Climate Resilient Development (701M9)

Spring 2017

Overview of module and

introduction to some key
debates
Lars Otto Naess, IDS
31 January 2017
 What is the module about?
Theory and practice of development in a
changing climate
Focus on concepts, scale and knowledge
exchange, planning and implementation
Exercises on tools and methodologies to
analyse and support climate resilient
development
 Resilience is everywhere
Resilience features in all four major post-2015
frameworks
Development (UN Sustainable Development
Goals)
Climate change (UNFCCC Paris Agreement)
Disasters (UNISDR Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction)
Humanitarian issues (World Humanitarian
Summit)
Peters et al. (2016)
[Peters, K., Langston, L., Tanner, T., & Bahadur, A. (2016). Resilienceacross the post-2015 frameworks: towards
coherence?. ODI Working Paper. London: Overseas Development Institute]
 Resilience in the UNFCCC
Paris Agreement
Article 7: Parties hereby establish the global goal
on adaptation of enhancing adaptive capacity,
strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to
climate change, with a view to contributing to
sustainable development and ensuring an adequate
adaptation response in the context of the temperature
goal referred to in Article 2.
 Resilience

Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and

reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain
essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks

Walker et al. (2004); www.resalliance.org/index.php/glossary

Resilience is the ability of a system to accommodate positively

adverse changes and shocks, simultaneously at different scales
and with consideration of all the different components and
agents of the system, through the complementarities of its
absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities

Bn et al. (2012) IDS Working Paper 405

 Resilience

Three key common elements of resilience definitions

(Brown 2015)

Bouncing back (coping)

Adapting to variability and uncertainty

Positive transformation

Resilience as capacity, process and outcome

 Resilience

Resilience theory and

thinking stem from
multiple disciplines
Psychology, Genetics,
Engineering, Production
Systems, Corporate
Strategy/entrepreneurship,
Ecology, Socio-
ecological systems
Focus on adaptive cycles
and panarchy (figure)
Key authors:
Folke, Ostrom, Holling
 Resilience as a normative term
Promoting integration, breaking down silos (boundary
object)
Broad, system-wide perspective
Crisis as opportunity for change
Accepting uncertainty and managing for change

But
Resilience for whom?
What are the trade-offs?
Whose goals?
New buzzword, reframing old practices?
Resilience can be negative rigidity, keeping status quo
Often missing attention to power and politics
climate resilient development

Adaptation

Climate
resilient
development
Disaster risk Poverty reduction and
reduction (DRR) development

After Bahadur et al. (2010)

climate resilient development

DFID (2010)
Climate compatible
development

Mitchell and Maxwell (2010)

 Climate resilient pathways for
development: IPCC 2014
A climate-resilient pathway for development is a
continuing process for managing changes in the
climate and other driving forces affecting
development, combining flexibility, innovativeness,
and participative problem solving with effectiveness in
mitigating and adapting to climate change. If effects of
climate change are relatively severe, this process is
likely to require considerations of transformational
changes in threatened systems if development is to be
sustained without major disruptions.

Denton et al. (2014) Climate-resilient pathways: adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development.
Ch20, AR5 WGII
 What is climate resilient development?

Development processes that safeguard development from

climate impacts (Mitchell and Maxwell 2010:1)

Development that has the capacity to absorb and quickly

bounce back from climate shocks and stresses (Ecofys and
IDS, 2011)

...rapidly becoming a catch-all for tackling climate change

impacts in a development context... (Bahadur et al. 2010:2)

But many questions remain, such as: What concepts underpin

climate resilient development? What does it mean in practice?
Who wins, who loses?
Approaches to implementing Climate Resilient
Development: UNDP Green, Low-Emission and
Climate-Resilient Development Strategy

Source: http://www.undp.org/environment/images/LECRDS-diagram-1.jpg
Approaches to Climate Resilient Development: climate
risk management

Source: ECA (2009)

Approaches to Climate Resilient Development: political
economy analysis

Research influence
-expanding policy capacities
-broadening policy horizons
-affecting policy regimes
Narratives & -developing new policy
evidence regimes
Analytical
lenses
Guiding questions:
Policy 1. What are the key
spaces discourses?
2. Who are the key actors
Actors and Politics and and institutions?
institutions interests 3. What politics and
interests attach to
narratives, actors &
institutions?
 Climate Resilient Development:
Analytical challenges

Who is resilient, to what and why?

