Justice implications of adaptation to Climate Change and its governance

Abstract

This paper analyzes the different notions of justice that have informed the debate about adaptation to climate change in the international arena and examines current adaptation funding mechanisms in order to understand whether they embody the equity criteria that inspire them. At first it underlines that the concept of justice has been attributed multiple connotations and that non industrialized and industrialized countries adopt different rationales when discussing climate change. In addition, it describes how justice and equity are at the center of the debate about adaptation. Since vulnerability to climate change effects is function of local wealth distribution and of the local degree of social resilience, the paper emphasizes that adaptation governance is concerned with the equitable distribution of benefits and burdens of the effects of climate change and with the obligations of industrialized countries toward non industrialized nations, but also, at the same time with matters of procedural justice. After analyzing how current international financial mechanisms in support of adaptation embody different notions of equity, it points out that there are doubts that the current funding methods reflect the justice concerns that inspire global adaptation policies and suggests that they should be deeply reformed.