TY - JOUR
T1 - Complex climate change risk and emerging directions for vulnerability research in Africa
AU - Ayanlade, Ayansina
AU - Smucker, Thomas A.
AU - Nyasimi, Mary
AU - Sterly, Harald
AU - Weldemariam, Lemlem F.
AU - Simpson, Nicholas P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - This article explains the assessment and conceptual framing of the Vulnerability Synthesis in the Africa chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6), situating the synthesis within emerging understandings of complex climate change risk, intersectionality and multi-dimensional vulnerability. It highlights how reducing vulnerability holds the greatest potential gains for reducing near-term climate risk in Africa. It elaborates how important dimensions of vulnerability, such as inequalities of gender, migrant status or level of income, compound with each other to affect risk. Our review of current vulnerability scholarship reveals severe limitations for climate risk management that are rooted in a lack of attention to interacting social drivers and their effects on risk, as well as an orientation toward vulnerability analyses at coarse social and spatial levels. These scales do not match well with the localised nature of vulnerability nor the impacts of climate change. There is also limited research on the intersectional differentiation of vulnerabilities, which is essential to understanding the heterogeneous nature of vulnerable groups and their agency, particularly concerning navigating or contesting unequal power relations. Reflecting on these dimensions in the Vulnerability Synthesis, we identify how research can provide a deeper understanding of the interactions among multiple drivers of vulnerability and why this matters for adaptation in Africa. Key to this understanding will be to show how responses to climate change affect important dimensions of vulnerability and with what overall risk outcomes. Doing so will advance intersectional analysis within place-based vulnerability assessments across Africa and better inform the design of interventions targeting those dimensions and scales of vulnerability that have the greatest proportional effect on risk reduction. These will contribute informed safeguards against maladaptation as well as provide concrete directions for planning for more inclusive climate-resilient development.
AB - This article explains the assessment and conceptual framing of the Vulnerability Synthesis in the Africa chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6), situating the synthesis within emerging understandings of complex climate change risk, intersectionality and multi-dimensional vulnerability. It highlights how reducing vulnerability holds the greatest potential gains for reducing near-term climate risk in Africa. It elaborates how important dimensions of vulnerability, such as inequalities of gender, migrant status or level of income, compound with each other to affect risk. Our review of current vulnerability scholarship reveals severe limitations for climate risk management that are rooted in a lack of attention to interacting social drivers and their effects on risk, as well as an orientation toward vulnerability analyses at coarse social and spatial levels. These scales do not match well with the localised nature of vulnerability nor the impacts of climate change. There is also limited research on the intersectional differentiation of vulnerabilities, which is essential to understanding the heterogeneous nature of vulnerable groups and their agency, particularly concerning navigating or contesting unequal power relations. Reflecting on these dimensions in the Vulnerability Synthesis, we identify how research can provide a deeper understanding of the interactions among multiple drivers of vulnerability and why this matters for adaptation in Africa. Key to this understanding will be to show how responses to climate change affect important dimensions of vulnerability and with what overall risk outcomes. Doing so will advance intersectional analysis within place-based vulnerability assessments across Africa and better inform the design of interventions targeting those dimensions and scales of vulnerability that have the greatest proportional effect on risk reduction. These will contribute informed safeguards against maladaptation as well as provide concrete directions for planning for more inclusive climate-resilient development.
KW - Africa
KW - Climate change
KW - Compound risk
KW - Intersectionality
KW - Response
KW - Vulnerability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150443836&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.crm.2023.100497
DO - 10.1016/j.crm.2023.100497
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85150443836
SN - 2212-0963
VL - 40
JO - Climate Risk Management
JF - Climate Risk Management
M1 - 100497
ER -