementing Climate Change Adaptation Research Articles

Climate change adaptation across businesses in Australia: interpretations, implementations, and interactions

Climate change and associated processes can increase the occurrence of some natural hazards and threaten business operations. Therefore, it is widely recommended businesses respond to climate change and implement climate change adaptation. Worldwide, businesses make efforts towards climate change adaptation, but investigation on such efforts is still required. To partially fill this research gap, the paper explores businesses adaptation efforts in the Hunter Valley, Australia. The paper collects primary data from open-ended interviews to 10 representatives of local businesses and supporting organizations. The paper reveals that businesses interpret climate change in different ways. While some businesses are sceptical about climate change, others are aware of it and its impacts on everyday operations. Businesses therefore implement adaptation by integrating climate change into everyday operations and continuity planning. The paper also shows diverse interactions occurring between businesses and other local stakeholders such as governments and communities. Usually, higher government levels offer vague and limited support to businesses and inhibit their adaptive efforts. Meanwhile, interactions between businesses and City Councils can be both collaborative and fragmented. Some businesses also interact with local communities by disclosing information about their operations and response to climate change. The paper discusses these findings and provides conclusions under the form of recommendations for policy and research on Australian businesses and climate change adaptation.

Environmental Governance and Climate Change Adaptation in Indonesia

This paper examines environmental governance in climate change adaptation efforts in Indonesia. Climate Change has been a common concern, especially since the signing of 194 countries in the Paris Agreement. Climate change adaptation is one of the points in the Paris Agreement as an effort to implement commitments to tackle global climate change. Climate change adaptation is one of the responses made by humans in facing climate change in addition to mitigation. Adaptation is carried out to reduce vulnerability to the effects of climate change. The Indonesian government has made various climate change adaptation efforts, including preparing national policy documents such as INDC, RAN-API, and related regulations to address the impacts of climate change. However, the research results show that strengthening climate change adaptation efforts needs to be balanced with commitment from sharing parties, strengthening the role of the private sector, and proper budget planning. Committees here are associated with the alignment of central and regional policies and the compliance of local governments in implementing climate change adaptation policies. The private sector's role emphasized the contribution of activities and finance to climate change adaptation efforts through corporate social responsibility programs.

Climate Smart Actions “Saung Iklim” for Smallholder Farmers in Subang District, West Java, Indonesia

The implementation of climate change adaptation for crop production is often ineffective among farmers due to a lack of access to climatic data and inadequate knowledge on how to use the available data. The project introduced the utilization of climate data via the Climate Smart Action "Saung Iklim" application to targeted stakeholders (i.e., agricultural extension workers and farmer representatives) designed to improve farm management. The term “Saung Iklim” originally means a place where people can learn about the use of climate information for farming activities. Therefore, strengthening stakeholders’ capacity is an essential element of "Saung Iklim", which has been conducted via a series of training activities using various modules and focus group discussions. The project selected one of the major production centres of rice in Indonesia, namely the District of Subang. The district government formed a task force named “Tim Iklim”, consisting of the targeted stakeholders, to assist the project team in delivering the targeted project outputs. The project team, in collaboration with Tim Iklim, produced the modules on utilizing simulations of crop models for managing climate risks. The involvement of the stakeholders was to accommodate their input and understanding so that the modules are ready for practical purposes. The project also equipped Tim Iklim with a dedicated website, containing crop simulation model (CSM) outputs, modules, online surveys, and forums, to facilitate information delivery on managing farm risks to climate exposures.

