Climate Change and Local Level Disaster Risk Reduction Planning ...

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Abbreviations: AWWA American Water Works Association CRED Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters CTG Climate task group GHG Greenhouse GasesSrinivasan Ancha; Rajib Shaw; and Ian Davis IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change UK CIP United Kingdom Climate Impacts Program UNDP APF United Nations Development Program Adaptation Policy Framework The linkage between development and disasters is well known (Wisner et al 2004; Otero and Marti 1995; Stenchion, 1997; Pelling, 2003; McEntire, 2004; UNDP, 2004). Climate change has brought another dimension to the development (Denton et al, 2002; McCarthy et al, 2001; Michael, 2003; Richards, 2003). The Brundtland Report identified Climate Change as one of the three problems bearing on our survival way back in 1987 (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated that climate change will interact at all scales and sectors including disaster risk (page 70, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007b). The IPCC also reported an increase in global atmospheric temperature by 0.74 OC in the past 100 years with associated changes in precipitation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007a). There are evidences for longer droughts in tropics and subtropics, increasing frequency of heavy rainfall events on most land areas and for increasing intensity of tropical cyclones in North Atlantic. These changes are expected to have multi-fold impacts in the form of floods and droughts in various parts of the world. The extreme events can be devastating for the developing countries which have less capacity to adapt (Mendelsohn and Dinar, 1999; Ravindranath and Sathaye, 2002; Winkler, 2005; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007a). This establishes an undeniable unholy alliance between climate change, disasters, and development. This calls for better understanding 2
the impacts of climate change in terms of disasters and what it means to disaster risk management professionals and policy makers. Mitigation and adaptation approaches were devised to address the problem of climate change (McCarthy et al, 2001). While mitigation aims at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation aims at reducing current and future impacts of climate change. Adaptation has gained much importance due to the fact that the already caused damage to the global environment would continue to show impacts long time into the future, irrespective of the mitigation practices taken up and implemented at present (Smithers and Smit, 1997). Adaptation enhances the capacity of people and governments to reduce climate change impacts (Tompkins and Adger, 2003). However, there have also been cautions for not investing heavily in adaptation as such investments may lead to mal-adaptations and unsustainable development (Kates, 2000; Adger et al, 2003). In the context of climate change, disaster risk management is considered as an adaptation option (Smit and Pilifosova, 2001; Vulnerability and Adaptation Resource Group, 2006). Disaster risk management has also been seen as a way to sustainable development (Boulle et al, 1997; Smit and Pilifosova, 2001; Yodmani, 2001). The linkage between climate change and disaster risk reduction was subject of intensive formal and informal debates at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) (Vulnerability and Adaptation Resource Group, 2006). In addition, the ‘Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters’ identified climate change as one of the threats posing the world future and identified disaster risk management planning as one of the key points of entry to tackle the climate change threats (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2005). In the words of the Framework: “Promote the integration of risk reduction associated with existing climate variability and future climate change into strategies for the reduction of disaster risk and adaptation to climate change, which would include the clear identification of climate related disaster risks, the design of specific risk reduction measures and an improved and routine use of climate risk information by planners, engineers and other decision- makers.” 3
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