Assumptions about relationships and
patterns of causation
Actors and motives
Narratives and discourses underpinning
climate resilient development, and in turn
actions
 Resilience, climate change
and development
Klein et al. 2003
questioning the use of
resilience in climate change
adaptation research
Bn et al. 2012
questioning the role of
resilience in debates on
climate change and
development
Tanner et al. 2015
suggesting a livelihoods
perspective to overcome
challenges
Building resilience at community
level, cross-scale challenges
Focus on communities can help mobilise
knowledge and capacity of individuals and
households
But some way to go to overcome unhelpful
framing of people as helpless, vulnerable
victims
Challenge of going beyond the community and
connecting local scale to national level policies
and programmes
 Role of climate science and
scenarios
Challenges of using climate
information for risk assessments
Scenarios for change in annual
rainfall in Yemen range between -
34% to +56% by 2050 depending
on the choice of models
The power of scenarios v.
institutionally entrenched views
Horn of Africa: preparing for
increased rainfall undermine
preparations for drought (Funk)
Sahel: institutionally entrenched
views (Tschakert)
Source: Dessai & Wilby - World Resources Report
http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/uploads/wrr_dessai_and_wilby_uncertainty.pdf
 IPCCs SRES A2 emission scenario

Notes: Left = model with highest rainfall, Right = model with lowest rainfall.

Climate Wizard (www.climatewizard.org)

 The power of
climate scenarios
The global climate models used by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change were never intended to provide
rainfall trend projections for every region. These models say
that East Africa will become wetter, yet observations show
substantial declines in spring rainfall in recent years. Despite
this, several agencies are building long-term plans on the
basis of the forecast of wetter conditions. This could lead to
agricultural development and expansion in areas that will
become drier. More climate science based on regional
observations could be helpful in addressing these challenges.
 Desertification narrative in
West Africa
Through the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCDD), ratified in 1996, the
desertification discourse became institutionalized.
Challenging such received wisdom in the context
of environmental change in Africa is exceedingly
difficult

Tschakert et al. (2010: 474) [Floods in the Sahel: an analysis of anomalies, memory, and
anticipatory learning. Climatic Change, 103(3-4), 471-502]
Tools and guidance for development
planning in a changing climate

A large number of tools

and methods available for
integration of climate
change in decision-
making
Many (most?) supply-
driven rather than based
users needs and demand
Tools better at awareness
raising than planning?
Organisational change challenges

To mainstream or not to mainstream

How organisations change (or not!)

Approaches to organisational change

 Multiple policy goals and the potential for
triple wins

How can goals for

adaptation, mitigation and
development be combined?
At what scale?
E.g. Climate smart
agriculture, REDD+
Understanding synergies or
trade-offs between policy
goals (political economy
analysis)
 The module is thus about
A critical examination of theory and
practice of climate resilient development,
focus on power and politics, how to
understand concepts and debates

Shed light on what different approaches,

tools and methodologies exist, what they do
and how they differ
 Module structure and key
themes
1. Framing of concepts
2. Scale and knowledge exchange
3. Challenges of planning and
implementation in specific areas
4. Synthesis and assessed presentations
 Learning objectives
Position and articulate your own specific interests
Devise and sustain arguments that contribute to debates on
linkages between adaptation, disaster risk reduction and
development
Distinguish different dimensions of climate resilient
development
Critically evaluate resilience in relation to international
institutional systems, structures and actors
Understand and use the variety of approaches, methods
and tools available to support low carbon, climate resilient
development
 Lectures: Tuesdays 11-13, FUL 208
Week/date Title Topics Lecturer
PART A: FRAMING
Week 1: Overview of Unpacking climate resilient development and its Lars Otto Naess
(w/c 30 Jan) module and origins; Introduction of module topics on the
introduction to key science, management and politics of climate
debates resilient development
Week 2: The problem of Social science perspectives and the politics of Lars Otto Naess
(w/c 6 Feb) resilience resilience; adaptation and resilience; What does it
add to the frameworks that look at vulnerability
and capacity? Why is it controversial, and why
do donors love it so much?
PART B: SCALE AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
Week 3: Challenges and What is CBA? Examples of CBA, critiques of Terry Cannon
(w/c 13 Feb) opportunities for the CBA, upscaling of CBA and integration in
local level in national policies, NAPAs
building resilience
Week 4: Science Climate and society; Decision making under Martin Todd
(w/c 20 Feb) perspectives: uncertainty; Climate services and information
bridging gaps from days to seasons to decades; Climate
between science scenarios; downscaling; uncertainty, impact
and society models