Philippine Institutions and Complex Institutional Arrangements for Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture

Addressing climate change necessitates creating new, or building the capacity of old, institutions. Institutions are vital tools that determine the intensity by which climate change considerations are incorporated into the decision-making process, designs, and plans. This article aims to illustrate that it is necessary to understand the institutional environment where the CCA endeavors will be implemented such that local climate change adaptation (CCA) policies, plans, and programs can be implemented effectively. The paper also intends to demonstrate that, along with the scientific and technological discussions, institutional conversations should be among the initial vital steps in CCA planning, and that the institutional dimension should be the foundation of broader reforms toward an effective CCA implementation. The paper accomplished this by investigating the conditions in the local agriculture and CCA in the Philippines. The paper applied the Institutional Environment Matrix as the main analytical framework. The analysis showed that the existing institutional dynamics in the Philippines have impacted the effectiveness of the introduced CCA policies and efforts. The Local Government Code of the Philippines had counterproductive interplays with other institutional rules; first in agriculture, and afterwards, in CCA. The Code has devolved tasks to the local governments, provided local government units with extensive authority over their jurisdictions, and improved autonomy in local governance. However, it lacks the arrangements that would create (dis)incentives for individual and collective actions (i.e., rewards and penalties, payoffs on actions). Likewise, institutional mechanisms to support the devolution of government services are wanting. Such institutional environment in local governance has curtailed the effectiveness of local agricultural policies and the efficient implementation of new CCA policies. This article advocates that analyzing the institutional environment where the CCA endeavors will be implemented will enable policy makers and CCA planners to understand better and to have deeper perception of the interlinkages between and among institutional arrangements. In the case of the Philippines, if the local agricultural institutional environment was considered in the design and implementation of the CCA policies, institutional support mechanisms that can address the existing issues and concerns in local agriculture may have been incorporated into these policies. Such action may have helped implementers to avoid the same difficulties in operationalizing CCA initiatives. Accordingly, the paper analyzed how CCA is operationalized through an institutional lens, and presented how institutional analysis is important in policy making. It further demonstrated the complexity of institutional linkages and raised the conversation on the institutional dimension of CCA.

Climate change adaptation planning in remote contexts: insights from community-based natural resource management and rural development initiatives in the Pacific Islands

ABSTRACT Planned climate change adaptation initiatives are being developed with both external and endogenous resources at an increasing rate, especially in developing countries. As climate change continues to pose risks to vulnerable communities, there is a growing need to identify lessons learned in the process of planning and implementing climate change adaptation strategies. This is even more pressing for communities in remote contexts where access to resources and support services is limited. This study used thematic analysis to identify key insights from a 20-year old community-based resource management and development initiative on a remote island in Fiji. Four themes emerged relating to: perceptions of environmental change, links between conservation initiatives and people’s livelihoods, balance between external support and community-driven efforts, and the continuity of initiatives. Whilst acknowledging that every community in the Pacific has unique capacities for dealing with climate change, the four identified themes are considered applicable to other subsistence-dominated peripheral communities within Fiji, the Pacific Islands region and beyond. This has the potential to improve planning processes and ensure both continuity and efficacy of efforts towards supporting sustainable livelihoods in communities already experiencing the impacts of climate change.

Determinants of farmers\u2019 adaptation decisions to climate change in the central coastal region of Vietnam

This study examined measures and factors influencing the climate change adaptation decisions of smallholder farmers holding less than 0.5 hectares of farmland. The binary logit model was applied to analyze data collected by face-to-face interviews with 110 households in Phu Vang Coastal District, Thua Thien Hue Province, Central Vietnam. The findings indicate that most farmers accurately perceived climate-related changes during the recent decade, and implemented various adaptation measures in an effort to alleviate the potential risks. Adaptations included changing crop varieties, adjusting farming calendar, diversifying crops, diversifying livestock, improving irrigation, and intensifying soil quality. In addition, the farming household adaptation decisions were positively affected by gender, education level, number of laborers, income level, involvement in local community organizations, and perception of climate change severity and adaptation measure efficacy. Farmer adaptations, in contrast, were negatively influenced by non-farm income and entirely unaffected by access to credit. Policy-related recommendations were proposed to encourage smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change in the region. Recommendations included (1) improvements in the understanding of climate change, especially for female and less educated farmers; (2) more attention paid to the activities of local community organizations to be more attractive for members; (3) participation in the non-agricultural sector in parallel with implementing climate change adaptation measures in agriculture; (4) preferential loans designed as targets for low-income households combined with strict management to avoid misuse by beneficiaries.

