Abstract
AbstractThe 2015 Paris Agreement has fueled debates about how the international bureaucrats driving international organizations’ engagement with climate adaptation ought to address adaptation challenges. While previous research has predominantly focused on the structural constraints in adaptation governance, this paper develops a distinct argument about the cognitive frames through which international bureaucrats view climate risks. The evidence comes from a survey among bureaucrats in three organizations that have engaged with adaptation to different extents: United Nations Environment, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Health Organization. The results suggest that the majority of the surveyed bureaucrats view climate risks as a multidimensional problem. The evidence indicates that bureaucrats are more likely to view climate risks through multiple than through single issue frames, the more certain they perceive the knowledge about climate impacts in their issue area to be. By way of conclusion, the paper sketches broader implications for adaptation and international bureaucracy research.
Funder
Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning
Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference58 articles.
1. World Meteorological Organization. WMO Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970–2019), WMO-No. 1267. https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=10989, p. 7. (2021).
2. Ara Begum, R. et al. Point of departure and key concepts. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Pörtner, H.-O. et al.) p. 144 and p. 134. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, 2022).
3. Persson, Å. & Dzebo, A. Special issue: exploring global and transnational governance of climate change adaptation. Int. Environ. Agreem. 19, 357–367 (2019).
4. Hall, N. Money or the mandate? Why international organizations are engaging with the climate change regime. Glob. Environ. Polit. 15, 79–96 (2015).
5. Lesnikowski, A. et al. What does the Paris Agreement mean for adaptation? Clim. Policy 17, 825–831 (2017).