What is vulnerability to climate change and who are the particularly vulnerable?
(2024) MVEM31 20232Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
- Abstract
- The effects of climate change are resulting in harmful impacts — known as loss and damage — hitting the most vulnerable countries the hardest. At COP27 in Sharm el- Sheikh, a new “loss and damage fund” was agreed upon, creating history within the international climate change policy arena. However, the question of who may benefit from this fund, remains. The fund is to address the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, but the concept of vulnerability is in its nature vague, and its implications are many. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with Nordic and African climate strategy experts, this study sets out to investigate whether the ambiguity of perceptions behind vulnerability may influence the effectiveness and... (More)
- The effects of climate change are resulting in harmful impacts — known as loss and damage — hitting the most vulnerable countries the hardest. At COP27 in Sharm el- Sheikh, a new “loss and damage fund” was agreed upon, creating history within the international climate change policy arena. However, the question of who may benefit from this fund, remains. The fund is to address the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, but the concept of vulnerability is in its nature vague, and its implications are many. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with Nordic and African climate strategy experts, this study sets out to investigate whether the ambiguity of perceptions behind vulnerability may influence the effectiveness and operationalization of the new loss and damage fund. The study examines (i) how the perception of vulnerability differs between the two groups, (ii) how this difference relates to the larger political debate between developed and developing countries, and (iii) what implications these results may have for the future process of the fund. The study takes a constructionist stance, arguing that it is not possible to separate actors from the world in which they are embedded, resulting in different perceptions of core concepts. Concepts are therefore assigned a large degree of linguistic uncertainty, which may hamper the effectiveness of negotiations and operationalization of institutions tasked with applying climate strategies. The study finds that the world view of different political actors is dependent on their positionality in the international arena. These positionalities result in diverging perceptions of the vulnerability concept and the concept of particularly vulnerable, which in turn have large implications for countries’ eligibility to access the loss and damage fund. This study further finds that the linguistic uncertainty of core concepts may have large implications for the future effectiveness of the new fund. Lastly, the study argues that there is a spill-over effect of linguistic uncertainty from terms to other terms in near connection, in this case from loss and damage to vulnerability and particularly vulnerable. (Less)
- Popular Abstract (Swedish)
- Under många decennier har världen påverkats av klimatförändringar, och problematiken fortsätter öka alltmer. Effekterna av människoskapade klimatförändringar leder till förödande konsekvenser i form av skador och förluster för människor världen över. Det finns en tendens till att skador och förluster drabbar utsatta människor i utvecklingsländer värst. Förutom att historisk ha bidragit minst till de globala klimatförändringarna är dessa folkgrupper också ofta minst kapabla att hantera dessa skador och förluster på grund av ekonomiska, sociala och strukturella utmaningar.
För att hantera den stora problematiken kring skador och förluster behövs det ny klimatfinansiering på området. Vid det årliga internationella klimattoppmötet 2022... (More) - Under många decennier har världen påverkats av klimatförändringar, och problematiken fortsätter öka alltmer. Effekterna av människoskapade klimatförändringar leder till förödande konsekvenser i form av skador och förluster för människor världen över. Det finns en tendens till att skador och förluster drabbar utsatta människor i utvecklingsländer värst. Förutom att historisk ha bidragit minst till de globala klimatförändringarna är dessa folkgrupper också ofta minst kapabla att hantera dessa skador och förluster på grund av ekonomiska, sociala och strukturella utmaningar.
För att hantera den stora problematiken kring skador och förluster behövs det ny klimatfinansiering på området. Vid det årliga internationella klimattoppmötet 2022 (COP27) enades världens länder om en ny klimatfond med syfte att hantera skador och förluster som har uppkommit i världens mest sårbara länder som följd av klimatförändringarna. Operationaliseringen och strukturerna av denna fond klubbades igenom vid klimattoppmötet 2023 (COP28). Genom tiden har det dock varit stor skillnad på hur sårbarhet definieras och vem som anses vara särskilt sårbara, vilket inte heller har specificerats i beslutet bakom den nya fonden.
Denna studie undersöker hur synen på vad sårbarhet är och vem som anses vara särskilt sårbara kan skilja sig åt och vilka konsekvenser dessa skillnader kan tänkas ha för effektiviteten av den nya fonden. Detta görs genom intervjuer med insatta aktörer i nordiska och afrikanska länder. Det undersöks därutöver vad bakgrunden till dessa skillnader kan tänkas vara. Studien visar att det finns tydliga skillnader på hur företrädare för nordiska och afrikanska länder förstår sårbarhet och vem de identifierar som särskilt sårbara. Dessa olikheter grundas till stor del på de två gruppernas position i den internationella ordningen och den historiska debatten mellan utvecklingsländer och utvecklade länder. Studien visar dessutom på att sådana osäkerheter kring språkbruk kan leda till en sämre effektivitet av fonden, särskilt om skillnaderna i förståelse av termerna inte reds ut innan fonden blir verklighet. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9145149
- author
- Greve Pobiega, Emilie LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MVEM31 20232
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9145149
- date added to LUP
- 2024-01-22 16:40:44
- date last changed
- 2024-01-22 16:40:44
@misc{9145149,
abstract = {{The effects of climate change are resulting in harmful impacts — known as loss and damage — hitting the most vulnerable countries the hardest. At COP27 in Sharm el- Sheikh, a new “loss and damage fund” was agreed upon, creating history within the international climate change policy arena. However, the question of who may benefit from this fund, remains. The fund is to address the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, but the concept of vulnerability is in its nature vague, and its implications are many. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with Nordic and African climate strategy experts, this study sets out to investigate whether the ambiguity of perceptions behind vulnerability may influence the effectiveness and operationalization of the new loss and damage fund. The study examines (i) how the perception of vulnerability differs between the two groups, (ii) how this difference relates to the larger political debate between developed and developing countries, and (iii) what implications these results may have for the future process of the fund. The study takes a constructionist stance, arguing that it is not possible to separate actors from the world in which they are embedded, resulting in different perceptions of core concepts. Concepts are therefore assigned a large degree of linguistic uncertainty, which may hamper the effectiveness of negotiations and operationalization of institutions tasked with applying climate strategies. The study finds that the world view of different political actors is dependent on their positionality in the international arena. These positionalities result in diverging perceptions of the vulnerability concept and the concept of particularly vulnerable, which in turn have large implications for countries’ eligibility to access the loss and damage fund. This study further finds that the linguistic uncertainty of core concepts may have large implications for the future effectiveness of the new fund. Lastly, the study argues that there is a spill-over effect of linguistic uncertainty from terms to other terms in near connection, in this case from loss and damage to vulnerability and particularly vulnerable.}},
author = {{Greve Pobiega, Emilie}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{What is vulnerability to climate change and who are the particularly vulnerable?}},
year = {{2024}},
}