제주도 기후변화 적응계획 수립과 이행의 한계 요인

기후위기가 심각해지면서 적응이 갈수록 중요해지고 있다. 적응은 지역을 기반으로 접근해야 하지만 지역 기반적응을 가로막거나 힘들게 하는 장애 요소에 대한 논의는 부족한 실정이다. 이 연구에서는 우리나라 17개 광역자치단체 중 유일한 특별자치도인 제주도가 기후변화 적응계획을 수립하고 이행하는 데 있어서 마주하는 한계 요인을 살펴보았다. 선행연구 검토를 통해 한계 요인을 크게 ‘정보 수집과 현황 조사’, ‘적응 계획 수립’, ‘적응 계획 이행’ 3가지로 나누어 살펴본 결과, 예산부족, 성과주의, 인식 부족 등의 요인을 발견할 수 있었다. 기후위기에 대한 지역단위의 적응 역량을 구축하고 강화해나가기 위해서는 이 연구에서 발견한 한계 요인들을 지속적으로 보완해 나가야 할 것이다.

Institutional Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in Burkina Faso: How could We Go around Them?

Despite the existence of a National Adaptation Plan to climate change (NAP) in Burkina Faso, operationalizing adaptation still face a number of challenges. The current study focused on identifying institutional barriers to the strategic objectives of climate change adaptation (CCA) using a literature review and semi-structured interviews conducted with key stakeholders / resource persons involved in the implementation of the NAP. The results revealed a weak collaboration between the NAP steering institution and the ministerial departments covered by the NAP. This situation, first, hampers the implementation of adaptation actions and secondly, the monitoring reporting and verification of adaptation initiatives. Further, the analysis revealed that lack of financial resources poses constraints to many actions that were to be taken by the steering institution and therefore creates poor ownership of the NAP by the main stakeholders that should be actively involved in the NAP process. To cope with the various constraints, it is necessary to have strong political support in many aspects. For instance, it was judged that institutionalizing the role of climate change (CC) focal point within the ministries and embedding NAP monitoring and evaluation (M&E) objectives and indicators with existing functional M&E systems in the sectorial ministries will ease CCA actions integration in operational plans, their implementation and documentation. Moreover, it is relevant to have a continuous capacity building plan to keep stakeholders updated on climate change issues as this will support them in their mandate of mainstreaming CC into ministerial operational plans and lead to optimal CCA implementation and monitoring.

Quantifying Loss of Benefits from Poor Governance of Climate Change Adaptation Projects: A Discrete Choice Experiment with Farmers in Kenya

Climate change impacts pose a great challenge to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa as droughts become more frequent and more severe. A major roadblock to implementing climate change adaptation measures is poor governance. Given their experience with governing organizations, farmers are highly suitable to assess the appropriateness of different governing organizations to implement adaptation measures on the ground. We surveyed 283 farmers in Makueni County in Kenya applying the choice experiment method to assess their preferences in relation to different attributes of a sand storage dam project – including the organization governing the dam construction. We find that farmers prefer an NGO as the governing organization, followed closely by a farmer network and, with some distance, a government institution. For the whole of Makueni County, we find that benefits of $ 320,426 are lost if farmer networks are the governing organizations instead of NGOs and $ 1,779,596 if government institutions govern the dam construction instead of NGOs. On a methodological level, our study contributes to improving the application of choice experiments in developing countries as it draws attention to the importance of carefully selecting the payment vehicle for successful project implementation.

