Solar power in use by desalination plant (Egypt)
© EC/P.Odu
ODI's research on climate change focuses on two main areas.
The first is trying to identify how increasing knowledge of the science of climate change impacts can be used to understand potential implications for developing countries, particularly in social, economic and political terms. This builds on our existing research to develop an understanding of the consequences of short-term shocks, such as natural disasters and long-term stresses, including reduced crop yields that could increase the vulnerability of the poor in the context of a changing climate.
The second looks at how to ensure that emerging climate change mitigation and adaptation policies work for the poor. Current areas of interest include understanding the implications of emerging markets, such as carbon trading and biofuels, for developing countries.
The research in these areas aims to help in the design of more effective long-term policy responses that respond both to the threat of potential negative climate change impacts and the needs of the poor.
| Annual Report
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2007 - Climate change and development: Threat and opportunity?
(PDF, 238kb)
Article from the 2007 ODI Annual Report. Also includes excerpt of Natural Resource Perspective "Food security and biofuels: Growing our way out of poverty?" by Leo Peskett, Rachel Slater, Christopher Stevens and Annie Dufey. See below for full paper. For more information and the full report, visit the ODI Annual Report section.
ODI Annual Report section
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June 2007
Leo Peskett
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| Opinion papers and blogs |
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show details hide detailsMitigating climate change: what impact on the poor?
PDF, 84kbThe impact of climate change is of vital importance. But, for the worlds poor, policies to mitigate climate change may, in the short term, have as much impact as climate change itself. This Opinion assesses four mitigation strategies and their possible impacts on the poor: environmental labelling; green growth strategies; biofuel production and food prices; and forest protection. It focuses on sub-Saharan Africa.
ODI Opinion 97
- April 2008
Martin Prowse and Leo Peskett |
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show details hide detailsMillennium Development Goal 1, agriculture and climate change (PDF, 73kb)
'Over 60% of people in sub-Saharan Africa are reliant on agriculture for their income. However, the potential impacts of climate change pose two key questions for current agriculture-led strategies to reduce poverty.'
ODI Opinion 85
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October 2007
Martin Prowse and Tim Braunholtz
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The challenge of putting Stern's prescriptions into practice
'The recently published Stern Review on the economics of climate change offers a rounded and informative picture of the underlying issues and interests relating to forestry with regards to the economics of climate change. Many will see it as putting another nail in the coffin of industrial logging in old growth forests. However, while the renewed focus that the report brings to the interface between climate change and forestry is welcome, some of its key proposals may prove difficult to implement.'
ODI Blog
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5 December 2007
David Brown and Leo Peskett
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| Briefing Papers |
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show details hide detailsPotential and challenges of payments for ecosystem services from tropical forests (PDF, 498kb)This paper summarises current potential and challenges facing the development of payments for ecosystem services (PES) as a means of promoting the sustainable management or conservation of tropical forests, including the challenge of combining equity or poverty reduction objectives with environmental objectives, and the interaction of PES with broader forest sector and 'extra-sectoral' policies.
ODI Forestry Briefing 16
- December 2007
Michael Richards and Michael Jenkins
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show details hide detailsRisk and responsibility in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation
(PDF, 265kb)Investment in reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in developing countries relies on the ability to guarantee effective maintenance of forest cover over long timeframes, while also avoiding negative social and environmental repercussions. Given the complex and often unpredictable drivers of deforestation in developing countries, risk reduction is therefore of paramount importance. This paper looks at how REDD transaction mechanisms between buyers and sellers might be established and the implications that risk reduction mechanisms might have for different stakeholders in developing countries. It focuses on the likely implications for the interests and welfare of the forest-dependent poor.
ODI Forestry Briefing 15
- December 2007
Leo Peskett and Zoe Harkin |
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show details hide detailsThe implications of carbon financing for pro-poor community forestry
(PDF, 471kb)The emergence of new financing mechanisms associated with the rise of carbon markets brings potential for increased investment in forestry. This paper explores the implications of these mechanisms for community forestry and suggests ways in which such finance may contribute to the pro-poor outcomes of community forestry. The paper also provides an opportunity for those working on the design of carbon financing mechanisms to draw on the experience of community forestry in structuring appropriate benefit systems. The main focus of the discussion is on 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation'(REDD).
ODI Forestry Briefing 14
- December 2007
Cecilia Luttrell, Kate Schreckenberg and Leo Peskett |
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Climate change, agricultural policy and poverty reduction how much do we know?
(PDF, 163kb)
Projections suggest that, by the end of the 21st century, climate change could have had substantial impact on agricultural production and thence on the scope for reducing poverty. This paper seeks to trace the likely impacts through changes in the quality of the physical asset base, access to assets, and impacts on grain production and on agricultural growth more generally. At moderate degrees of warming, impacts are likely to be negative in some regions, but positive in others, making it important to understand the possible implications for trade between the regions. The short term impacts of climate change, particularly changes in the frequency and severity of adverse weather events, remain uncertain, but their impacts on many developing countries are likely to be negative. There is likely to be time to make appropriate policy responses to some of the longer-term impacts.
ODI Natural Resource Perspective 109
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September 2007
Rachel Slater, Leo Peskett, Eva Ludi and David Brown
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show details hide details Can standards for voluntary carbon offsets ensure development benefits? (PDF, 172kb) Increasing concerns about climate change are fuelling growth in the market for carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are purchased by individuals and organisations from schemes that claim to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. This paper explores how emerging standards covering the voluntary carbon markets can address multiple aims of carbon offsetting and sustainable development and how they might be best designed to bring benefits for developing countries.
