Climate Change: Advocacy

Presenting author: Zoe Wang 

Other authors: Fengshi Wu, Natalie Wong 

The aim of this article is to understand whether and how NGOs are engaged in the broad policy discussions on vulnerabilities as a part of responding to climate change and adaptation in China. To do so, we first present a brief overview of NGOs climate related activities in China, particularly the issues related to vulnerability. We then focus on three cases where NGOs do or not actively participate in climate vulnerability advocacy and/or capacity building and explore the answers to why so. We then compare the reasons provided by the NGO staff across the cases and discuss the general trends related to the topic among environmental NGOs in China. Besides some of the obvious factors such as repressive political environment, relatively low organisational capacity, and the tendency of leaning on urban environmental issues, two more immediate reasons contribute to the lack of NGO presence in the overall climate vulnerability discourse building in China: the state’s dominance in climate related public discussions and policymaking and high entrance barriers and perceived obstacles for NGOs to respond to climate change.

Presenting author: Ilan Kelman (University College London and University of Agder)

Human-caused climate change as a domineering topic in contemporary research, policy, and practice has led to extensive interest and support for better understanding climate change's possible health impacts. Sorting through the rhetoric of climate change and health means conducting research to understand and compare the interests and actions of people and institutions, both local and non-local.

This process entails consultative and participatory research which, by definition, means taking up people's time, using other local resources, and, often, discovering and using data that they have collected. While these actions can assist people in understanding the value of their own knowledge and information, and might further spur them to continue their own work, the scientific process remains geared towards extractive economics. Most value is placed on deliverables for the research funder, typically through outputs such as academic and popular science publications, presentations, and products. Reportable outcomes tend to be focused on those relevant to the funder's mandate, which is understandable. Co-design, co-production, and co-publication might make these processes less extractive, although they still focus on the 'economics' of project-funded research rather than on the needs of those subjected to research.

Further steps would assist in ensuring that research is part of a location's 'web of life', supporting health, livelihoods, and more, in addition to being responsive to local viewpoints, rather than being separate or imposing on all endeavours topics such as climate change.

Presenting author: Rajan Chandra Ghosh (University of Otago)

Other author: Caroline Orchiston

Migration results in a range of potential impacts on the socio-economic structure of receiving communities, including housing, health and employment. There is currently a lack of data about the extent of climate-induced migration from the Pacific to New Zealand, however what is certain is that it is likely to increase over the coming decades. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the social impacts of climate-induced migration, utilising Dunedin city of New Zealand as a case study setting. We used a qualitative methodology to consider the potential for increased climate-induced migration in the South Dunedin community. This research employed interviews with stakeholders such as community leaders, church leaders, community advisors, planners, academics, school principals, youth leaders, NGO representatives, emergency management officials and tangata whenua to explore the views of the host community regarding the social impacts of climate-induced migration in South Dunedin. The findings explore how climate-induced migration may impact the social structure of receiving communities in New Zealand, in terms of population dynamics, community resources, housing, health, employment, social security, and cultural diversity. The results of this study will help to inform national and international policy related to Pasifika migration, specifically the social aspects of climate-induced migration for New Zealand.