Just Resilience for Europe: Towards measuring justice in climate change adaptation

Summary

Justice has emerged as a key concept in adaptation in the last years due to growing evidence on how the most vulnerable people and systems are disproportionally at risk from climate change. These people and systems also often have less capacity and capabilities to adapt and are the least likely to be heard, recognised and prioritised in adaptation processes, resulting in fewer benefits from adaptation actions.

As an emerging priority, much work is yet to be done to understand and formulate the purpose and means of achieving just resilience in an EU context, and to understand how to measure progress towards achieving justice in adaptation.

This publication presents the current state of knowledge on justice and equity concerns for European sectors, the current policy landscape and progress for the EU and in Member States and lastly what means of evaluating, monitoring and measuring progress towards justice in climate adaptation is already available and what needs to be developed.This will help to inform ways of operationalise and measure “just resilience” for Europe.

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Method

We do this by assessing (1) current EU and member state policies and practice onjustice considerations in climate adaptation, (2) current evidenceon justice and equity related to climate risk and adaptation for European policy sectors and (3) existing frameworks and datasets to measure progress towards justice in climate risk and adaptation.

Key Findings

Below are a selection of key insights from the paper.

A new paradigm for justice in European climate change adaptation

Justice has emerged as a key concept in adaptation in the last years due to growing evidence on how the most vulnerable people and systems are disproportionally at risk from climate change. These people and systems also often have less capacity and capabilities to adapt and are the least likely to be heard, recognised and prioritised in adaptation processes, resulting in fewer benefits from adaptation actions.

The principles of just resilience and ‘leaving no one behind’ are key elements in several recent EU policies related to climate change adaptation, including the EU Strategy on Climate Adaptation, the European Green Deal and the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.

Principles of justice and resilience

Three core dimensions of justice in adaptation can inform the future work on operationalising just resilience for Europe; distributive justice (who is affected and who benefits), procedural justice (fairness and legitimacy of the decision-making process) and recognition justice (the recognition of diverse values, cultures and worldviews). Additional perspectives, including intergenerational justice, intersectionality, capacities and capabilities approaches, the safeguarding of intrinsic values of nature and restorative and retributive justice also offer valuable insights to the definition of goals for just resilience for Europe and the development of indicators to measure, monitor, report on and evaluate progress.

Policy priorities and progress in Europe

Increasing attention is given by EU Member States to the social justice dimension of adaptation and to the social and cultural values at risk from climate change. Implementation is however still very limited, and countries do not yet have monitoring frameworks in place to measure just resilience. However, a few countries, such as Austria and Finland, have started to assess justice aspects at local level. Spain notes the importance of intergenerational justice and gender equality. Sweden is the only country that has in its reporting explicitly noted that justice in adaptation is an evolving field and work is being carried out to identify areas of action.

Sector-specific justice considerations

Across policy sectors, certain groups are identified as particularly vulnerable to both the impacts of climate change and are of particular risk at having less influence on and benefit from adaptation planning and implementation. These groups include the young (infants and children), the elderly, poor or low-income households, people in poor health, people with poor social networks, immigrants and ethnic minorities. Particularly exposed populations are also identified, in particular low-lying areas, southern Europe, and both urban and rural areas. However, these categories broadly correspond to otherwise marginalised or disadvantaged groups and contextual information (sector, location, population etc.) should be well considered before directly adopted.

A few sectors are ahead in the development of knowledge and solutions for justice in adaptation planning and implementation, with a longer tradition of considering justice and diverging needs in planning and implementation. Particularly the Buildings, Urban, Health and Disaster Risk Reduction sectors. There is potential for cross-sectoral learning and synergies between sectors. Knowledge gaps persist across sectors on both the uneven burdens of climate change impacts and risk on places and people, as well as the process and outcome of adaptation action to build just resilience for Europe.

Existing datasets, frameworks and methodologies to develop just resilience indicators

Several existing frameworks and datasets have been identified that could be used in the design and development of indicators in the measuring, monitoring and reporting on the process of and progress of justice and equity in climate adaptation for Europe. Most such existing datasets and frameworks monitor distributive dimensions of justice, based on available statistical data, although survey data and qualitative methods are also in use. Existing data and frameworks are available to monitor certain vulnerable groups but could also function as response proxies. Indicators focusing on capacities and capabilities were the second largest group of indicators found in this screening and could provide insight to the future development of indicators for just resilience at EU levels.

Monitoring justice in adaptation cannot be limited to measuring the equity in distribution of benefits and burdens from climate impacts. Indicators were found that capture and address how measures affect various groups (preventive, mitigative and/or restorative) and the extent to which stakeholders have been consulted and involved in their implementation. During the screening, no indicators were found that directly assessed the recognitional aspects of justice.

Reflections and Future Priorities

Structural and systems change lies at the core of both the justice and the resilience concepts. Evidence supports that pre-existing inequalities interact with adaptation feasibility and effectiveness (including limits to adaptation) and drive climate related vulnerabilities. Such structural elements are clearly echoed in the existing framework designs and indicators, including elements such as social cohesion, sense of community, trust in institutions and active citizen participation as core elements. Assessing progress towards addressing these underlying structural drivers of injustice and inequities would need to become part of a holistic agenda to transition towards a resilient society, which would include uprooting and confronting structural elements of injustice.

Clarity on the definition and goals of justice and equity in climate adaptation policy, including at European, national and sector level, would help the process of operationalising the concept, and facilitate that relevant policy documents and processes reflect the full range of issues which would require policy action.

The scientific evidence and policy priorities provide a starting point to inform a framework for monitoring just resilience according to the different policy objectives that have been identified in sector policies, and at European and national level. Although existing indicators show potential, particularly at a country-level, they need modifications and adjustments in order to match policy needs and local contexts in monitoring just resilience for Europe.