1,720,995 research outputs found
Theory and Methods
No full textThis chapter provides a detailed overview of the broad theoretical framework developed for the book. It begins by reviewing the extensive literature on climate change policy adoption and argues that existing theories have been overly focused on mitigation policies in the Global North. It details the broad-based analytical framework which guides the case study analysis and which incorporates considerations of: a) countries’ vulnerability to climate change impacts; b) international engagement on the issue of loss and damage; c) national institutional factors; and d) the role of ideas, including knowledge and norms. The chapter delves into each element of the framework and discusses the limitations of the research design. It then turns to describing the book’s abductive and iterative methodological approach which moves between existing theoretical propositions and data gathered through the analysis of law and policy documents and more than seventy-five interviews with national stakeholders across the case studies. The chapter concludes by highlighting the epistemic value of the book’s approach which has involved partnering with researchers in the Global South to co-develop, undertake and write up the research
Conclusion
No full textThe book’s concluding chapter draws together insights from across the empirical case studies showcasing the diversity of outcomes on national policy action on loss and damage. By offering a comparison between the different Global South countries studied, the chapter identifies patterns with respect to how policymakers and other stakeholders are approaching policy development, adoption and innovation. It finds that Antigua and Barbuda, Tuvalu and Bangladesh have moved the furthest in terms of policy development and innovation, while Ethiopia and The Bahamas have been slower to engage with loss and damage at the national level and Peru and Chile are only starting to understand the relevance of loss and damage for national policymaking. The chapter argues that while the very concept of loss and damage is an international construct, its meaning is still being contested and re-constituted within and across scales of governance. The chapter ends by outlining a research agenda for further studies in the context of the national turn in loss and damage governance
Introduction
No full textAdvancing the emerging field of comparative climate governance and policymaking, this book explores national loss and damage policymaking through seven empirically grounded studies of loss and damage governance across vulnerable countries in the Global South. The introductory chapter sets the scene by presenting the key themes, research questions and contributions of the book. Following an introduction to the concept of loss and damage from climate change impacts and its emergence at the international level, the chapter argues for a political science of loss and damage that is sensitive to the “national turn” in research on loss and damage governance. The chapter then presents the seven country case studies featured in the book including small island developing states, least developed countries and emerging economies: Tuvalu, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Peru and Chile. The case studies show variation in the way countries engage with loss and damage, highlighting the importance of national contexts in understanding the success and/or failure of policymaking. The chapter concludes with a summary of key themes and findings emerging from the case studies, and discusses ways in which they advance our understanding of climate policy
The Loss and Damage Policy Landscape: Tuvalu as a “Most Likely Case”
No full textAs the second lowest-lying country in the world, and because of its fragile economy, and social and environmental vulnerabilities, Tuvalu is severely affected by the impacts of climate change. The country has been very active in developing ways of responding to these challenges at the national policy level and has also included the issue of loss and damage in official documents since 2012. At the same time, Tuvalu has played an active role in international loss and damage negotiations, including advocating for a separate article on loss and damage in the Paris Agreement. This chapter explores how Tuvalu’s policy actors make sense of and attempt to govern loss and damage at the national level. Using interpretive policy analysis and thirteen semi-structured interviews, it suggests that loss and damage in Tuvalu is developing as a “complex governance system” with competencies and agency spanning across multiple scales. The chapter finds that loss and damage does not feature as a stand-alone policy domain, nor is it explicitly distinguished from adaptation, but rather is treated as an issue which cuts across different sectors and policy areas, including climate-induced human mobility, infrastructure investment, and protection of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone
Governing people on the move in a warming world: Framing climate change migration and the UNFCCC Task Force on Displacement
