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Design Principles in Planning for Climate Resilience
A new paper by Lyuba Zarsky from the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University looks at the principles and design models for what is referred to as "climate-resilient development paths". The paper argues that the climate change imperative—the urgent need to both mitigate and adapt to climate change—comes at an opportune moment to consider how industrial transformation and economic development could approach climate-resilience.
The paper argues that overarching goal of development in a climate-constrained world should be on the creation of sustainable livelihoods. Although considerations of water issues and water management are limited to broad assessment, the paper does identify how severe stresses on water availability and damage to existing assets and infrastructure will have secondary (or flow-on) effects for policy and soci0-economic condition. For example, the paper considers how stresses to water availability are are likely to trigger a high degree of social stress and conflict, particularly in areas highly dependent on agriculture.
Climate-Resilient Industrial Development Paths: Design Principles and Alternative Models
Lyuba Zarsky GDAE Working Paper 10, February 2010, in conjunction with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Abstract
The unfolding drama of global climate change has paradigm-shifting implications for development theory and policy. Despite recent findings that the Washington Consensus is adrift, development practice remains largely wedded to global, market-driven neo-liberal policies based on maximizing GNP growth and high-energy consumption, by maximizing inflows of foreign investment, integrating with global supply chains, and eschewing pro-active industry policies.
The climate change imperative—the urgent need to both mitigate and adapt to climate change—comes at an opportune moment to consider how industrial transformation and economic development could—and indeed, must—evolve along new “climate-resilient” paths. Development theory has been shaken loose by the economic, social and environmental shortcomings of neo-liberal orthodoxy.
This paper by GDAE Research Fellow Lyuba Zarsky, who is also an International Fellow at IIED, explores the broad contours of climate-resilient industrial development paths. She defines development as an increase in local capacities for production and innovation and argues that the overarching goal of development in a climate-constrained world is not growth or industrialization per se but the generation of sustainable livelihoods.
Zarsky compares three distinct development models and suggests that the so-called “new developmentalist” model, with its overarching objective of building endogenous productive capacity and a strong role for government in industrial development, make it the most robust of the three models as a starting point for the design of climate-resilient development paths. Without these two elements, it is highly unlikely that developing economies will develop on a low-carbon trajectory or significantly reduce their vulnerability to intensifying climate instability. Much additional work is needed, however, to develop the theory and praxis of climate-resilient development paths.
