Climate Change Risk Management Research Articles

Climate Change Risk Management and Coping Strategies for Sustainable Camel Production in the Case of Somali Region, Ethiopia

Climate changes are threatening the production of a camel in the Ethiopian Somali region. Its risk management and suitable coping strategies are not yet studied in the study area. Therefore, the current study is very crucial to assess the climate change risks management and coping strategies for sustainable camel production. Primary and secondary data were collected. During this study, 20 households were purposively selected from each kebelles. Simple Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. 19.6% of the respondents suggested that the impact of climate were Camel disease incidence, Feed shortage, and Water shortage equally. Furthermore, the study showedn that climate change impacts negatively on camel production and thus camel owners need to use risk management and coping strategies. 24.8% usedwere use Temporary camel relocation to other zones. While, Restocking, Planting drought tolerant browses trees and Conservingconserving rain water were the next strategies respectively. Awareness creation among pastoralists and agropastoral regarding on the dangers of climate change, and risk management and coping strategies for sustainable camel production, vigorous dissemination of the technologies/ / information and follow-up to ensure utilization and/or application are strongly recommended. Beside,Besides, Government should also assist camel farmers with reliable water sources such as canals and dams.

The relationship between insurance companies and natural disaster risk reduction: overview of the key characteristics and mechanisms dealing with climate change

The analysis proposed in this study concerns literature reviews among the ways in which insurance companies cope with climate change, natural disasters and climate risk management. The paper aims to explore the several adaptation measures against climate change adopted by insurance companies for the development of models able developing an acceptable risk forecast. The importance of the paper is substantiated in a structural analytical study of the most important literature on the adaptation of insurance companies to climate change, highlighting the methodologies and specific cases. The conclusions of the paper highlight the natural relevance and relationship between insurance companies, the mandatory interface that year after year the insurance companies have to face and especially the numerous tools that have been developed by the latter in the insurance and reinsurance field for the natural hazards.

Integration anxiety: The cognitive isolation of climate change

Abstract Experts recommend that decision-makers in climate-vulnerable sectors integrate, or ‘mainstream’, climate change adaptation into their decision-making. Farmers are often thought to do so intuitively, because many climate change impacts will manifest in similar ways to the weather and climate variability that farmers have always faced. However, there is little evidence to suggest whether farmers are already doing this, how they should go about it, and how hard it might be. Here we show that commercial grain farmers in South Africa (N = 90), as a uniquely informative group, are struggling to mainstream climate change risk management despite their apparent incentive, capacity and willingness to adapt. They perform large-scale, highly mechanized, input-intensive grain farming like their peers in higher-income countries (e.g., the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia), but without the government subsidies, crop insurance and irrigation more common in other regions. They are therefore motivated to adapt proactively because they are more vulnerable to the financial harms of weather and climate risks. Our data show that they are explicitly sensitive to the risks of climate change, generally expressing concern for its potential impacts, reporting observed changes, proposing possible adaptations, and expressing the desire to adapt proactively. However, their mental models of climate change (n = 30) are linguistically and structurally isolated from their mental models of weather and other ‘normal’ risks. They are therefore implicitly insensitive to climate change, making it unlikely that they will adapt proactively and rationally to this uncertain risk that they otherwise appear well-equipped to manage.

Insurance and Climate Change Risk Management: Rescaling to Look Beyond the Horizon

AbstractClimate change represents a significant financial risk to the insurance industry, but research has yet to assess whether the industry is managing this risk. Through the application of scale as a vertically nested hierarchy of relationships, this paper seeks to evaluate whether insurers are ‘rescaling’ risk management practices to accommodate the temporal and spatial uncertainty associated with climate change. This framework is applied to a content analysis of 178 (183) firm responses to the 2012 (2015) U.S. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Climate Risk Disclosure Survey to detect evidence of rescaling through climate change risk management (CCRM). The results reveal that the majority of companies do not integrate climate change into their risk management practices, but reinsurers are rescaling in a greater proportion than primary insurers. This finding confirms that a nested spatial and temporal scale in the insurance industry creates resistance to CCRM. The use of scale contributes to emerging scholarship on organizations and climate change by offering a framework for measuring organizational responses and justifying a research agenda on rescaling strategies as a means of risk management.

