The full brunt of cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be felt over the years to come but climate change impacts are already here. Fifteen of the 16 warmest years on record (since 1880) have occurred since 2001. At the same time, Hallegatte et al. (2016) estimate that, without the rapid implementation of pro-poor, climate-informed development policies, climate change impacts could result in 100 million more people in extreme poverty by 2030. The world’s poor are more vulnerable to loss of critical assets, health risks and food insecurity from drought or price shocks. To address these risks, development policies must consider climate risk scenarios while expanding ‘no-regrets’ social protection programmes that provide benefits to vulnerable populations under different climate scenarios.
This Topic Guide looks at climate change governance and the political economy of climate policy development and implementation at the national scale. Its primary purpose is to help Department for International Development (DFID) staff better support country partners in implementing climate and sustainable development policy that is equitable, effective and coherent and that can adapt to changing circumstances. It highlights national procedural, policy, institutional, political, economicand social-behavioural challenges and identifies potential entry points for addressing them. It is intended for both climate change and governance advisors, hence covers issues and concepts that will be very familiar to one group but not necessarily the other.