Support Of Climate Change Adaptation Research Articles

Resilience in the face of ecological challenges: Strategies for integrating environmental considerations into social policy planning in Africa

AbstractAfrica faces severe ecological crises, such as climate change, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss, undermining sustainable development efforts and exacerbating poverty and hunger. Integrating environmental concerns into social policy planning could help build community resilience and support sustainable development. This study employed policy analysis and stakeholder engagement to identify key environmental issues, policy gaps, and strategies for integrating environmental considerations into social policies across various sectors in Africa. The study found a significant lack of integration of environmental concerns into social policy across areas like disaster management, agriculture, urban planning, healthcare access, and infrastructure development policies. As a percentage of respondents, the top environmental issues were flooding (32%), drought/desertification (13%), and food security/agriculture (11%), with farmers (35.4%) and women (21.7%) being the most vulnerable to climate change. Most community stakeholders (87.5%) emphasized the importance of integrating environmental considerations into social policy, with 56.25% rating it a high priority. They underscored the need for more locally driven planning, ecological monitoring, land restoration, diversified livelihoods, and climate change adaptation support through social policies to enhance environmental sustainability. This study's novelty lies in its comprehensive approach to understanding and addressing the complex interplay between environmental challenges and social policy planning in Africa. The findings emphasize the urgent need for policymakers to develop cross‐sectoral national and local policies that use participatory processes to prioritize environmental sustainability, adaptation, community empowerment, and alignment with sustainable development goals while being responsive to continuing environmental uncertainty and change.

Resilience in the face of ecological challenges: Strategies for integrating environmental considerations into social policy planning in Africa

AbstractAfrica faces severe ecological crises, such as climate change, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss, undermining sustainable development efforts and exacerbating poverty and hunger. Integrating environmental concerns into social policy planning could help build community resilience and support sustainable development. This study employed policy analysis and stakeholder engagement to identify key environmental issues, policy gaps, and strategies for integrating environmental considerations into social policies across various sectors in Africa. The study found a significant lack of integration of environmental concerns into social policy across areas like disaster management, agriculture, urban planning, healthcare access, and infrastructure development policies. As a percentage of respondents, the top environmental issues were flooding (32%), drought/desertification (13%), and food security/agriculture (11%), with farmers (35.4%) and women (21.7%) being the most vulnerable to climate change. Most community stakeholders (87.5%) emphasized the importance of integrating environmental considerations into social policy, with 56.25% rating it a high priority. They underscored the need for more locally driven planning, ecological monitoring, land restoration, diversified livelihoods, and climate change adaptation support through social policies to enhance environmental sustainability. This study's novelty lies in its comprehensive approach to understanding and addressing the complex interplay between environmental challenges and social policy planning in Africa. The findings emphasize the urgent need for policymakers to develop cross‐sectoral national and local policies that use participatory processes to prioritize environmental sustainability, adaptation, community empowerment, and alignment with sustainable development goals while being responsive to continuing environmental uncertainty and change.

The Long-term Effects of Colonialism on Poorer Nations and What is Owed to Them: Monetary Restitution, Archaeological Artifacts, and climate change

This paper explores the enduring impact of colonialism on global wealth distribution, addressing whether affluent former colonial powers have a moral duty to provide reparations to their impoverished former colonies. It argues for direct payments to affected nations and individuals, repatriation of looted artifacts, and financial support for climate change adaptation. The study highlights historical atrocities, like the Namibian genocide and the British exploitation of India, to emphasize the depth of suffering caused. Ultimately, the research underscores the ethical obligation of wealthier nations to address the persistent legacies of colonial exploitation, encompassing economic, cultural, and climate-related restitutions.

Monthly variation and correlation analysis of global temperature and wind resources under climate change