Perceived impacts of climate change and disaster risk management by rural communities in Ethiopia

In developing countries including Ethiopia changing pattern of rainfall, increasing temperature, recurrent drought, massive land degradation, and poor performance of agricultural sector contribute for failure to meet the growing demands for food for the rural communities and left dependent on foreign food aid and seasonal migration. This study aims at examining the perceived impacts of climate change and disaster risk management by rural communities in Ethiopia. Cross-sectional socio-economic data were used. Dejen district was purposively selected as it is highly susceptible to climate related problems. Stratified and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select a sample of 398 households. Household survey was employed to collect data on climate change impacts perceived by local communities. Focus group discussions were carried out using guiding questions and seasonal calendar. Key informant interviews were used to triangulate households’ perceived climate change impacts. Field observations were used to observe biophysical, economic, social, and institutional features of the district. The results indicate that crop pests, soil erosion, crop disease, frost, drought, flood, hailstorm, and erratic rainfall were the major contributing factor for the loss of 50,555 quintals of agricultural cops over the period 2009-2016. The community seasonal calendar indicate that erratic rainfall, hailstorm, dry period, flood, landslide, livestock disease, crop disease and pests, and human diseases were the major climatic events in the study areas of rural communities. The lowland households were more susceptible to climate change impacts. Policy priority should be given based on the agro-ecology and households livelihood assets vulnerability levels

Developing climate-smart agriculture to face climate variability in West Africa: Challenges and lessons learnt

This paper reviewed the prospects for climate-smart agriculture (CSA) development and promotion in West Africa as well as lessons learnt and challenges with a focus on climate change and variability. It was evident from the literature that West Africa is vulnerable to climate change and variability, on account of its socio-economic and physical characteristics. As climate change and variability persists, the region's quest to use agriculture as the mainstream opportunity to deliver on set targets of the sustainable development goals will be strongly challenged without appropriate interventions. Adopting CSA seems to be a suitable strategy to achieving food security while also mitigating and adapting to climate-related risks. Among numerous CSA technologies, the review found (1) agroforestry (farmer-managed natural regenerations), soil and water conservation technologies (zai, half-moon, tie/contour ridges, conservation agriculture) and (3) climate information services as highly valued promising options for climate change adaptation and risk management in West Africa. In addition, institutional settings at the community, national and regional levels such as the establishment of multi-stakeholder innovation platforms, national science policy dialogue platforms on CSA in parts of West Africa and the formulation of the West Africa CSA Alliance were found to be crucial in promoting capacity development and awareness of CSA technologies and innovations in the region. The review found that CSA still faces a number of challenges, including: lack of clear conceptual understanding, limited enabling policy and financing. The prospects of CSA in West Africa hinge on the capacities of farming households and the region's national institutions to understand the environmental, economic and social challenges in the context of climate change, and consequently self-mobilize to develop and implement responsive policies at appropriate scales.

The Climate Change Vulnerability and Risk Management Matrix for the Coastal Zone of The Gambia

Global Climate Change is one of the dire challenges facing the international community today. Coastal zones are vulnerable to its impacts. An effective approach with long-term prospects in addressing climate change impacts is it’s mainstreaming into development agenda of sectoral policies. A comprehensive risk and vulnerability assessment is a pre-requisite to ensure that the right adaptive response is taken for effective integration into developmental plans. The objective of this study is to evaluate and prioritize risks, vulnerability and adaptation issues of current and anticipated impacts of climate change on the coastal zone of The Gambia. The study will also give a methodological contribution for assessing risks, vulnerability and adaptation from the sub-national to local levels. The relevance of this study will be to create a link between the sub-national and local levels in order to facilitate the integration and mainstreaming of climate change into sectoral and local policies for more climate-resilient communities. This will aid in the promotion of strategic investment of constrained developmental resources to actualize successfully dynamic coping strategies, elude ‘maladaptation’ and less compelling responsive measures. A purposive expert sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. The findings of the study reveal that by the end of the 21st century, the climatic variables likely to have the highest impact on the coastal zone of The Gambia are ‘increased flood severity’ and ‘increased temperature’. The coastal zone of The Gambia showed a high vulnerability to these climate change variables. The suggested adaptive response in addressing the impacts of increased flood intensity in the study area includes; improving regulations for restricting agriculture and livestock grazing activities to improve land cover; strengthening of early-warning systems, among others. The suggested adaptive response in addressing the increase in temperature includes: increase crop diversification and rotation to reduce total crop failure; switching to drought-tolerant crop and animal species, among others.

