Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change

As a global society, we need to take action not only to prevent the potentiallycatastrophic effects of climate change but also to adapt to the unavoidable effects of climatechange already imposed on the world. Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change looks at thechallenges of ensuring that policy responses to climate change do not place undue and unfair burdenson already vulnerable populations. All countries will be endangered by climate change risks fromflood, drought, and other extreme weather events, but developing countries are more dependent onclimate-sensitive livelihoods such as farming and fishing and hence are more vulnerable. Despitethis, the concerns of developing countries are marginalized in climate policy decisions thatexacerbate current vulnerabilities.Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change brings together scholarsfrom political science, economics, law, human geography, and climate science to offer the firstassessment of the social justice issues in adaptation to climate change. The book outlines thephilosophical underpinnings of different types of justice in relation to climate change, presentinequities, and future burdens, and it applies these to real world examples of climate changeadaptation in Bangladesh, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, and Hungary. It argues that the key toadapting to climate change lies in recognizing the equity and justice issues inherent in its causesand in human responses to it.Contributors:W. Neil Adger, Paul Baer, Jon Barnett, Maria Bohn, KirstinDow, Saleemul Huq, Roger E. Kasperson, Mizan R. Khan, Janica Lane, Neil A. Leary, Robin Leichenko,Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer, M. J. Mace, Karen O'Brien, Jouni Paavola, Stephen H. Schneider, David S. G.Thomas, Chasca Twyman, Anna Vari

W. Neil Adger leads the research effort on adaptation at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia.