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Justice and equity in climate change adaptation: overview of an emerging agenda

This paper explores current trends in understanding, prioritizing, and implementing just resilience in research and policy, emphasizing justice and equity in climate adaptation and resilience.
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Introduction

The concept of “just resilience” (justice, equity and fairness in climate adaptation) has become a subject of increased attention in recent years. This is because there is growing recognition that the impacts of climate change and future climate risk will affect people differently according to their income, ethnicity, age, gender, disabilities, and where they live. Social groups, communities and countries that are most vulnerable and have the least capacity to adapt to climate change will be disproportionately affected by its impacts, despite having contributed the least to causing the crises in the first place.

There is also growing evidence that adaptation interventions that set out to reduce the negative impacts of climate change can often have unintended or undesirable outcomes. This is known as maladaptation, and it can shift, reinforce or even create new vulnerabilities for already marginalised people, communities and places.

Despite this, we are only beginning to develop a collective understanding of the implications of justice and equity within climate adaptation policies. Climate impacts are generally assessed and projected at global, continental, or national scales and therefore do not offer data or insights into how these impacts are felt locally, what the drivers of vulnerability are, or the consequences for adaptation needs and outcomes for different countries, communities and social groups.

This paper explores current trends in understanding, prioritizing, and implementing just resilience in research and policy, emphasizing justice and equity in climate adaptation and resilience. It aims to provide practical guidance for practitioners, highlight underrepresented perspectives from the global south, and inform a global just resilience agenda by addressing social, structural, and geographical drivers of vulnerability and showcasing examples of equitable adaptation strategies.

Key messages

  • Just resilience is an emerging point on the policy agenda dealing with the unequal burdens of climate change impacts on people and places, and the potential for adaptation action to create winners and losers. While issues of justice and equity have featured in adaptation research since the early 2000s, in the past five years they have been increasingly discussed in adaptation policy and planning. The focus on just resilience has been driven by a) the increased need for and cost of adapting and responding to climate impacts in the face of uneven capacities and resources, and b) increased evidence of maladaptive practices and outcomes; that is, adaptation action that reinforces or creates new vulnerabilities for already marginalised groups.
  • In the literature (e.g. IPCC AR6 report) a consensus has formed around three core, interrelated dimensions of justice in adaptation and resilience building: distributive justice (who is burdened and who benefits), procedural justice (who is involved and how), and recognition justice (what and whose values are considered). These principles, while sometimes critiqued for being too technical and carrying a risk of introducing new administrative burdens, can function as baselines when assessing justice in certain contexts and in considering certain impacts or risks.
  • Structural vulnerability and social justice: the impacts of climate change interact with preexisting structural inequities, such as those based on wealth, unequal opportunities, power dynamics, age, health, education, political capacity, gender and ethnicity. Accounting for the structural drivers of inequity in climate change impacts and adaptation is important since it provides a path to (1) safeguard those most in need and (2) enables just resilience. These differing capabilities and structural drivers of vulnerability and inequity need to be understood on a contextual and case-by-case basis.
  • Recent policy developments: higher-income countries, with Canada, Australia, and European countries at the forefront, alongside South Africa, have led the mainstreaming of justice issues into adaptation and climate resilience strategies. These initiatives focus on vulnerable and marginalised communities and include Indigenous rights and perspectives. Additional approaches focusing on locally led and locally owned adaptation, agriculture, youth, cross-scale interdependence, global drivers of risk, responsibility, and the rights of nature are, also emerging. This emergence is being driven by actors in Africa and Latin America.
  • Structural inequality: national and international adaptation interventions and financing mechanisms are embedded in social and economic structures with existing inequities. The development agenda is critiqued for its (1) unequal, dysfunctional and post-colonial structure and (2) the fact that it is situated in an interconnected global system that can intensify existing inequities. Efforts to address systemic and underlying drivers of vulnerability and marginalisation can contribute to transformative adaptation; adaptation action that results in or contributes to significant changes in the structure or function of existing practices.
Just resilience addresses both the unequal burdens that climate change places on countries, people and places, and the goal of leaving no one behind. It also takes into account that adaptation action has unequal outcomes and can create winners and losers. (Lager, et al., 2023).

The road ahead

The current knowledge base and available tools are enough to start integrating just resilience and justice dimensions into the adaptation process, national monitoring systems and vulnerability assessments. An effective first step would be country-wide assessments of key policy priority areas, identifying key drivers of vulnerability and targeting groups in at-risk sectors. Such assessments should consider not only distributive effects from climate impacts and adaptation but also the meaningful inclusion of people who are often excluded or marginalised. It is also important to factor in people’s and groups’ different capacities and capabilities. Additionally, adaptation actions that have already been implemented should be monitored and assessed for justice considerations and risks of maladaptation.

While using available approaches can provide an important starting point, we also propose three guiding principles for the development of the just resilience agenda:

  • Go beyond the no-harm principle and approach climate adaptation as an opportunity to substantially reduce systemic and underlying inequalities that contribute to increased vulnerabilities. This involves recognising these underlying inequalities, promoting resilience-building, and enabling practices such as strengthening social networks and enhancing political capacity among underrepresented groups.
  • Navigate complex and unjust realities: Sometimes challenging structural and power inequities themselves is a way forward for just practices. In other contexts, working within existing dynamics in innovative ways may be crucial to ensure benefits reach the most vulnerable. Locally informed, led and owned solutions are often critical for such innovation to successfully reach those most in need.
  • Enable opportunities for sharing good practices and lessons learned between adaptation practitioners, researchers and policymakers, with a focus on experiences from lower-income countries. This exchange is crucial for developing the just resilience agenda and ensuring the involvement of those with the greatest needs or those who are often underrepresented. This could greatly support the improvement of global, national and local measures, monitoring systems, and foster co-learning.

Suggested citation

Mikaelsson, M. A., & Lager, F. (2024). Justice and equity in climate change adaptation: Overview of an emerging agenda. Stockholm Environment Institute.

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