2 Review of Socio-Economic Development Pathway Scenarios …
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In the global policy arena, the year of 2015 marked a very important year for
disaster risk reduction, climate change actions and sustainable development. The
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted in March 2015 (UNISDR
2015) and Paris Agreement in December 2015 (UNFCCC 2015) and the SDGs
were agreed by 193 countries (UNGA 2015). The interlinkages among these
three frameworks are crucial to ensure orchestrated efforts to achieve sustainable
development.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction focuses on 4 priorities for
actions, namely understanding of risk, governance, investment and the building back
better for resilience. The latest UNFCCC Conference of the Parties 24 (COP24) in
Katowice, Poland, has produced a rulebook which clearly mentioned that parties
should advance their effort and consider future climate risk in implementing their
plans and strategies to reduce disaster risk:
10(b) To take into consideration future climate risks when developing and implementing
their relevant national plans and strategies that seek to avert, minimize and address loss and
damage and reduce disaster risks, as appropriate. ( UNFCCC, 2018a, Draft decision -/CP.24
para 10.b)
The Katowice rulebook is also further calling out for more transparency of
countries in terms of reporting mechanism and accountability of their climate actions.
The SDG 13 focuses on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its
impacts. This particular SDG will be reviewed in the High-Level Political Forum
2019 on climate change at later this year. More efforts to ensure synergy is anticipated.
These global policy processes have strongly encouraged countries to prepare,
adapt and mitigate the unknowable adverse impact of climate change in the future,
which could lead to increasing number and intensity of disasters, jeopardizing the
efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals. It is, therefore, crucial for
science to contribute to understanding disaster risk and to unpack the connection
between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. This includes the
understanding of socio-economic factors and variables affecting the future pathways
in climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.
Theoretical Reflections
We selected four main theories or concepts relevant to the disaster risk reduction and
climate change research, including the resilience and vulnerability theories, theory
of societal change and transformation and adaptive governance.
The resilience and vulnerability theories are most often referred in disaster risk
reduction and climate change research. The resilience concept has been around for
about 5 decades since Holling’s groundbreaking paper (1973). The definitions of
resilience, however, is not easy to grasp and often times are confusing (see Walker
et al. 2004). The general definition of resilience has been laid out by many scholars,
indicating the capacity of a system to retain to original function within critical
15
In the global policy arena, the year of 2015 marked a very important year for
disaster risk reduction, climate change actions and sustainable development. The
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted in March 2015 (UNISDR
2015) and Paris Agreement in December 2015 (UNFCCC 2015) and the SDGs
were agreed by 193 countries (UNGA 2015). The interlinkages among these
three frameworks are crucial to ensure orchestrated efforts to achieve sustainable
development.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction focuses on 4 priorities for
actions, namely understanding of risk, governance, investment and the building back
better for resilience. The latest UNFCCC Conference of the Parties 24 (COP24) in
Katowice, Poland, has produced a rulebook which clearly mentioned that parties
should advance their effort and consider future climate risk in implementing their
plans and strategies to reduce disaster risk:
10(b) To take into consideration future climate risks when developing and implementing
their relevant national plans and strategies that seek to avert, minimize and address loss and
damage and reduce disaster risks, as appropriate. ( UNFCCC, 2018a, Draft decision -/CP.24
para 10.b)
The Katowice rulebook is also further calling out for more transparency of
countries in terms of reporting mechanism and accountability of their climate actions.
The SDG 13 focuses on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its
impacts. This particular SDG will be reviewed in the High-Level Political Forum
2019 on climate change at later this year. More efforts to ensure synergy is anticipated.
These global policy processes have strongly encouraged countries to prepare,
adapt and mitigate the unknowable adverse impact of climate change in the future,
which could lead to increasing number and intensity of disasters, jeopardizing the
efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals. It is, therefore, crucial for
science to contribute to understanding disaster risk and to unpack the connection
between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. This includes the
understanding of socio-economic factors and variables affecting the future pathways
in climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.
Theoretical Reflections
We selected four main theories or concepts relevant to the disaster risk reduction and
climate change research, including the resilience and vulnerability theories, theory
of societal change and transformation and adaptive governance.
The resilience and vulnerability theories are most often referred in disaster risk
reduction and climate change research. The resilience concept has been around for
about 5 decades since Holling’s groundbreaking paper (1973). The definitions of
resilience, however, is not easy to grasp and often times are confusing (see Walker
et al. 2004). The general definition of resilience has been laid out by many scholars,
indicating the capacity of a system to retain to original function within critical