No full textDifferent ways of framing the nexus between climate change and migration have been advanced in academic, advocacy and policy circles. Some understand it as a state-security issue, some take a protection (or human security) approach and yet others portray migration as an adaptation or climate risk management strategy. Yet we have little insight into how these different understandings of the ‘problem’ of climate change-related migration are beginning to shape the emergence of global governance in the climate regime. Through a focus on the UNFCCC Task Force on Displacement we argue that these different framings of climate change migration shape how actors understand the appropriate role of the TFD, including the substantive scope of its mandate; its operational priorities; the nature of its outputs and where it should be situated in the institutional architecture. We show that understanding the different framings of the nexus between climate change and migration – and how these framings are contested within the UNFCCC – can help to account for institutional development in this area of climate governance
Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage: The National Turn
No full textDeadly floods in Pakistan, hurricanes in the Caribbean, and prolonged drought in East Africa – all intensified by climate change – have left hundreds of thousands of survivors without homes, jobs, food or water. Climate-driven extreme weather results in inevitable losses: loss of property, loss of livelihoods and loss of lives. Slower moving changes – such as sea-level rise, increasing temperatures and spreading deserts – also cause terrible harm to people’s homes, health and sense of security. The issue of climate change loss and damage has been dominating the international climate change negotiations in recent years. But it is national governments that are most immediately tasked with responding to the climate emergency, and their responses vary enormously. Until now, we have little understanding of how individual states are grappling with losses associated with the impacts of climate change. Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage: The National Turn is the first book-length treatment of loss and damage policy and politics at the national level. Unlike most books on climate policy, it focuses specifically on countries in the Global South that are on the frontline of climate change impacts. Through seven original empirical case studies, this book shows that some countries pursue the establishment of climate change loss and damage policies and programs more proactively and explicitly than others. Countries from the Global South tend to experience the negative impacts of climate change more acutely. Yet this book makes clear that it is not always those that face the most severe and existential impacts that take national policy action on loss and damage. Drawing on existing theoretical accounts in the study of climate policy, this book shows what countries are doing (and not doing) to address losses. It highlights policy innovations in sectors from fisheries to finance; identifies new institutional linkages that allow countries to better address issues such as climate-related internal displacement and shows how different forms of knowledge – from local and lived experience to historic disaster data – can supplement a lack of systematic information in policy-making processes. It also draws attention to the role of ideas in climate policy-making, showing how some states’ desires to cultivate a particular national identity – as an “emerging economy” or as a “green economy leader” – in the international sphere or the pursuit of specific development paradigms affects the way and the extent to which they engage with loss and damage as a policy domain. The book advances understanding of how policy-makers across sectors conceptualise loss and damage, identifies the barriers and constraints in policy-making across countries and traces the wide range of policies that are being deployed to grapple with different types of climate impacts. In doing so, the book shows the way to more effective governance of loss and damage now and in the future
“Money for the Poor”: Perceptions of Loss and Damage in Peru’s Emerging Economy
No full textDespite experiencing particularly severe and potentially irreversible climate change impacts, Peru has not yet developed explicit national policies on loss and damage. This chapter draws on the analysis of government policy and legislative documents as well as twelve semi-structured interviews with key public and civil society actors, and identifies two key factors which contribute to limiting Peru’s engagement with loss and damage at national level: national identity and policymaking politics. With respect to the former, the chapter argues that the issue of loss and damage is perceived as inconsistent with Peru’s identity and status as an upper middle-income country. National actors tend to frame loss and damage as “money for the poor” and thus something concerning small island developing states and least developed countries, and there is also a fear that, as a middle-income nation, Peru might potentially be liable for claims against the nation-state for the impacts of climate change. Moreover, Peru’s extractivist development and economic model limits the discussion and uptake of bold climate-related policies. With respect to (party) politics, the chapter finds that loss and damage is seen as highly contentious in Peru’s policymaking process and that it lacks the necessary support from civil society organizations
Loss & Damage: a Critical Discourse Analysis