Renewable energy is widely used as an alternative source of energy, and climate change has a significant impact on its variation and harnessing. This study conducted a monthly scale analysis of global temperature and wind-speed variations and their correlations using Theil–Sen’s median linear regression and Mann-Kendall test from 1989 to 2021. The results revealed that the global temperature averagely increased by 0.34 °C/10 a from 1989 to 2021, showing clearly increasing trends in most months but with significant differentiation in each month. The regions of East Europe Plain, Central Siberia, Central Asia, and Greenland showed the most significant increasing temperature trends ranging from 0.17 to 0.49 °C/10 a. Additionally, the regions in the East Europe Plain, Siberia, and North America showed distinctly decreasing temperature trends ranging from 0.27 to 0.51 °C/10 a. The global average wind speed changed slightly, with slopes of −0.026, −0.014, and 0.019 m/(s⋅10 a) for eastward, northward, and synthesis wind, respectively. However, the decreasing trends were relatively evident in regions across central Europe via the south of the Eastern European Plain to the north of Central Asia with slopes ranging from −0.13 to −0.3 m/(s⋅10 a). These monthly variations in eastward, northward, and synthesis wind speeds showed significant correlations with temperature, and the correlation coefficients (CCs) differed significantly for each month. For positive CCs higher than 0.34 and negative CCs lower than −0.35 (p < 0.05), the land coverage areas reached 72.3 million km2, accounting for 48% of the global land area. In addition, the synthesis wind speed showed significant positive and negative CCs with temperature, especially from November to March of the following year. The highly positive CCs of global temperature and synthesis wind speed are primarily distributed across land areas from Europe to Siberia, North America, and North Africa in the Northern Hemisphere. The areas with high negative CCs are distributed across South America, South Africa, and Australia in the Southern Hemisphere. Climate change has a substantial impact on wind-speed variation, which should be considered during wind source harnessing. Monthly variation analysis of global temperature and wind speed and their correlation could provide key scientific support for climate change adaptation and wind resource harnessing.

The potential of local government support for climate change adaptation of lowland rice farming

Climate change has impacted the production and productivity of agricultural commodities, including rice as the main food crop. All parties must play an active role in overcoming climate change impact, coming under the local government. This study was carried out by performing focus group discussions (FGD) and filling out questionnaires to identify the potential, opportunities, and problems faced in supporting climate change adaptation. A SWOT analysis was employed by considering Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The study was conducted in two regencies in Central Java Indonesia, namely Purworejo and Banjarnegara, where a climate change adaptation program has been initiated. Local government support is needed to get continuity of climate change adaptation. The results show that the potential of local government support for climate change adaptation should prioritize the Strength Opportunity (SO) strategy. The choice of SO strategy is based on various strengths owned by the local government and many opportunities which can still be reached by growing people’s awareness of climate change. The alternatives of local government support are providing information and appropriate innovations for climate change adaptation. Public awareness and willingness are means for successful adaptation. Physical program supports, such as infrastructure, should be equipped with non-physical programs and local regulations as reinforcement.

Portland's Response to the Western North American Heatwave: A Brief Report.

In June of 2021, a heatwave resulted in high mortality across the Pacific Northwest region. The city of Portland, Oregon, had many advantages: emergency response personnel, science-based policies, political support for climate change adaptation, and collaboration among municipal, county, state, and federal authorities. Though the city's response likely prevented many deaths, heat-related mortality was high. This study presents a retrospective case analysis of the 2021 Western North American Heatwave in Portland, Oregon. Specifically, the study examines the limitations of current heatwave response paradigms by means of a narrative review of the heatwave response and impacts. Most deaths occurred at home, and most of those who died lived alone. Most of the deceased did not have access to functioning air conditioning. Heatwaves exhibit high predictability in the demographics of those most affected and have rising rates of recurrence. Given the effectiveness of residential cooling systems in preventing heat-related mortality, findings suggest that future public health and policy initiatives should put increased focus on the primary prevention of heat exposure.

How Solutions Journalism Shapes Support for Collective Climate Change Adaptation

ABSTRACT News media are the public’s primary source about risks such as climate change, but traditional journalistic approaches to climate change have failed to build support for collective social responses. Solutions journalism, an emerging practice focused on credible stories about responses to societal problems, may offer an alternate approach. From an online experiment with a convenience sample of U.S. undergraduates (N = 348), we found that solutions journalism stories were positively associated with perceived behavioral control, which mediated support for collective action for climate change adaptation. Additionally, attribution of responsibility to individuals and government, participant hope, and eco-anxiety were associated with support for collective action. Findings extend our understanding of how risk communication affects policy support for climate change adaptation and suggest that solutions journalism may allow journalists to communicate climate change’s danger without depressing support for social action to mitigate its effects.

