The document discusses the social dimensions of climate change, noting that climate change impacts are deeply intertwined with global inequality and threaten development gains, so both aggressive mitigation and pro-poor adaptation are needed, with a focus on social equity, governance, and protecting vulnerable groups. It also outlines the World Bank's work on these social aspects of climate change across regions, countries, and initiatives.
1. Social Dimensions of
Climate Change
Presentation to the Closing
Conference of the Global Livestock
Collaborative Research Support
Program (GL-CRSP), Naivasha,
Kenya, June 16-20, 2009
Robin Mearns
Lead Social Development Specialist
The World Bank
2. Social Development
Department
Framing the issue: climate change & social justice
Causes & consequences of climate change deeply
intertwined with global patterns of inequality
Acts as a multiplier of existing vulnerabilities in a
warming and transforming world
Threatens to reverse hard-earned development gains
Dual-track approach needed: both aggressive mitigation
and pro-poor adaptation
Importance of governance, institutions and social
accountability in climate action and response measures
Profound implications for the practice of development
3. Social Development
Department
Per capita emissions from rich world
dwarf those from global South
(Source: EIA 2009, drawing on 2006 emissions data)
4. Social Development
Department
Inequity even starker when population
is taken into account
5. Social Development
World map reflecting Department
carbon emissions
*Annual aggregate national CO2 emissions 2000
Source: SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan), 2006,
cited in Global Humanitarian Forum (2009), The Anatomy of a Silent Crsis
6. The lower the GDP,
Social Development
Department
the more people killed
by natural disasters
7. Social Development
Department
Emissions and vulnerability
to climate change
(adapted from SEG 2007)
Highest vulnerability towards climate change vs. largest CO2 emissions (from fossil fuel combustion
and cement production, and including land use change, kg C per person and year from 1950 - 2003)
Largest per capita CO2 emitters
Highest social and / or agro-economic vulnerability
Largest per capita CO2 emitters, and highest social and / or agro-economic vulnerability
Areas with highest ecological vulnerability
8. Social Development
Department
Equity principle in global negotiations
Enshrined in UNFCCC: ‘Common but differentiated
responsibility’ (Article 3)
How is the burden of reducing GHG emissions to be
shared among nations?
How are adaptation efforts to be supported in the global
South, who pays, and at what level?
Cornerstone of global efforts to reach a fair deal in
Copenhagen
Instrumental as well as moral & ethical imperative –
developing world has access to most cost-effective
mitigation options
9. Social Development
Department
Equity in responses within developing countries
Substantive equity: who is affected & how?
Ensure equitable outcomes from climate policy &
action for those who are most vulnerable
Procedural equity: governance matters
Increase voice, capacity and engagement of vulnerable
groups in setting priorities in climate policy & action
at national and sub-national levels
Importance of social accountability & social learning
approaches
10. Social Development
Department
A dual-track approach is needed
Pro-poor adaptation
Important mediating role of local institutions, currently
neglected in most NAPAs
Need for articulation of interventions across scales
Additionality of financing for adaptation but operational
integration with ‘no-regrets’ development in practice
Promoting equitable benefit-sharing and managing social
risks associated with mitigation efforts
e.g. procedural & substantive equity in efforts to reduce
emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD)
12. Social Development
Department
Implications for a livestock development agenda
Role of agriculture remains neglected in climate negotiations
Agriculture contributes 14% of annual GHG emissions
Livestock contribute 18% of emissions (including land use change)
Grasslands store around 34% of global carbon stock, worth around $7/ ha at
current carbon prices – significant scope for payments for agro-ecosystem services
Synergies between mitigation and adaptation
Many management changes designed to increase carbon sequestration also
increase resilience
Changing crop mixes to include more perennials, deep-rooting plants, zero- or
low-tillage practices and mulching all increase soil carbon and moisture retention
Wetland restoration and avoidance of peatland conversion especially important
Changing livestock species mix, ruminant feed improvement & pasture
management can cut CH4 emissions
Integrated nutrient & manure management with increased efficiency in irrigation
and fertilizer use can reduce NO2 & CH4 emissions
13. Social Development
Department
Opportunities & challenges
Strong potential for sustainable development co-benefits
Low-cost mitigation and adaptation outcomes contribute to food security, poverty
reduction and climate resilience (potential triple win)
Property rights/ tenure shapes who benefits, who loses
E.g. pasture land usually formally vested in state ownership but held in common
by pastoralists under customary arrangements
Who owns carbon? Who should be rewarded for reduced GHG emissions?
Essential that users’ voices are heard in design of mitigation options
High measurement costs
Until recently may have exceeded market value of carbon sequestered
Techniques now available to measure reflectance properties of soils, allowing for
soil carbon mapping when combined with remote sensing
Possible trade-offs
Switching from cattle, sheep and goats to pigs and poultry could lead to reduced
CH4 emissions but could also increase demand for grain
14. Social Development
Department
Sustainable development co-benefits of agricultural
mitigation options
Social Economic Environmental
Agroforestry ? ? +
Tillage/ residue ? ? +
mngt.
Nutrient mngt. ? + +
Water mngt. + + +
Livestock mngt. ?/ - ? ?
Grazing land mngt + + +
Increase C storage + + +
in ag. products
Source: Smith (2009)
15. Social Development
Department
Adapting Livestock Systems to Climate Change CRSP
Climate change, livestock & Livestock & the value chain
environment Climate risk management &
Pastoral conflict management early warning systems
Change in range composition Stakeholder analysis of
Waste management in industrial options, prioritization
livestock systems Implications for marketing
Deforestation for grazing or
biofuels Enabling environment & policy
Coherence of inter-regional animal
Livestock & human health health policies
Implications for disease Food safety, regulatory standards
pathogens, vectors, surveillance,
control, epidemiology
Commodity price risk
management
Infrastructure, waste management
dimensions
Integration with social
protection/ safety nets
16. Social Development
Department
Climate change at the World Bank
… plus World
Development
Report 2010,
‘Development in
a Changing Climate’
Development
Marketplace
2009 on Climate Change
Adaptation…
… and regional
strategies,
analytical work, and
emerging operations