Full text linkThe years-long negotiations on an international mechanism for loss and damage (L&D) associated with climate change impacts got to a milestone during the nineteenth session of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP-19), held in Warsaw in November 2013. The COP established the Warsaw international mechanism, aiming to address L&D associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme events and slow onset events, in vulnerable developing countries (Decision 2/CP.19). The paper performs a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of COP decision 2/CP.19 in order to reconstruct developing and developed countries positions on L&D and reflect on how the Warsaw mechanism could be implemented. The analysis builds on Faircloughs (1992) three-dimensional model for CDA, and makes use of a wide range of materials including previous COP decisions, High Level Segment statements and Parties submissions to COP 19, press releases and other relevant documents. The analysis highlights the lack of a common understanding and representation of L&D by developed and developing countries, with this fact ultimately hampering the possibility to define specific tools to address the issue within the mechanism. The difficulty to come to a shared meaning on L&D is due to its connection to other controversial discourses under the UNFCCC, including that of compensation for climate change impacts. As the concept of compensation pertains to the field of international law, the paper explores the appropriateness of the notions of State Responsibility for wrongful acts and State liability for acts not prohibited by international law to effectively deal with L&D. The paper concludes by discussing some strategic options for developing countries to advance the L&D discourse within international talks
Loss and damage from climate change impacts: a political science perspective
Full text linkDespite being one of the most controversial issues to be recently treated within climate negotiations, Loss & Damage (L&D) associated to climate change impacts has attracted little attention among International Relations (IR) scholars. Yet, the discipline can greatly contribute to the debate, not only by enhancing understanding of the negotiation process and related outcomes but also by offering insights on how the issue could be fruitfully moved forward. The work is structured as a collection of four individual papers, aiming at bringing an IR/political science perspective on L&D at different scales of analysis. The first one is a theory application paper, and employs a multi-faceted notion of power, drawing from the neorealist, liberal and constructivist schools of thought, in order to explain how L&D milestones were reached. The second paper performs a Critical Discourse Analysis of Parties’ positions in Climate Change Negotiations to i) reconstruct the emergence, evolution and interaction of L&D discourses; ii) get insights on Parties’ negotiating strategies; and iii) identify potential stumbling blocks. In the third paper interviews with key L&D negotiators are undertaken to i) investigate sensitive and contentious elements in L&D discussions under the UNFCCC and ii) identify ways to build common ground across competing positions. The fourth paper is a case study and assesses institutional constraints to adaptation in a vulnerable coastal lagoon system through social network analysis
Loss and damage: a critical discourse analysis of Parties’ positions in climate change negotiations
Full text linkThe years-long negotiations on loss and damage (L&D) associated with climate change impacts reached a milestone with the adoption of the Paris Agreement, sanctioning the permanence of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) created in 2013. The WIM aims at advancing knowledge gathering, coordination and support to address L&D associated with extreme and slow onset events in vulnerable developing countries (Decision 2/CP.19). Despite being among the most controversial issues to be recently treated in climate change negotiation, L&D has attracted little attention in the field of international relations. This paper aims at addressing this gap by reconstructing the emergence and evolution of the negotiating positions on L&D of developing and developed countries. It employs a critical discourse analytical approach and builds on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework for critical discourse analysis, taking decision 2/CP.19 as the core communicative event. Consistently, the decision is analysed at three different levels: as a text (micro-scale); as a discursive practice (meso-scale); and as a social practice (macro-scale). The analysis makes use of a wide range of materials including previous decisions, High Level Segment statements and Parties submissions. It reconstructs Parties’ conflicting views on the positioning of L&D vis-à-vis the adaptation space (L&D as a part of, or as beyond adaptation) and the scientific, ethical and legal arguments employed to support these standpoints. It highlights, in particular, the strategic importance which the ‘compensation argument’ had in determining developing countries’ capacity to influence the UNFCCC process up to the inclusion of a specific article on L&D in the Paris Agreement. While calls for compensation might have lost momentum as a result of the Warsaw and Paris talks, the paper argues that their potential is far from exhausted. They in fact imply a more general request for climate justice which the UNFCCC has not yet addressed. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Grou
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