Knowledge For Climate Action

This unique transdisciplinary publication is the result of collaboration between UNESCO's Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme, the United Nations University's Traditional Knowledge Initiative, the IPCC, and other organisations

This book addresses political knowledge of climate change and its relation to labelling people affected by climate change, either as ‘climate refugees’ or as ‘climate change-induced displaced people or migrants’. By questioning the knowledge of climate change and subsequent labelling of people, this book will spark debate in studies of global climate politics and transnational policy networks. Rather than considering the issue of climate change as a given phenomenon, the author explores how the politicized knowledge of climate change has been produced in international negotiations and how that knowledge is transmitted from global forums to local country levels via climate change action plans and resilience projects. This book introduces the concept of multi-scalar knowledge brokers (MKBs) – individual actors who work at multiple levels (local, national, and international) to transmit the knowledge of climate change from global level to local level. The author uses the primary case study of Bangladesh to demonstrate how the dominant actors in global climate politics – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the World Bank, as well as the USA and the UK – interact with the government and local NGOs in Bangladesh regarding transmitting the knowledge of climate change, labelling the uprooted people, and implementing resilience projects. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of international relations, environmental politics, climate change studies, political ecology, political geography, and migration and displacement studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched www.knowledgeunlatched.org

The Be the Movement workshop was an inspiring gathering of climate change activists, youth and concerned professionals. Five main needs on how to strengthen the climate action movement were identified and discussed: message for new audiences; empowering educators; innovating campaign strategies; considering costs; and leading for solutions. The workshop confirmed that urgent and bold action is required to tackle climate change. Participants recognized that the global climate change movement will be enhanced if they: a) increase collaboration and cooperation, b) recognize the intimate and unavoidable link between eradicating extreme poverty and climate change, c) emphasize early climate action to avoid high costs in the future, d) stress that mitigation will not hinder economic development, e) highlight that each and every individual can make a difference, and f) offer assistance for educators. Overall, the proceedings and recommendations serve as a pragmatic compendium of shared knowledge for climate action.

This UNESCO report looks into the damaging effects of climate change on Indigenous cultures. When considering climate change, indigenous peoples and marginalized populations warrant particular attention. Impacts on their territories and communities are anticipated to be both early and severe due to their location in vulnerable environments, including small islands, high-altitude zones, desert margins and the circumpolar Arctic. Indeed, climate change poses a direct threat to many indigenous societies due to their continuing reliance upon resource-based livelihoods. Heightened exposure to negative impacts, however, is not the only reason for specific attention and concern. As many indigenous societies are socially and culturally distinct from mainstream society, decisions, policies and actions undertaken by the majority, even if well-intended, may prove inadequate, ill-adapted, and even inappropriate. There is therefore a need to understand the specific vulnerabilities, concerns, adaptation capacities and longer-term aspirations of indigenous peoples and marginalized communities throughout the world. Indigenous and traditional knowledge contribute to this broader understanding.

Indigenous peoples, in Taiwan and worldwide, need to come up with various ways to cope with and adapt to rapid environmental change. This edited book, which is a follow-up to a conference entitled "Climate Change, Indigenous Resilience and Local Knowledge Systems: Cross-time and Cross-boundary Perspectives" organized by the Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology, presents 16 papers which explore the various dimensions of Indigenous resilience to climate change and disasters in Taiwan and other regions in the world. This book explores the interrelated themes of climate change and Indigenous knowledge-based responses, and Indigenous (community) resilience with specific reference to Typhoon Morakot and beyond. The goals of this book are to discuss the international experience with Indigenous resilience; to review Indigenous knowledge for adaptation to climate change and disasters; and to generate a conversation among scholars, Indigenous peoples, and policy-makers to move the agenda forward. This book focusses on Indigenous resilience, the ways in which cultural factors such as knowledge and learning, along with the broader political ecology, determine how local and Indigenous people understand, deal with, and adapt to environmental change.

Governments all over the world are struggling with the question of how to adapt to climate change. They need information not only about the issue and its possible consequences, but also about feasible governance strategies and instruments to combat it. At the same time, scientists from different social disciplines are trying to understand the dynamics and peculiarities of the governance of climate change adaptation. This book demonstrates how action-oriented research methods can be used to satisfy the need for both policy-relevant information and scientific knowledge. Bringing together eight case studies that show inspiring practices of action research from around the world, including Australia, Denmark, Vietnam and the Netherlands, the book covers a rich variety of action-research applications, running from participatory observation to serious games and role-playing exercises. It explores many adaptation challenges, from flood-risk safety to heat stress and freshwater availability, and draws out valuable lessons about the conditions that make action research successful, demonstrating how scientific and academic knowledge can be used in a practical context to reach useful and applicable insights. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of climate change, environmental policy, politics and governance.