Indigenous Kinabatangan Perspectives on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations: Factors Influencing Their Support and Participation

Indigenous perspectives on the effects of climate change are frequently elicited through surveys and interviews, and the responses are compared to meteorological data. However, there remains a limited approach to examining the underlying predictors that best determine Indigenous support for adaptation strategies. This study utilizes partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to identify the main indicators of Indigenous support for coping with unfavorable climate impacts. Using a case study and a purposive sampling approach, a survey of 328 Indigenous peoples was conducted in rural Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysia. Results showed that communities’ attitudes had a large effect on the Indigenous support for adaptation (f2 = 0.380), followed by the communities’ awarenesses (f2 = 0.063), rapid onset events (f2 = 0.051), and climate impacts on tourism (f2 = 0.016). Communities prioritize the impacts of climate change on their health, livelihoods, and environmental resources. Nevertheless, they do not draw a causal link between the effects and responses to climate hazards. Coping strategies such as the inclusion of Indigenous livelihoods, a bottom-up approach, and transparent communication are suggested to cultivate Indigenous support for climate change adaptation. Decision-makers can apply these findings to prepare climate change policies and enhance the adaptation strategies of Indigenous communities.

Integration of earth observation and census data for mapping a multi-temporal flood vulnerability index: a case study on Northeast Italy

Climate sciences foresee a future where extreme weather events could happen with increased frequency and strength, which would in turn increase risks of floods (i.e. the main source of losses in the world). The Mediterranean basin is considered a hot spot in terms of climate vulnerability and risk. The expected impacts of those events are exacerbated by land-use change and, in particular, by urban growth which increases soil sealing and, hence, water runoff. The ultimate consequence would be an increase of fatalities and injuries, but also of economic losses in urban areas, commercial and productive sites, infrastructures and agriculture. Flood damages have different magnitudes depending on the economic value of the exposed assets and on level of physical contact with the hazard. This work aims at proposing a methodology, easily customizable by experts’ elicitation, able to quantify and map the social component of vulnerability through the integration of earth observation (EO) and census data with the aim of allowing for a multi-temporal spatial assessment. Firstly, data on employment, properties and education are used for assessing the adaptive capacity of the society to increase resilience to adverse events, whereas, secondly, coping capacity, i.e. the capacities to deal with events during their manifestation, is mapped by aggregating demographic and socio-economic data, urban growth analysis and memory on past events. Thirdly, the physical dimension of exposed assets (susceptibility) is assessed by combining building properties acquired by census data and land-surface characteristics derived from EO data. Finally, the three components (i.e. adaptive and coping capacity and susceptibility) are aggregated for calculating the dynamic flood vulnerability index (FVI). The approach has been applied to Northeast Italy, a region frequently hit by floods, which has experienced a significant urban and economic development in the past decades, thus making the dynamic study of FVI particularly relevant. The analysis has been carried out from 1991 to 2016 at a 5-year steps, showing how the integration of different data sources allows to produce a dynamic assessment of vulnerability, which can be very relevant for planning in support of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

Impact of rural depopulation and climate change on vegetation, runoff and sediment load in the Gan River basin, China

Abstract Climate change and rural depopulation are changing the ecological and hydrological cycles in China. Data on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), temperature, precipitation, streamflow, sediment and rural population are available for the Gan River basin from 1981 to 2017. We investigated the spatio-temporal variations in climate, human activity and vegetation mainly using the Mann–Kendall test and examined their relationship using the Granger causality test. The results showed that (1) the temperature markedly increased in all seasons; (2) the precipitation increased in summer and winter but decreased in spring and autumn; (3) overall, the NDVI increased markedly during 2005–2017, but showed seasonal differences, with decreases in summer and winter and increases in spring and autumn; (4) the annual sediment transport showed a significant decreasing trend and (5) a large number of the population shifted from rural to urban areas, resulting in a decrease in the rural population between 1998 and 2018. Rural depopulation has brought about farmland abandonment, conversion of farmland to forests, which was the factor driving the recovery of the vegetation and the decrease in sediment. The results of this study can provide support for climate change adaptation and sustainable development.