ODI Forestry Briefing 13 - July 2007
Leo Peskett, Cecilia Luttrell and Mari Iwata
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show details hide details Biofuels, Agriculture and Poverty Reduction (PDF, 136kb) The development of biofuels has generated vigorous debate on economic and environmental grounds. Our attention here is on its potential impacts on poverty reduction. The potential is large, whether through employment, wider growth multipliers and energy price effects. But it is also fragile: it will be reduced where feedstock production tends to be large scale, or causes pressure on land access, and its success can be undermined by many of the same policy, regulatory or investment shortcomings as impede agriculture. Whilst some of the factors facilitating, and impacts of, biofuels can be tracked at global level, its distributional impacts are complex, and point to the need for country-by-country analysis of potential poverty impacts.
ODI Natural Resource Perspective 107 - June 2007
Leo Peskett, Rachel Slater, Chris Stevens and Annie Dufey |
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show details hide details Changing aid delivery and the environment
(PDF, 375kb)
This paper examines how environmental objectives are pursued by donors in a context where aid delivery mechanisms are changing, asking how donor support can best be delivered to meet environmental objectives.
ODI Briefing Paper 17
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March 2007
Neil Bird and Lidia Cabral
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Making Voluntary Carbon Markets Work for the Poor: The case of forestry offsets
(PDF, 253kb)
The volume of private finance flowing through the voluntary carbon market has increased significantly over recent years, with an eight-fold rise from around five million to 43 million dollars between 2004 and 2005 alone. A significant proportion of these funds is destined for the developing world. What is likely to happen to all this money? Will it be used to the benefit of the developing world, providing new opportunities for growth and poverty reduction, or will it be used to satisfy commercial and industrial interests in the north, to the detriment of southern interests?
ODI Forestry Briefing 11
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November 2006
Leo Peskett, Cecilia Luttrell and David Brown
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Saving lives through livelihoods: critical gaps in the response to the drought in the Greater Horn of Africa
(PDF, 75kb)
Reviews the extent of emergency livelihoods responses in the crisis in the Horn. Drawing on secondary data and interviews with national and international actors in affected areas, it asks why accurate and timely early warning did not lead to a rapid and appropriate response to mitigate the drought's effects, and highlights how inadequate contingency planning, limited capacity in livelihoods programming and inflexible funding mechanisms resulted in delays and deficiencies in livelihoods interventions, and the predominance of food assistance in the emergency response.
HPG Background Note
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May 2006
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| Working, journal and longer papers |
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show details hide detailsClimate change and agriculture (5 papers)Series of five outputs produced under a small project for the Renewable Natural Resources and Agriculture Team of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The objective of the project was to identify the implications of climate change for key areas of DFIDs Agricultural Policy and the Renewable Natural Resources and Agriculture (RNRA) Team portfolio and to produce a series of practical outputs to assist the RNRA team in programme implementation and communication. The five papers are:
- A rough guide to climate change and agriculture
- Climate change: Implications for DFIDs Agricultural policy
- Climate change, agricultural growth and poverty reduction
- Climate change and agriculture: Agricultural trade, markets and investment
- Access to assets: Implications of climate change for land and water policies and management
Donor reports
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March 2007
Leo Peskett, Rachel Slater, Martin Prowse, Nanki Kaur-Mann, Eva Ludi, Christopher Stevens, Ldia Cabral, David Brown, Tom Slaymaker
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Biofuels, Agriculture and Poverty Reduction
(PDF, 279kb)
This paper examines the scope for biofuels production and trade to contribute to agricultural growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. We do not consider the broader questions about biofuels and energy policy here. We pose the following questions:
- What is the potential contribution of biofuels to agricultural sector development and economic opportunities for poor people in rural areas?
- What might future scenarios of enhanced biofuel production mean for small farmers, agricultural labourers, the non-farm economy and for food security?
- What will the impact be on rural growth and poverty reduction? and
- Will biofuels offer a lifeline to rural economies, or largely bypass poor people?
DFID Project Report
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March 2007
Leo Peskett, Rachel Slater, Chris Stevens and Annie Dufey
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Chronic Poverty and the Environment: a Vulnerability Perspective
(PDF, 189kb)
This paper highlights some of the key thinking on poverty-environment relationships before introducing a framework focusing on the importance of environmental vulnerability in explaining poverty dynamics. The work of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) on the environment is synthesised and a review of the literature on poverty-environment connections points to three main themes that require further consideration when addressing chronic poverty:
- the environment and health;
- access to and use of natural resources; and
- climate change
Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) Working Paper
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August 2006
Lucy Scott
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Poverty Reduction, Equity and Climate Change: Global Governance Synergies or Contradictions?
(PDF, 272kb)
This paper first looks at the broader equity issues surrounding the climate change negotiations, and then focuses on the poverty and SD issues, considering the potential and limitations of win-win poverty and environmental options. It concludes by assessing strategies for linking poverty, equity and environmental outcomes.
ODI Programme Paper
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2003
Michael Richards
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Developing Countries: Victims or Participants
(PDF, 178kb)
Discusses the changing role of developing countries in international negotiations, with specific reference to regulations on environmental issues.
ODI Programme Paper
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2003
Sheila Page
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Poverty and climate change: assessing impacts in developing countries and the initiatives of the international community
(PDF, 200kb)
This report forms part of an ODI project to assist developing countries participate effectively in international climate change negotiations. It presents the overall likely effects of climate change, as well as mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries, highlighting the particular vulnerability of the poor. The first section examines the increased hazards for developing countries due to sea level rise and increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters. To investigate the impacts on poor communities it draws parallels from the body of research on vulnerability and natural disasters. General conclusions highlight the devastating impacts which coastal communities will be exposed to, as well as pointing to specific developing countries and regions, which will be disadvantaged.
Report
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May 2002
Claire McGuigan, Rebecca Reynolds, Daniel Wiedmer
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