Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Equity and Vulnerability in a Warming World

Mearns, Robin ; Norton, Andrew

World Bank

关键词: ADVERSE CLIMATE;    AGRARIAN REFORM;    AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS;    AIR;    AIR QUALITY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-7887-8
RP-ID  :  52097

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Climate change is widely acknowledged asforemost among the formidable challenges facing theinternational community in the 21st century. It poseschallenges to fundamental elements of our understanding ofappropriate goals for social and economic policy, such asthe connection of prosperity, growth, equity, andsustainable development. This volume seeks to establish anagenda for research and action built on an enhancedunderstanding of the relationship between climate change andthe key social dimensions of vulnerability, social justice,and equity. The volume is organized as follows. Thisintroductory chapter first sets the scene by framing climatechange as an issue of social justice at multiple levels, andby highlighting equity and vulnerability as the centralorganizing themes of an agenda on the social dimensions ofclimate change. Chapter two leads off with a review ofexisting theories and frameworks for understandingvulnerability, drawing out implications for pro-poor climatepolicy. Understanding the multilayered causal structure ofvulnerability then can assist in identifying entry pointsfor pro-poor climate policy at multiple levels. Building onsuch analytical approaches, chapters three and four,respectively, consider the implications of climate changefor armed conflict and for migration. Those chapters arefollowed by a discussion of two of the most important socialcleavages that characterize distinct forms of vulnerabilityto climate change and climate action: gender (chapter five)and ethnicity or indigenous identity (chapter six), in thelatter case, focusing on the role of indigenous knowledge incrafting climate response measures in the Latin American andCaribbean region. Chapter seven highlights the importantmediating role of local institutions in achieving moreequitable, pro-poor outcomes from efforts to supportadaptation to climate change. Chapter eight examines theimplications of climate change for agrarian societies livingin dry-land areas of the developing world, and chapter ninedoes the same for those living in urban centers. Chapter tenconsiders the role of social policy instruments insupporting pro-poor adaptation to climate change; and itargues for a focus on 'no-regrets' options thatintegrate adaptation with existing development approaches,albeit with modifications to take better account of the waysin which climate variables interact with other drivers ofvulnerability. Finally, chapter eleven turns to theimplications of climate policy and action for forest areasand forest people.