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Integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation: key challenges—scales, knowledge, and norms

  • Special Feature: Original Article
  • Vulnerability, risk, and adaptation in a changing climate
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Abstract

Statistical data shows that the increase in disasters due to natural hazards over the past 20 years has, for the most part, been caused by meteorological and hydrological events. This increase has been largely assigned to climate change [Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 2010, http://www.emdat.be/Database/Trends/trends.html], that is, with climate-related hazards being major triggers for the majority of disasters. Consequently, there is obvious concern about how a changing climate will exacerbate the situation in the future (McBean and Ajibade in Curr Opin Environ Sustain 1:179–186, 2009). However, the attribution of a single hazard event or specific losses to climate change is still difficult, if not impossible, due to the complexity of factors that generate disaster losses. Disaster risk is a product of the interaction of the hazard (event) and the vulnerability conditions of the society or elements exposed. As a result, the need for a systematic linkage between disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) to advance sustainable development, and finally human security is being discussed within the ongoing climate change negotiations as well as within the disaster risk community, for example, in the framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report on ‘Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation’. However, crucial differences between DRR and CCA exist that have widely limited or hampered their integration in practice. A review of existing literature on the topic and current national and local adaptation strategies, as well as 38 expert interviews conducted between April and May 2009, have led the authors to hypothesise that most of these differences and challenges can be categorised with respect to different spatial and temporal scales, the knowledge base, and norm systems. This paper examines the reasons for the practical barriers when linking CCA and DRR according to these three aspects. Finally, we outline recommendations and measures that need to be adopted in order to overcome existing barriers. In addition, quality criteria are formulated that should be applied in order to constantly monitor and evaluate adaptation strategies designed to simultaneously meet DRR requirements and vice versa.

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Notes

  1. The paper is based on the report Addressing the challenge: recommendations and quality criteria for linking disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change undertaken by the authors (see Birkmann et al. 2009b) for the Global Platform of United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the World Bank 2009b in Geneva. The report was part of the German contribution to the Global Platform and was presented to a high level panel as well as in a side event that was well received. This paper extracts the major findings and adds important comments and points of discussion that were raised after the publication and presentation of the study.

  2. The process of the development of NAPAs was initiated during the UNFCCC COP 7 conference in Marrakesh in 2001, and is funded by the LDC fund, which is based on voluntary contributions from developed countries and managed through the Global Environmental Facility.

  3. By institutions, this paper refers to the encompassing rules, norms and rights as well as the organisations that enforce them.

  4. In this context, standards for humanitarian organisations are currently discussed within the SPHERE Project—Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response (see SPHERE project website: http://www.sphereproject.org/). These standards should be extended to adaptation to climate change.

  5. Mitigation in this regard is linked to the disaster risk cycle discussion and thus implies the meaning of the DRR community, which define mitigation as measures (structural and non-structural) that are undertaken to limit the adverse impact of natural hazards, environmental degradation and technological hazards (UN/ISDR 2004). In contrast, the climate change community uses the term mainly to distinguish between mitigation and adaptation to climate change. In this sense mitigation encompasses measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, in this paper the authors use the term mainly in the context of the disaster risk cycle, thus clearly linked to the understanding of the DRR community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), United Nations University, Hermann-Ehlers-Strasse 10, 53113, Bonn, Germany

    Jörn Birkmann

  2. CUBE Engineering GmbH, Breitscheidstrasse 6, 34119, Kassel, Germany

    Korinna von Teichman

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  1. Jörn Birkmann
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  2. Korinna von Teichman
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Correspondence to Jörn Birkmann.

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Edited by Fabrice Renaud, UNU-Institute for Environment and Human Security (EHS), Germany.

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Birkmann, J., von Teichman, K. Integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation: key challenges—scales, knowledge, and norms. Sustain Sci 5, 171–184 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-010-0108-y

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