Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons from NGOs

Non-government organisations (NGOs) play a critical role in responding to climate change in Australia and international contexts. The positive influence of NGOs in providing credible information for decision makers at the highest levels of climate change diplomacy was documented over a decade ago (Betsill & Corell, 2001).

More recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2014) has recognized NGOs as key actors in knowledge production, risk and vulnerability mapping and community capacity building.

Working across environmental and social sectors, NGOs are well placed to foster diverse approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

For some NGOs, concerns about climate change have emerged from environmental advocacy.

For others, climate change exacerbates ongoing struggles to address poverty and other forms of social inequity.

Importantly, a commitment to sustainable development provides a common framework for the activities of many NGOS working to address the challenges of climate change.

*For the purposes of this document, the terms non-government organisations, non-profits, not-for-profits, and communitygroups are used interchangeably.

GUIDANCE BRIEF

Turning challenges into successes and sharing lessons

Climate change adaptation: Lessons from NGOs Page 3

Climate change adaptation is consistent with the goals of sustainable development and is an increasingly important factor in supporting resilient individuals, communities and regions. While many sectors are familiar with the demands of dynamic contexts, adapting to the multiple impacts of climate change is a novel challenge.

Consequently, NGOs active in facilitating climate change adaptation are often faced with the following challenges:

• limited levels of knowledge and awareness concerningimpacts and potential adaptations

• difficulties in demonstrating the successes and distinctbenefits of adaptation

• diverse and/or conflicting goals

• difficulties in scaling efforts or illustrating positiveoutcomes beyond the local scale

• the need to address multiple impacts that vary acrosscommunities and/or sectors

• difficulties in measuring the impact of adaptationinterventions

• few exemplars or models of best practice—examplestend to be limited in their application

• limited sharing of lessons from successes and failures

• concerns regarding negative impacts upon mitigationefforts.

“Knowledge of climate change

adaptation may be emergent,

but practitioners working in

diverse development and

advocacy contexts offer

rich insights invaluable to

addressing the challenges of

adaptation”

Assoc.Prof Dana Thomsen

Challenges

National Adaptation Network Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions GUIDANCE BRIEF

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Case study: Adaptation indicators

Monitoring the outcomes of adaptation interventions can be difficult.

The future focus of many intended impacts makes real-time evaluation of success or failure problematic. Moreover, the complex, cross-sectoral nature of impacts and the need to localize responses to those impacts mean that traditional or easily replicable approaches to monitoring can be inadequate. To address this gap, Plan International together with the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, have developed a set of local-level indicators of adaptation, based on the implementation of and experiences from a child-centred climate change adaptation project in the Philippines. The process assesses how the project influenced children’s knowledge, advocacy efforts, and impact on policy and practice (Chong et al. 2015a; Chong et al. 2015b; Schoch & Treichel 2015).

Climate change adaptation: Lessons from NGOs Page 3

The strategies or interventions of NGOs working to foster sustainable responses to climate change can be characterised along a number of continua, including:

• local to global

• top-down to bottom-up

• advocacy to capacity building

• politically reformist to revolutionary.

Significantly, much NGO work is multi-strategic and generates diverse combinations of these elements as groups collaborate with other organisations and account for political dynamics and resource availability.

Most analyses of NGO strategies for climate change response have focused on campaigns to educate individuals and pressure policy makers to mitigate climate change. Some notable exceptions have begun to consider actions to develop community resilience and reduce community vulnerability to the impacts of climate change (e.g. Rojas Blanco 2006; Fitzpatrick and Molloy 2014). Importantly, building community resilience to other stressors is often consistent with strategies for climate change adaptation. Hence, many NGOs are already engaged in activities supportive of adaptation (e.g. sustainable development).

Successes

The following strategies for climate change adaptation are drawn from published studies of NGOs. They are grouped according to their potential for capacity building and political advocacy——nevertheless, it is the way strategies are implemented, rather than the strategy per se, that is most influential upon outcomes achieved.

