Managing Adaptation to Climate Risk : Beyond Fragmented Responses

Climate change is the single largest threat to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sustainable development. Addressing climate risk is a challenge for all. This book calls for greater collaboration between climate communities and disaster development communities. In discussing this, the book will evaluate the approaches used by each community to reduce the adverse effects of climate change. One area that offers some promise for bringing together these communities is through the concept of resilience. This term is increasingly used in each community to describe a process that embeds capacity to respond to and cope with disruptive events. This emphasizes an approach that is more focused on pre-event planning and using strategies to build resilience to hazards in an adaptation framework. The book will conclude by evaluating the scope for a holistic approach where these communities can effectively contribute to building communities that are resilient to climate driven risks.

Resilience has become the new buzz word – in Government, Health, Energy and Disaster Management sectors. Climate change is the single largest threat to sustainable development, and addressing climate risk is a challenge for all.

This book calls for greater collaboration between climate communities and disaster development communities to tackle the challenges faced in addressing climate risk reduction. It evaluates approaches used by each community to reduce the adverse effects of climate change, and argues that adaptation focused on peoples’ livelihoods, rather than technology, is the best way to reduce risk. One area that offers some promise for bringing together these communities is through the concept of resilience: a process that embeds capacity to respond to and cope with disruptive events. The book explores various models of resilience and concludes by evaluating the scope for a holistic approach where these communities can build communities resilient to climate driven risks.

Managing Adaptation to Climate Risk provides a conceptual framework for future debate and will be of interest to students and researchers in Development Studies, Environmental Studies and Disaster Risk Reduction.