Industrial ecology in support of climate change adaptation

Industrial ecology in support of climate change adaptation

Farmers ‘Access to Institutional Support for Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Tanzania

Smallholder farmers in rural areas need access to institutional support for their effective responses to climate change and related challenges. Rural Local Institutions (RLIs) are very close to farmers and thus have the potential to deliver institutional support and enhance smallholder farmers’ adaptability to climate change and variability. This article responds to two important questions; one, what institutional support that smallholder farmers perceive as relevant in addressing their adaptation challenges? and, how farmers access to that institutional support? To answer these questions, I conducted a study framed within mixed methods design targeting smallholder farmers in 5 villages of Rufiji district in Southern Tanzania. Data collection protocol started with qualitative approaches; Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and FGDs, to explore the nexus between local understanding of climate change adaptation and institutional roles in adaptation. This informed and was complemented by quantitative survey of 416 farming households obtained through stratified random sampling. Quantitative data analysis was done with the assistance of the Statistical Package for Social Sciencies (SPSS v.16) software. Qualitative analysis followed content analysis framework using Nvivo 12 software. The study found that smallholder farmers perceive a mismatch between their perceived adaptation needs and available institutional support. Farmers identified access to markets, access to climate information; access to agricultural inputs, skills and technologies, land tenure security and access to credits as critical institutional factors necessary for their effective adaptation to climate change and variability challenges. Also that their access to the available institutions for adaptation support is poor due social, environmental, political and economic barriers.The paper argues that RLIs require capacity building to enable them comprehend, design, prioritize, and coordinate farmers’ adaptation actions in relation to other development actions.

Techno-Optimism and Farmers’ Attitudes Toward Climate Change Adaptation

In industrialized societies, techno-optimism is a belief that human ingenuity, through improved science and technology, will ultimately provide remedies to most current and future threats to human well-being, such as diseases, climate change, and poverty. Here we examine (a) whether techno-optimism is found among Midwestern corn and soybean farmers and (b) how this confidence in human ingenuity influences their support for climate change adaptation. By examining data from a survey of nearly 5,000 grain farmers in the Midwestern United States, we found that greater techno-optimism can reduce farmers’ support for climate change adaptation and increase their propensity to express a preference to delay adaptation-related actions. This study advances our understanding of how social and cognitive factors influence farmers’ attitude toward climate change. Findings from this study can also help extension educators to develop outreach programs that are sensitive to farmers’ views about the ability of science and technology to solve climate change–related issues.

Why popular support tools on climate change adaptation have difficulties in reaching local policy‐makers: Qualitative insights from the UK and Germany

AbstractPolicy support for climate change adaptation has grown rapidly and respective tools (such as online guides and handbooks) have been documented and categorized repeatedly in recent years. Nevertheless, we still know little about how relevant their target groups find them for their work. We aim to address this gap with case studies on two well‐known support tools: the “Adaptation Wizard” from the UK and the “Klimalotse” from Germany. After showing how adaptation support tools have spread in recent years, we analyze qualitatively how relevant regional and local policy‐makers concerned with adaptation find the two tools. One of our main findings is the following discrepancy: while both tools offer support in developing and implementing comprehensive adaptation plans, local policy‐makers find this irrelevant and expect support in coping with imminent climate change impacts, for example, by single adaptation measures. Consequently, the local policy‐makers we interviewed hardly use the two tools but seek more specific support, in particular regarding vulnerability and cost–benefit assessments. We conclude that policy support tools lack relevance when their well‐intended attempt to enlighten target groups is too remote from what the latter expect.

Can community-based governance strengthen citizenship in support of climate change adaptation? Testing insights from Self-Determination Theory

Motivation plays a powerful role in guiding human decision-making and behaviour, including adaptation to climate change. This study aimed to determine whether community-based governance would increase behavioural support, in the form of donation behaviour, for a climate change adaptation trust fund. A sample of 548 Australians was randomly assigned to view one of two governance scenarios: (1) a community-based scenario in which community members were afforded a high level of autonomy in designing and allocating funding within a trust fund to help their community adapt to climate change, or (2) a government-centred scenario in which decision making regarding the trust fund remained with government officials. Path analysis revealed that the community-based scenario produced significantly higher levels of perceived autonomy support within the study’s participants. High levels of perceived autonomy support predicted higher levels of autonomous motivation (indicating stronger citizenship) and lower levels of amotivation, a motivational pattern, which, in turn, predicted greater willingness to donate to the climate change adaptation trust. Results are interpreted in terms of Self-Determination Theory and Motivational Crowding Theory.