Analyzing the Likelihood and Impact of Climate Change Risks for Efficient Risk Management - A Case of ChungCheongbuk-Province, Korea -

산업의 발달로 전 세계적인 지구온난화가 진행되었고, 이로 인한 급격한 기후변화가 세계 각처에서 일어나고 있다. 하지만 현재 기후변화 문제의 심각성에도 불구하고 기후변화 리스크 관리에 관한 연구는 거의 이루어지지 않고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 기후변화 리스크의 효율적 관리를 위해 발생가능성 및 발생영향의 특성을 분석하고자 한다. 이를 위해 국내외 문헌조사를 통해 리스크 목록을 작성하고 전문가 설문을 실시하여 각각의 리스크에 대한 발생가능성 및 영향을 평가한 후 SPSS를 통해 요인분석을 실시하였다. 분석결과, 각각의 리스크 부문에서 중요하게 평가된 요인 특성을 도출하였고, 발생가능성과 발생영향간의 특성차이도 확인하였다. 이를 통해 기후변화 리스크를 효율적으로 관리하기 위해 예방적 측면을 집중적으로 관리해야 하는 리스크와 대응적 측면을 집중적으로 관리해야 하는 리스크를 구분할 수 있었다.The industrial revolution has led to global warming worldwide, Problems are occurring around the world. Despite the seriousness of the current climate change problem, little research has been done on climate change risk management. Therefore, we need to study risk, a key element in responding to climate change. The purpose of this study is to analyze the likelihood and impacts for the effective management of climate change risks. To do this, we employed expert questionnaire survey on likelihood and impact of climate change risks and conducted a factor analysis. As a result of the analysis, this study identified the characteristics of the factors that were important in the risk and confirmed the difference between likelihood and impact of climate change risks. Finally, in terms of climate change risk management, it possible to effectively manage climate change by classifying the risks that need to be focused on preventive aspects and the risks that need to focus on responsive aspects.

Interactions between scientific and social rationality: recommendation of intermediate layer for transdisciplinary sustainable science

This study analyzes how two different kinds of rationality—scientific and social—interact with each other with respect to the management of global climate change (GCC) risks. Interactions between scientific and social rationalities have two meanings: one is interaction between researchers and citizens (science and society), and the other is interaction between natural scientists and social scientists (among disciplines). As for former meaning, the present study conducted several attempts of “talking about climate” with citizens as transdisciplinary research practice in sustainable science. As for the latter meaning, the present study conducted transdisciplinary research among social scientists and natural scientists. The results show that there are three types of understanding on GCC: (A) understanding of the mechanism of GCC, (B) understanding of the effect of GCC, and (C) understanding of the countermeasures. The results also show the gaps between the understanding of experts and that of citizens: whereas experts want to show a Type A understanding first and then Type B followed by Type C, citizens tend to focus on Types B and C first. In addition, natural scientists tend to divide value-free statements and value-laden statements, whereas social scientists tend to consider that every statement includes value judgements. Here, natural scientists think of themselves as being neutral, because they divide technical issues and ethical issues, while citizens think that experts are not neutral, because they see natural scientists as putting more value on GCC risks than other risks. It is easy in scientific papers to criticize dichotomy between facts and value and linear model in which the interaction between science and policy is conceived of as unidimensional, linear, and one way: from science to policy. However, in actual interaction in transdisciplinary practice, these kinds of dichotomy and linear model still underlie in the base of experts’ thinking. To overcome these kinds of gaps between experts and citizen as well as between natural scientists and social scientists, we recommended a discussion space as an intermediate layer between government, experts, and public.

Adaptación al cambio climático en Venezuela: ¿quiénes y cómo se investiga?

La construcción de una agenda de Adaptación al cambio climático es un proceso políticamente complejo, ni neutral, ni intrínsecamente benigno que crea un campo discursivo para la acción de distintas entidades sociales, con intereses y perspectivas particulares que proponen direcciones de transformación con efectos sociales concretos. Cabe preguntarse entonces, cuáles son esas direcciones, desde dónde se hacen y a qué posición política tributan. Para Venezuela, nación considerada como Vulnerable por Naciones Unidas (CMNUCC) ¿qué caracteriza al discurso tecnopolítico con el que contribuye su comunidad académica a esa agenda? y ¿cómo representa el proceso de Adaptación en él?. En este trabajo se respondieron estas preguntas analizando la estructura de las redes de colaboración y capital social asociado a los autores y grupos de investigación identificados en la literatura, así como sus prácticas científicas, descritas a través de la sistematización de información relativa a los enfoques metodológicos, productividad científica entre otros. Se encuentra una comunidad altamente fragmentada inscrita en la narrativa de gestión de riesgos y contención de impactos del cambio climático, característica del momento histórico de construcción de consensos multilaterales y de la noción de cambio climático antropogénico. Se discuten algunas de implicaciones ecológico-políticas de los resultados obtenidos.