Education and awareness-raising• Film/Documentary/Public art • Audit andperformance evaluation • Culture jamming • Celebrity advocacy • Consumer labeling• Website • Games and songs

Capacity building• Community development • Transition town• Social entrepreneurship • Remedial action• Volunteer recruitment & training • Knowledgeexchange • Online interaction (Web 2.0)

Political advocacy• Political pressure via public engagement (e.g.online petition) • Activism & advocacy addressing local, national & international governments • Multi-media campaign • Knowledge production

Crosscutting strategies• Cross-sector alliance at local, national &international scales • Cross-scale linkage between local issue & broader sociopolitical stage • Direct action • Demonstration

Strategies

National Adaptation Network Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions GUIDANCE BRIEF

Case study: Capacity building

How to adapt to a zero carbon future? Strategies that address mitigation and adaptation in isolation are seen by many as representing a false dichotomy (Moser 2014), while others consider mitigation actions to be a subset of adaptation because they address the root causes of anthropogenic climate change (Pelling 2011). Byron Shire Council is partnering with Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) to implement zero carbon emissions actions across the energy, building, transport, land use and waste sectors. The demonstration of possibilities emerging from this collaboration will enhance BZE’s capacity to support other local governments and communities go to zero carbon emissions in 10 years (BZE 2016).

National Adaptation Network Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions GUIDANCE BRIEF

Climate change adaptation: Lessons from NGOs Page 5

Successes

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Case study: Crosscutting strategies

Many grassroots initiatives to take action on climate change develop networked relations with other groups in their communities and further afield. For example, through its aim to empower people to take action on climate change, Climate Action Newcastle (CAN) coordinated the bulk purchase of solar panels by residents of Newcastle. CAN’s model stimulated such schemes to be developed in other communities, contributing to 10% of grid-connected solar panel installation in New South Wales by 2009 and altering the national energy market (Cameron & Hicks 2014). (S

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Case study: Education and awareness raising

A key learning from Plan International’s extensive work supporting curriculum development on climate change is the need to target not only formal schooling materials, but also fun and interactive activities.

Films, games, and songs can encourage engagement by children and adults with low-literacy, or those not fluent in the official language of the country (e.g. ethnic minorities) (Schoch & Treichel 2015).

National Adaptation Network Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions GUIDANCE BRIEF

Climate change adaptation: Lessons from NGOs Page 5

Research on the experience of NGOs suggests that collaboration between organisations to facilitate knowledge flows between local groups and broader campaign networks (Connor et al 2009; Hall & Taplin 2010), reframing challenges as solutions (Lettice & Parekh 2010), communicating the multiple benefits of adaptation, linking advocacy for environmental care with poverty reduction (Krøvel 2012) and integrating capacity building with advocacy for societal change (Brulle, 2010) increase the chances of achieving the changes needed for sustainable adaptation to climate change.

One approach to sharing adaptation lessons, across multiple scales and contexts, is the development of

inclusive online spaces that profile case studies of adaptation.

Two notable examples include We Adapt – a collaborative program supported by the Stockholm Environment Institute since 2007 (www.weadapt.org/) and the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) founded by EcoAdapt and Island Press in July 2010 (www.cakex.org/).

Another approach to sharing lessons, championed by The Change Agency, (www.thechangeagency.org) is to extend web based resources with mentoring, advisory services and face-to-face training for achieving social and environmental change.

Sharing lessons

The Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions network (SEI network)

NCCARF’s four National Adaptation Networks, hosted

by universities across Australia, are a community of

researchers and practitioners working together to

progress climate change adaptation knowledge. The

aim of the networks is to communicate and connect with

researchers and research users in government, sectors and

communities with a view to building and maintaining the

capacity to adapt to a changing climate.

The SEI-network is a large, inclusive and diverse community

of researchers, practitioners and decision makers from

universities, government, the private sector and civil

society. The SEI-network is hosted by the Sustainability

Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast

and in partnership with Swinburne University of Technology,

University of Canberra, University of Adelaide, Murdoch

University and Girringun Aboriginal Corporation.

