February 2011: The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) has published a working paper titled “Mitigation of What and by What? Adaptation by Whom and for Whom? Dilemmas in Delivering for the Poor and the Vulnerable in International Climate Policy.”

The paper was authored by Leisa Perch, UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) researcher and coordinator of the Rural and Sustainable Development team at IPC-IG. The paper underscores the importance of the concept of “climate-compatible development” or making development actions “climate neutral” by tackling both vulnerability and green growth in the same policy framework, as well as the relationships between them. It argues that, in order to securing a sustainable and equitable solution to climate change, equity issues in the context of risk-sharing, burden-sharing and benefit-sharing should figure largely in the global public-policy response. It stresses the need to strike a balance between growth and development, between avoiding catastrophic climate change and preserving human development progress, and among economic, environmental and social responses to climate change.

The paper outlines some lessons in framing and applying climate-compatible policy moving forward, including: moving beyond the poor and vulnerable as a homogeneous group and as victims; resolving structural distinctions between the policy guidance for adaptation and mitigation mechanisms; changing the existing structures for climate finance that may reinforce inequalities of access between countries and between groups within countries; incentivizing action on transnational public goods; moving cooperation beyond technology and fossil-fuel substitution; and reinforcing and upscaling existing and emerging models of South-South cooperation.

The IPC-IG is a partnership between UNDP and the Government of Brazil. [Publication: Mitigation of What and by What? Adaptation by Whom and for Whom? Dilemmas in Delivering for the Poor and the Vulnerable in International Climate Policy]