Free prior and informed consent in the Green Climate Fund: the implementation of a project in the Datém del Marañón, Peru

In the context of implementation of climate change adaptation and resilience projects, Indigenous communities’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is becoming a mandatory requirement. The present paper, after giving an overview of the requirement of FPIC in international law, addresses the issue of a climate resilience project financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in Peru. Such project is being implemented in Indigenous territories in the Datém del Marañon region. At the time of approval by the GCF Board, the proposed project raised protests from Indigenous communities as they claimed they were not properly consulted before the disbursement of funding. This episode evidenced how the GCF needed to adopt an ad hoc policy to engage with Indigenous peoples respecting the FPIC requirement as prescribed by international law. The present paper demonstrates that the Indigenous Peoples Policy, adopted in February 2018 by the GCF, is an example of harmonization with international law requirements for FPIC such as those prescribed by the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights. Finally, the paper aims at evidencing the challenge represented by the excessive state-centred structure of the GCF, which needs to be overcome to facilitate a true participatory dialogue with Indigenous peoples.

Free prior and informed consent in the Green Climate Fund: the implementation of a project in the Datém del Marañón, Peru

In the context of implementation of climate change adaptation and resilience projects, Indigenous communities’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is becoming a mandatory requirement. The present paper, after giving an overview of the requirement of FPIC in international law, addresses the issue of a climate resilience project financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in Peru. Such project is being implemented in Indigenous territories in the Datém del Marañon region. At the time of approval by the GCF Board, the proposed project raised protests from Indigenous communities as they claimed they were not properly consulted before the disbursement of funding. This episode evidenced how the GCF needed to adopt an ad hoc policy to engage with Indigenous peoples respecting the FPIC requirement as prescribed by international law. The present paper demonstrates that the Indigenous Peoples Policy, adopted in February 2018 by the GCF, is an example of harmonization with international law requirements for FPIC such as those prescribed by the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights. Finally, the paper aims at evidencing the challenge represented by the excessive state-centred structure of the GCF, which needs to be overcome to facilitate a true participatory dialogue with Indigenous peoples.

Increasing the Adaptation Pathways Capacity of Land Use Planning – Insights from New South Wales, Australia

ABSTRACT Australian local governments are expected to be the frontline of climate change adaptation implementation, but existing institutional arrangements are inadequate. Institutional changes that make adaptation pathways part of land use planning policy are needed and how this might happen is assessed using New South Wales (NSW), Australia, as a case study. The most effective implementation mechanism is identified as an independent adaptation statute integrated with land use planning. The institutional assessment approach employed is potentially useful for identifying adaptation policy implications in planning systems and is of relevance to ogoing research into local level adaptation.

Sustainable Territories Adapted to the Climate: Insights from a New University Course Designed and Delivered in Guatemala

Since 2014, the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security has collaborated with different stakeholders to implement climate change adaptation approaches and practices in critical locations in the Central American Dry Corridor. A new university course for professionals in the Dry Corridor aims to scale these approaches and practices. This article presents the core elements of the course, summarizes the main results, and offers recommendations for future editions. It was observed that the different trajectories and experiences of professionals participating in the first edition of the course facilitated a lively exchange of knowledge, the integration of local experiences in teaching, and the integration of learning in follow up proposals of governmental and non-governmental organizations. The following aspects should be central in future course editions: diversity of participants, adaptation of didactic strategies to the needs of different users, and follow-up support, as well as the integration of course concepts and practices in the actions of different organizations. The latter requires strong organizational commitment.

Land Cover and Land Use Change-Driven Dynamics of Soil Organic Carbon in North-East Slovakian Croplands and Grasslands Between 1970 and 2013