The limits of poverty reduction in support of climate change adaptation

The relationship between poverty and climate change vulnerability is complex and though not commensurate, the distinctions between the two are often blurred. There is widespread recognition of the need to better understand poverty-vulnerability dynamics in order to improve risk management and poverty reduction investments. This is challenging due to the latent nature of adaptive capacities, frequent lack of baseline data, and the need for high-resolution studies. Here we respond to these challenges by analyzing household-level data in Northeast Brazil to compare drought events 14 years apart. In the period between droughts, the government implemented an aggressive anti-poverty program that includes financial and human capital investments. Poverty declined significantly, but the expected reduction in vulnerability did not occur, in part because the households were not investing in risk management strategies. Our findings complement other research that shows that households make rational decisions that may not correspond with policymaker expectations. We emphasize the need for complementary investments to help channel increased household wealth into risk reduction, and to ensure that the public sector itself continues to prioritize the public functions of risk management, especially in areas where the social cost of climatic risk is high.

Building local institutional capacity to implement agricultural carbon projects: participatory action research with Vi Agroforestry in Kenya and ECOTRUST in Uganda

Smallholders have begun to take advantage of a growing pool of investment in climate change mitigation. Meanwhile, early movers in this area are working to develop innovative models that will allow projects to be financially sustainable and scalable while benefiting local actors. This study focuses on two of these projects in East Africa, managed by Vi Agroforestry in Kenya and ECOTRUST in Uganda. They engaged in a participatory action research process to identify ways that local actors could take on expanded roles within the projects. Results are presented as case studies which include project context, roles of local project actors, actions selected, and the outcomes of the actions on the key actors targeted. The actions focused on building the capacities of community-based intermediaries, facilitating partnerships with local government and local non-governmental organizations, and supporting a more active role played by women. Key findings from this process were that community-based intermediaries can play a leading role in land management trainings; local government involvement is critical to project success; local non-governmental organizations and businesses can play central roles in training and providing market incentives to farmers to implement sustainable practices; and women’s roles in projects can grow if project benefits are aligned with their needs and trainings are made more accessible. These cases demonstrate that there is substantial scope for the responsibilities within agricultural carbon projects, and by extension climate-smart agriculture initiatives more broadly, to be institutionalized at the local level. However, regardless of the institutional setup, due to carbon market factors beyond the control of these projects, the financial case for smallholder projects that rely solely on financing from carbon credits remains challenging to these projects and others like them. As programmatic and policy-led approaches grow from these project models, it may be easier to find ways to integrate carbon financing with support for climate change adaptation, rural development, and ecosystem services provision. With these new models, the ability to institutionalize management and implementation capacity at the local level will remain critically important.

Extreme weather exposure and support for climate change adaptation

Abstract Policy efforts to address climate change are increasingly focused on adaptation, understood as adjustments in human systems to moderate the harm, or exploit beneficial opportunities, related to actual or expected climate impacts. We examine individual-level determinants of support for climate adaptation policies, focusing on whether individuals’ exposure to extreme weather events is associated with their support for climate adaptation policies. Using novel public opinion data on support for a range of adaptation policies, coupled with high resolution geographic data on extreme weather events, we find that individuals experiencing recent extreme weather activity are more likely to support climate change adaptation policy in general, but that the relationship is modest, inconsistent across specific adaptation policies, and diminishes with time. The data thus suggest that experiencing more severe weather may not appreciably increase support for climate adaptation policies.

Extreme Weather Exposure and Support for Climate Change Adaptation

Extreme Weather Exposure and Support for Climate Change Adaptation

Collaborative governance for climate change adaptation in Canada: experimenting with adaptive co-management

The search for strategies to address ‘super wicked problems’ such as climate change is gaining urgency, and a collaborative governance approach, and adaptive co-management in particular, is increasingly recognized as one such strategy. However, the conditions for adaptive co-management to emerge and the resulting network structures and relational patterns remain unclear in the literature. To address these identified needs, this study examines social relationships from a network perspective while initiating a collaborative multiactor initiative aimed to develop into adaptive co-management for climate change adaptation, an action research project undertaken in the Niagara region of Canada. The project spanned 1 year, and a longitudinal analysis of participants’ networks and level of participation in the process was performed. Evidence of support for climate change adaptation from the process included the development of deliberative and adaptive responses to opportunities presented to the group and the development of a strong subgroup of participants where decision-making was centered. However, the complexity of the challenge of addressing climate change, funding constraints, competing initiatives, and the lack of common views among participants may have contributed to the group, highlighting the finding that beneficial network structural features and relational patterns are necessary but not sufficient condition for the development of an adaptive co-management process. The context of climate change adaptation may require a different social network structure and processes than other contexts for adaptive co-management to occur, and there may be limitations to adaptive co-management for dealing with super wicked problems.