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Research PapersNo Access

Tipping Toward Transformation: Progress, Patterns and Potential for Climate Change Adaptation in the Global South

    https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737617500038Cited by:8
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    Abstract

    In response to observed and projected climate change impacts, major donors are funding an abundance of climate change research in the global South. The product of these funding schemes is often an abundance of cases with little attention paid to capturing the broader trends and patterns across cases. Furthermore, calls are increasingly being made for both adaptation and mitigation policies that are transformative: strategies that tackle the roots of vulnerability and high carbon development pathways to create a more fundamental shift towards sustainability. In this paper, we assess 54 cases of donor-funded adaptation research in the global South to paint a detailed picture of the types of adaptation options being proposed and implemented, their scope and the intended beneficiaries. We consider these data through the lens of transformation: to what extent do these cases illustrate adaptation actions that might push the social-ecological system over a tipping point towards a more desirable, sustainable state? Ultimately, we find that the adaptation options in these cases focus on educational or behavioral campaigns rather than deeper governance, legislative, or economic shifts. Similarly, the scale of action most often targets communities, rather than ecosystems, watershed, or regional/national scales. Even so, the emergence of resilience thinking in some projects, and the potential for a values shift triggered by these projects may sow the seeds of a longer-term transformation, if more attention is paid to synergies between development objectives and climate change actions.

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