Abstract Soil organic carbon (SOC) in agricultural land forms part of the global terrestrial carbon cycle and it affects atmospheric carbon dioxide balance. SOC is sensitive to local agricultural management practices that sum up into regional SOC storage dynamics. Understanding regional carbon emission and sequestration trends is, therefore, important in formulating and implementing climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. In this study, the estimation of SOC stock and regional storage dynamics in the Ondavská Vrchovina region (North-Eastern Slovakia) cropland and grassland topsoil between 1970 and 2013 was performed with the RothC model and gridded spatial data on weather, initial SOC stock and historical land cover and land use changes. Initial SOC stock in the 0.3-m topsoil layer was estimated at 38.4 t ha−1 in 1970. The 2013 simulated value was 49.2 t ha−1, and the 1993–2013 simulated SOC stock values were within the measured data range. The total SOC storage in the study area, cropland and grassland areas, was 4.21 Mt in 1970 and 5.16 Mt in 2013, and this 0.95 Mt net SOC gain was attributed to inter-conversions of cropland and grassland areas between 1970 and 2013, which caused different organic carbon inputs to the soil during the simulation period with a strong effect on SOC stock temporal dynamics.

Climate change adaptation impact on cash crop productivity and income in Punjab province of Pakistan.

Assessing the current farm-level efforts of climate change adaptation is essential to distinguish their usefulness and implying policy level advance measures for future. The present study investigated cotton farmers' climate change adaptation and its impact on increasing cotton productivity and net cotton income in Punjab province of Pakistan. A pretested and well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection of 480 cotton farmers from three major cotton-producing divisions of cotton-wheat zone of Punjab, Pakistan. Logistic regression analysis approach was used in this study to find out the factors of adaptation and propensity score matching method employed to identify connecting adaptation impact on cotton productivity and cotton income. Empirical estimates of this study indicated as owing to some external and internal constraint farmers were limited focused on adaptation while conscious about adverse effects of climate change. Usage of required and recommended types of fertilizer, variation in planting dates, and changing varieties of crop were main adaptation strategies implemented by cotton farmers. Cotton farmers' adaptation decision was significantly influenced by some major factors as weather forecasting, market information, easy access to agricultural extension services, farming experience, and education of cotton farmer. Farm-level increase in cotton productivity and net cotton crop income was direct while overall increases in national output and improving rural area farmer well-being were indirect and significant outcomes of implementing climate change adaptation of cotton farmers. Cotton farmers were using various combinations of adaptation strategies and achieving more benefits regarding their crop productivity and net returns. Findings of the study suggest need for larger investment in farm-level extension services, farmers' schooling, and develop climate change institutional setup for enhancing farmers' adaptation capability to increasing cotton productivity, improving well-being of farming community, and securing agriculture from future climatic uncertainties. Future policies must deal with farm-level limitations of advanced adaptation measures like making available information and sustaining sponsoring soil conservation practices, launching climate smart varieties and advanced adaptation measures based on various agro-ecological zones.

Identifying local governance capacity needs for implementing climate change adaptation in Mauritius

ABSTRACTThe IPCC 1.5°C Report lists identifying local capacity needs as key for enabling multi-level governance to effectively respond to climate change. Mauritius, as a Small Island State, is disproportionately affected by climate change, primarily due to its exposure to impacts, as well as various constraints in size and resources. Identifying and integrating local capacity needs into recommendations for policy measures is therefore urgently required to support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its National Adaptation Plan process. This study carries out a local governance assessment based on evaluative criteria to identify local capacity needs for implementing climate change adaptation in Mauritius. Results from the assessment indicate that local governance suffers from issues inherent to Small Island States, such as lack of technical know-how, financial and human resources, stringent legislation and effective monitoring mechanisms, preventing effective climate change adaptation. Through participatory, bottom-up stakeholder engagement with local and national government representatives, eight recommendations for policy formulation were then co-developed to address the identified capacity needs, and to improve cooperation between local and national institutions for more effective implementation of climate change adaptation.Key policy insightsLocal climate change adaptation needs have to be integrated into policy formulation for an effective response to climate change impacts.Roles and responsibilities of government levels for climate change adaptation in Mauritius are currently in need of clarification.Capacity building measures at the local level for implementing climate change actions from national government are urgently required.Stringent legislation and effective monitoring mechanisms need to be implemented to ensure planning regulations are adhered to.Increased collaboration between local and national levels of government in Mauritius is necessary for synthesizing a common approach to climate change adaptation.