Measuring the level of corporate commitment regarding climate change strategies

PurposeThis study aims to examine the various climate change practices adopted by firms and develop a set of corporate indexes that measure the level of climate change corporate commitment, climate change risk management integration and climate change strategies adoption. Moreover, this study examines the relationship between the aforementioned indexes. The authors claim that there is a positive relationship between the adoption of climate change strategies, corporate commitment and risk management integration. The aforementioned indexes have been used to assess the largest companies in the oil and gas sectors.Design/methodology/approachTo assess this study’s sample companies, a content analysis of their carbon disclosure project (CDP) reports for the years 2012-2015 was conducted. Finally, weights were assigned to the content analysis data based on the results of a survey regarding the difficulty of implementing each climate change practice included in the respective index. The survey sample included climate change experts who are either currently employed in companies that are included in the Financial Times Global 500 (FT 500) list, or work as external partners with these companies.FindingsThe present study results highlight the need for developing elaborate corporate indexes, as the various climate change practices have different degrees of difficulty regarding their implementation. Additionally, a general trend in adopting climate change strategies is observed, especially in the field of carbon reduction strategies, which mainly involve the implementation of low carbon technologies. Finally, a positive and significant relationship was found between carbon reduction targets, risk management integration and climate change strategies.Practical implicationsAlthough international research has extensively examined the importance of managers’ perceptions on environmental issues as an enabling factor in developing environmental strategies, according to the results of our survey, corporations must go beyond top management commitment towards climate change to be able to successfully implement climate change strategies. Incorporation of climate change risk management procedures into a company’s core business activities as well as the establishment of precise carbon reduction targets can provide the basis on which successful climate change strategies are implemented.Originality/valueMost studies address the issue of climate change management in terms of environmental or sustainability management. Furthermore, research on climate change and its relationship with business management is mainly theoretical, and climate change corporate performance is measured with aggregate indexes. This study focuses on climate change which is examined from a five-dimensional perspective: top management commitment, carbon reduction targets, risk management integration, carbon reduction and carbon compensation strategies. This allows us to conduct an in-depth analysis of the various climate change practices of firms.

Economics.

A review of literature in calendar year 2016 on topics relating to environmental policies and sustainable development, and economic policies. This review is divided into these sub-sections: sustainable development, irrigation, economics and water management, climate change and disaster risk management, economic growth, water supply policies, water consumption and water access, and water price regulation and water value.

Stakeholder pressure on carbon emissions: strategies and the use of management accounting

ABSTRACTPrior research finds corporate environmental behaviour to be a function of stakeholder pressure, which significantly impacts on organisational strategies and internal management practices relating to environmental issues. Applying Freeman’s propositions on stakeholder management and corporate strategies, this study explains the relationship among stakeholder pressure, companies’ climate change risk management strategies and management accounting practices. Evidence provided through interviews with 39 managers responsible for carbon emissions management within 18 large listed Australian companies is used to investigate these relationships. This study finds that the sample companies used different strategies in accordance with relative cooperative potential and the relative competitive threat posed by stakeholders in managing carbon emissions issues. It is also seen that companies use management accounting techniques as a risk management tool in supporting their climate change strategies.

Going Beyond Climate Change Risk Management: Insights from the World’s Largest Most Sustainable Corporations

In this study, we investigate whether firms recognised as superior sustainability performers respond differently to climate change regulatory, physical and other risks/opportunities and examine whether such differences predict sustainability performance in subsequent years. Further, we seek to gain insights from climate change programs and strategies of both superior and inferior sustainability performers. Adopting mixed methods, we use a merged sample from the Top500 world’s largest firms and the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations. Our quantitative analyses show that greater awareness of physical and other climate change opportunities is what sets superior performers apart, and that superior future sustainability performance is related to a firm’s stated awareness of these two types of opportunities. Qualitative content analysis of narrative disclosures confirm that superior performers provide more detailed description of climate change strategies that go beyond managing climate change risks. Our study contributes to the limited amount of research highlighting the value of proactively seeking opportunities rather than merely focussing on risk management.

