Adaptation to Climate Change: Resilience, Transition and Transformation

Adaptation to Climate Change argues that policy and practice on adaptation must address social justice. Without this, we risk drifting into a better adapted but more unequal world.

The first edition of this book made a case for adaptation to be seen as part of development, a logic which is now widely accepted in academia and with many practical applications. The frontline in the relationship between adaptation and development has shifted and is now less about vision and more about policy context and practical action. Fully updated and revised in its second edition, this book argues that, without care, adaptive actions can deny the deeper political and cultural roots that call for significant change in social and political relations.

The authors present a framework for making sense of the range of choices facing humanity, structured around resilience (stability), transition (incremental social change and the exercising of existing rights) and transformation (new rights claims and changes in political regimes). The resilience–transition–transformation framework is supported by three detailed case study chapters. These also illustrate the diversity of contexts where adaption is unfolding, from organizations to urban governance and the national polity.

Content new to this edition includes:

• Fully updated chapters to reflect advances and recent scholarly debate in climate change adaptation research, policy and practice.
• Each chapter is now accompanied by discussion questions to facilitate critical engagement.
• Integration of recent IPCC Assessment Report insights, examining economic dimensions of climate impacts, climate finance and targeted adaptation through vulnerability, exposure and adaptive capacity.
• Updated international case studies throughout to elucidate theory.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the social dimensions of climate change adaptation. Written in an engaging style, it provides detailed theoretical and empirical chapters and serves as an invaluable reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in climate change, geography and development studies.

Mark Pelling is Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction, Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London. He has worked at King’s College London, the University of Liverpool and the University of Guyana. His research and teaching focus on human vulnerability and adaptation to natural hazards and climate change. He has served as a lead author with the IPCC and as a consultant for UNDP, DFID and UN-HABITAT, amongst others.

Tanvi Deshpande is a Fellow with the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action, University of Birmingham, and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on urban climate governance in the global South, particularly South Asia.