Fatalism, Climate Resiliency Training and Farmers’ Adaptation Responses: Implications for Sustainable Rainfed-Wheat Production in Pakistan

Climate change is a severe threat to the agricultural sector in general and to rainfed farming in particular. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that can potentially affect the adaptation process against climate change. This study focused on wheat farmers and farming systems in the rainfed agroecological zone of Pakistan. Farmers’ data related to climate change fatalism, the availability of climate-specific extension services, socioeconomic and institutional variables, and farm characteristics were collected. A logit model to assess farmers’ decisions to adopt an adaptation measure and a multinomial logit model to assess their choice of various adaptation measures were used. The results showed that fatalistic farmers were unlikely to implement climate change adaptation measures. The variables related to the climate-specific extension services, including farmers’ participation in training on climate-resilient crop farming and the availability of mobile communication-based advisory services, had highly significant and positive impacts on farmers’ decisions and their choice of adaptation measures. Input market access and tractor ownership also had positive and significant impacts on farmers’ decisions to adapt and their choice of adaptation measures. This study highlights the need to improve rainfed-wheat farmers’ education levels to change their fatalistic attitudes towards climate change. Furthermore, government action is needed to provide climate-specific extension services to ensure sustainable production levels that will ultimately lead to food and livelihood security under a changing climate.

A study on the evaluation system of climate policy measures in the water resource sector: A case study of Chungcheongnam-do’s climate change adaptation implementation plan

A study on the evaluation system of climate policy measures in the water resource sector: A case study of Chungcheongnam-do’s climate change adaptation implementation plan

Climate change adaptation strategies: a prospect toward crop modelling and food security management

This study is to assess the current trend of implemented climate change adaptation strategies, food security management system, and crop modelling in the context of Lechraganj Char Union, Harirampur Subdistrict, Bangladesh. The adverse impacts on the local char dwellers of various major disasters in the study area are mainly drought; flood, riverbank erosion, and norwester accelerated by climate change were elaborated in this study as well. This research paper also analyzes the implemented pre-disaster and post-disaster approaches of various climate change adaptation strategies to insecure the food security system by the local villagers. Both primary and secondary sources were used to illustrate the research problem and receiving proper outputs from the precised structure of the study. The nature and types of food insufficiency, migration process, occupation changes, agriculture process, socio-economic condition, and governmental and non-governmental organization steps in the study area were considered as research trimming.

Modeling the potential climate change- induced impacts on future genus Rhipicephalus (Acari: Ixodidae) tick distribution in semi-arid areas of Raya Azebo district, Northern Ethiopia

BackgroundClimate change is believed to be continuously affecting ticks by influencing their habitat suitability. However, we attempted to model the climate change-induced impacts on future genus Rhipicephalus distribution considering the major environmental factors that would influence the tick. Therefore, 50 tick occuance points were taken to model the potential distribution using maximum entropy (MaxEnt) software and 19 climatic variables, taking into account the ability for future climatic change under representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5, were used.ResultsMaxEnt model performance was tested and found with the AUC value of 0.99 which indicates excellent goodness-of-fit and predictive accuracy. Current models predict increased temperatures, both in the mid and end terms together with possible changes of other climatic factors like precipitation which may lead to higher tick-borne disease risks associated with expansion of the range of the targeted tick distribution. Distribution maps were constructed for the current, 2050, and 2070 for the two greenhouse gas scenarios and the most dramatic scenario; RCP 8.5 produced the highest increase probable distribution range.ConclusionsThe future potential distribution of the genus Rhipicephalus show potential expansion to the new areas due to the future climatic suitability increase. These results indicate that the genus population of the targeted tick could emerge in areas in which they are currently lacking; increased incidence of tick-borne diseases poses further risk which can affect cattle production and productivity, thereby affecting the livelihood of smallholding farmers. Therefore, it is recommended to implement climate change adaptation practices to minimize the impacts.