Local and Indigenous management of climate change risks to archaeological sites

Hundreds of thousands of significant archaeological and cultural heritage sites (cultural sites) along the coasts of every continent are threatened by sea level rise, and many will be destroyed. This wealth of artefacts and monuments testifies to human history, cosmology and identity. While cultural sites are especially important to local and Indigenous communities, a stall in coordinated global action means adaptation at a local scale is often unsupported. In response, this paper produces a practical climate change risk analysis methodology designed for independent, community-scale management of cultural sites. It builds on existing methods that prioritise sites most at risk from climate impacts, proposing a field survey that integrates an assessment of the relative cultural value of sites with assessment of exposure and sensitivity to climate impacts. The field survey also stands as a monitoring program and complements an assessment of organisational adaptive capacity. The preliminary field survey was tested by Indigenous land managers in remote northern Australia at midden and rock art sites threatened by sea level rise, extreme flood events and a range of non-climactic hazards. A participatory action research methodology—incorporating planning workshops, semi-structured interviews and participant observations—gave rise to significant modifications to the preliminary field survey as well as management prioritisation of 120 sites. The field survey is anticipated to have global application, particularly among marginalised and remote Indigenous communities. Well-planned and informed participation, with community control, monitoring and well-informed actions, will contribute significantly to coordinated global and regional adaptation strategies.

How to embrace uncertainty in participatory climate change risk management—A roadmap

The Earth's future depends on how we manage the manifold risks of climate change (CC). It is state‐of‐the‐art to assume that risk reduction requires participatory management involving a broad range of stakeholders and scientists. However, there is still little knowledge about the optimal design of participatory climate change risk management processes (PRMPs), in particular with respect to considering the multitude of substantial uncertainties that are relevant for PRMPs. To support the many local to regional PRMPs that are necessary for a successful global‐scale reduction of CC risks, we present a roadmap for designing such transdisciplinary knowledge integration processes. The roadmap suggests ways in which uncertainties can be comprehensively addressed within a PRMP. We discuss the concept of CC risks and their management and propose an uncertainty framework that distinguishes epistemic, ontological, and linguistic uncertainty as well as ambiguity. Uncertainties relevant for CC risk management are identified. Communicative and modeling methods that support social learning as well as the development of risk management strategies are proposed for each of six phases of a PRMP. Finally, we recommend how to evaluate PRMPs as such evaluations and their publication are paramount for achieving a reduction of CC risks.

Scale of Climate Change and Insurance Sector Risk Management: Looking Beyond the Horizon

Scale of Climate Change and Insurance Sector Risk Management: Looking Beyond the Horizon

Agricultural trade publications and the 2012 Midwestern U.S. drought: A missed opportunity for climate risk communication

The Midwestern United States experienced a devastating drought in 2012, leading to reduced corn and soybean yields and increased instances of pests and disease. Climate change induced weather variability and extremes are expected to increase in the future, and have and will continue to impact the agricultural sector. This study investigated how agricultural trade publications portrayed the 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought, whether climate change was associated with drought, and whether these publications laid out transformative adaptation measures farmers could undertake in order to increase their adaptive capacity for future climate uncertainty. We performed a content analysis of 1000 media reports between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2014, sampled from ten agricultural trade publications. The results lead us to suggest that trade publications’ 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought discussion lacked information that would allow farmers and agricultural advisors to assess climate change risk and subsequent potential adaptive management strategies. Agricultural risk from climate change is very real, and farmers will need to adapt. The agricultural trade publications studied missed an opportunity to convey risk from climate change and the transformative adaptation practices necessary for a sustainable and resilient agricultural system.

Economics.

A review of literature in the calendar year 2015 dedicated to environmental policies and sustainable development, and economic policies. This review is divided into these sections: sustainable development, irrigation, ecosystems and water management, climate change and disaster risk management, economic growth, water supply policies, water consumption, water price regulation, and water price valuation.

Climate change risk management in tree improvement programs: selection and movement of genotypes

Tree improvement programs usually consist of multiple breeding populations that target different climatic or ecological regions. Parent breeding material normally originates from and is deployed within the same breeding region, assuming optimal local adaptation of populations. Given the climate trends observed over the last several decades in western Canada, this assumption is unlikely to still be valid. This problem needs to be addressed either by delineating new deployment areas for improved planting stock or by selecting genotypes suitable for changed climatic environments. In a case study for white spruce, we analyzed height data from 135,000 trees grown in 44 genetic tests established and evaluated over a period of 35 years by industry and government agencies in Alberta. We show how the risk of planting maladapted trees can be minimized by moving planting stock to new areas, or by eliminating genotypes from breeding programs that are sensitive to anticipated future climate environments. Transfers that outperformed local sources consistently originated from locations with higher temperatures, suggesting north or northwest transfers. However, adaptation to cold appears to be a prevalent driver for genetic population differentiation in spruce, thus limiting how far material may be moved in current reforestation efforts to address future climate change.