The SEI Network is producing a number of guidance briefs

for each of its focus themes.

For more information please visit: www.nccarf.edu.au/

social-economic-and-institutional-dimensions/resources

Source: Stockholm Environment Institute

National Adaptation Network Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions Guidance BriefNational Adaptation Network Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions Guidance Brief

Cite this document:

Thomsen, D. C., Keys, N., Treichel, P., Connor, S., Bygrave, S., Smith, T. (2016). Climate adaptation: lessons from NGOs, Turning challenges into successes and sharing lessons. National Adaptation Network: Social, Economic and Institutional Dimensions Briefing document. Gold Coast, Australia, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility: 6.

Support for this resource has been provided by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.

We are also grateful to the University of the Sunshine Coast, Plan International Australia and Beyond Zero Emissions.

The views in this resource do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Department of the Environment, the University of the Sunshine Coast or the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.

References and further reading:

Betsill, MM & Corell, E 2001, ‘NGO influence in international environmental negotiations: a framework for analysis’, Global Environmental Politics, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 65-85.

Beyond Zero Emissions 2016, ‘Zero carbon communities: Beyond Zero Emissions’, viewed 20 May 2016, bze.org.au/zero-carbon-australia-2020.

Brulle, RJ 2010, ‘From environmental campaigns to advancing the public dialog: Environmental communication for civic engagement’, Environmental Communication, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 82-98.

Cameron, J & Hicks, J 2014, ‘Performative research for a climate politics of hope: rethinking geographic scale,“impact” scale, and markets’, Antipode, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 53-71.

Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) 2016, EcoAdapt, viewed 19 May 2016, www.cakex.org/.

Chong, J, Gero, A & Treichel, P 2015a, ‘What indicates improved resilience to climate change? A learning and evaluative process developed from a child-centered, community-based project in the Philippines’, New Directions for Evaluation, vol. 2015, no. 147, pp. 105-16.

Chong, J, Treichel, P, Gero, A, Nuestro, R, McDonough, J, Azucena, W, Abes, J & Abogado, N 2015b, Child-Centred Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation in the

Philippines: Guidance Document for Local Adaptation Indicators, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney and Plan International Australia, viewed 18 May 2016, www.weadapt.org/sites/weadapt.org/files/child-centred_community-based_climate_change_adaption_in_the_philippines_doc_distributed.pdf .

Connor, L, Freeman, S & Higginbotham, N 2009, ‘Not just a coalmine: Shifting grounds of community opposition to coal mining in Southeastern Australia’, Ethnos, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 490-513.

Fitzpatrick, T & Molloy, J 2014, ‘The role of NGOs in building sustainable community resilience’, International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 292-304.

Hall, NL & Taplin, R 2008, ‘Room for climate advocates in a coal-focused economy? NGO influence on Australian climate policy’, Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 359-79.

Hall, NL & Taplin, R 2010, ‘Environmental nonprofit campaigns and state competition: Influences on climate policy in California’, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 62-81.

IPCC 2014, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and

Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Krøvel, R 2012, ‘Setting the agenda on environmental news in Norway: NGOs and newspapers’, Journalism Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 259-76.

Lettice, F & Parekh, M 2010, ‘The social innovation process: themes, challenges and implications for practice’, International Journal of Technology Management, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 139-58.

Rojas Blanco, AV 2006, ‘Local initiatives and adaptation to climate change’, Disasters, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 140-7.

Schoch, C, Treichel, P. 2015, Child-centred climate resilience: Case studies from the Philippines and Vietnam, Plan International and Save the Children www.savethechildren.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/99551/CCCR_Report_High-Res_FINAL.pdf.

The Change Agency 2016, The Change Agency: supporting effective community action, viewed 20 May 2016, www.thechangeagency.org.

weADAPT 2016, Climate adaptation planning, research and practice, Stockholm Environment Institute, viewed 19 May 2016, www.weadapt.org/.