Week 5: Applying climate Case studies of impact modelling and sectoral Martin Todd
(w/c 27 Feb) science tools for planning approaches; water resources and food
policy and planning security
 Lectures: Tuesdays 14-16, IDS Room 127
PART C: PROBLEMS OF PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION IN SPECIFIC AREAS
Week 6: Disaster Risk Emergence and status of DRR-climate adaptation Terry Cannon
(w/c 6 March) Reduction (DRR), linkages, challenges and opportunities
adaptation and
resilience
Week 7: Urban places and What specific challenges are there for towns and cities in Terry Cannon
(w/c 13 climate change dealing with climate change?
March)
Week 8: Climate change, Migration: A failure to adapt or an adaptation strategy? Dominic
(w/c 20 migration and Kniveton
March) adaptation
Week 9: Organisational Key organisational change challenges for development Lars Otto Naess
(w/c 27 challenges to decision- organisations in adapting to climate change; approaches
March) making to robust decisionmaking under uncertainty

PART D: SYNTHESIS AND PRESENTATIONS

Week 10: Resilience and triple Are mitigation and adaptation converging agendas? The Lars Otto Naess
(w/c 3 April) wins myth or rise of climate smart agriculture and other concepts and
reality? their implications for policy and practice

Easter Break
Easter Break
Week 11: Preparation for Lars Otto Naess
(w/c 25 April) presentations
Week 12: Assessed presentations Lars Otto Naess
(w/c 2 May) and Martin Todd
 Seminars (weeks 2-)
Week Topic Lecturer
Week 1 No seminar
Week 2 Facilitated debate on resilience and adaptation to climate change Terry Cannon

Week 3 How linkages should be made between local and national levels for Terry Cannon
adaptation.
Week 4 Climate change adaptation tools Martin Todd

Week 5 Applying climate planning tools to national level planning, country Martin Todd
case studies
Week 6 Challenges in integration of DRR, CCA and development Terry Cannon
Week 7 Facilitated debate around the question: Can existing constraints Terry Cannon
(economic, political, social, cultural) on reducing poverty and
vulnerability in towns and cities be reduced in order to adapt to
climate change?
Week 8 Case studies on how migration will respond to climate change Dominic Kniveton

Week 9 Organisational change challenges for a range of different Lars Otto Naess
development organisations
Week 10 Facilitated debate around mitigation-adaptation challenges Lars Otto Naess

Week 11 No seminar

Week 12 Assessed presentations Lars Otto Naess

and Martin Todd
 Module assessment
Term paper (80% of mark)
4000 words
Submission by: TBC
Presentation (20% of mark)
10 minutes, research proposal
Week 12 (w/c May 2017, venue TBC)
For both:
Select one topic from the questions provided by
lecturers
 Presentations: key points
If you use slides: submit beforehand to
l.naess@ids.ac.uk
Max. 10 minutes presentation (You may be
penalised if you go over 15 min)
Up to 5 minutes Q&A
Next presenter gets ready during Q&A, to start
exactly 15 minutes after previous speaker
 Assessment

Presentations will be assessed on content

(50% of mark) and delivery (50% of mark)
 By contents we mean -
comprehension (addressing key concepts,
understanding of issues discussed)
structure (logical flow)
analysis (clarity of argumentation, ability to
critically analyse the topic)
 Delivery means -
quality of verbal presentation (pace, use of
voice, body language, eye contact)
use of visual aids
engagement with the audience
Feedback marksheet (sample)
 Additional learning
Look beyond reading lists
Attend Sussex/IDS seminars
Follow updates on email lists (climate-l
etc.)
Organise (or request) seminars or discussion
groups to share experiences
Look for seminars/meetings outside Sussex
 Suggested term paper
questions for this lecture
How useful is the concept of climate
resilient development for promoting pro-
poor development?
How may strategies for climate resilient
development be affected by actors interests
and backgrounds? Discuss with reference to
a case study
Thank you

Questions?
 Group exercise
(3 min) Join in pairs, choose one country you
are familiar with, and discuss
Key opportunities and challenges for climate
resilient development in the country
What resources are already available in-country,
and what external resources (finances, information,
technologies) may be needed?
What are the political-economic challenges to
achieving climate resilient development?
(3 min) Turn to the pair next to you, and
discuss how the challenges differ or overlap
between the two countries