3.3.3.5 Justice, equity and distribution of vulnerability

Climate change adaptation and mitigation measures have led to resistance from local social groups in the past, as they are often implemented top-down even where participatory language is used, entailing relocation, privatisation of resources, threats to traditional identities and norms, subordination and norm compliance, further weakening the agency of already-vulnerable groups (Woroniecki et al., 2019; Brink et al., 2023; Rudge, 2023). Any impact governance needs, therefore, to respond to concerns around equity and justice (Rudge, 2023). As Stoddard et al., (2021) write, that “powerful and affluent groups may opt for personal protections, rather than joint responses that secure communal benefit, has already been seen in concerns about exclusive adaptation that protect the privileged at the cost of those who are most vulnerable. The capacity for inequality to concentrate life-threatening harm in marginalised communities appears to have played a central role in social upheaval, including the 2008 financial crisis, as well as in societal collapses”.

As we have noted, the distribution of vulnerability to impacts from ESTPs does not necessarily follow the same distribution pattern of vulnerability to climate change, but the capacity to adapt, whether to climate change in general or to ESTPs, is extremely skewed towards rich countries and affluent population groups, which makes impact management an issue of justice and international and national politics.

Moreover, human actions can produce or reinforce vulnerability or exposure, for instance when early warnings fail to reach affected populations or when marginalised groups are denied access to evacuation shelters (Otto and Raju, 2023). Recent trends in privatisation of adaptation, however, seem to only worsen the inequality with respect to adaptation (Nyberg et al., 2022). Many countries in the Global South are currently locked in inadequate adaptation due to constraints under the current international financial mechanisms (see Figure 3.3.5). To avoid adaptation becoming a mechanism for protecting privileges, strengthened political commitment to transformative, just adaptation is needed. Social movements can play an important role in this context.

They can create pressure on governments through direct action, raise public awareness, and facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of adaptation progress (IPCC, 2022a). Furthermore, looking at potential synergies between mitigation and adaptation efforts that focus on social justice is important in order to not perpetuate inequities and past injustices (Ripple et al., 2022).