Urgency with inclusion in global climate adaptation finance: why measurement matters

随着气候影响的不断升级，适应气候变化成为日益紧迫的全球优先事项。《联合国气候变化框架公约巴黎协定》承诺各签署国逐步改变适应资金。2021年在格拉斯哥举行的全球气候谈判可能会加速这一进程，预计将迎来适应气候变化的国际资金大幅增加，每年承诺增加数百亿美元。气候融资的显著增长是在面对紧迫的社会经济挑战时优先考虑较长期适应的巨大机遇。然而，适应投资并不总是降低脆弱性：在某些情况下，它们甚至导致风险增加，特别是对被边缘化的群体。至关重要的是，在下一波金融浪潮分发之前解决这个问题。除了采取行动和扩大适应的紧迫性之外，还需要更加努力地纳入被边缘化的群体，并建立对受气候变化影响的人和提供资金的国际社会的问责。这些目标并不总是很好地协调一致，有可能问责制和包容性将被迅速和大规模行动的要求所压倒。这一奖学金将开启一项新的研究议程，研究紧迫性和规模之间的紧张关系，以及适应气候变化的包容性和问责制，并将产生研究、网络和能力，以提高新基金的有效性和公平性。衡量标准不仅仅是中性的衡量工具：它们可以影响政策和实践，例如，可持续发展目标(SDGs)如何巩固了全球对赤贫的理解。在适应中，衡量标准定义了在过程和结果中什么是成功的，谁应该受益，以及在什么时间范围内。例如，成功可以被定义为制定新的适应政策或在社区内提高对气候影响的认识。这些成功的概念通常是通过国际进程定义的，没有国家政策制定者或被边缘化群体的参与。现在已经有十多年应用适应指标的经验，提供了迄今尚未探索的经验证据；随着适应资金的大量增加，现在是利用这些数据并将指标开放给有重点的审查的关键时刻。该奖学金将应用科学和技术研究(STS)在适应研究中很少使用的理论来分析适应度量的发展和应用，以及它们对决策的影响。这将加深人们对围绕问责制的紧张局势如何驾驭，以及如何通过新方法解决这些紧张局势的理解。该研究金还将通过分析提供新视角的适应质量来推动STS理论，例如，国际和国家资金和政策之间的相互作用、全球南方未得到充分探索的经验背景以及适应决策中嵌入的多种形式的知识。这将发展关于知识生产如何影响国际和国家财政和政策决策的STS理论，也将引起资金迅速增加的其他领域的公共财政和问责学者的兴趣。该奖学金不仅将促进科学知识，还将影响气候资金的框架、实施和评估，以支持更有效的适应。将通过与政策制定者和从业人员的反复接触共同进行研究，并将开发和测试新的问责办法。研究金将召集学者和实践者的国际实践社区，以发展研究金以外的研究和政策进展，并将通过它在这一主题上提供全球领导。

With escalating climate impacts, adapting to climate change is an increasingly urgent global priority. The UNFCCC Paris Agreement committed signatory nations to a step change in adaptation finance. This is likely to be accelerated by the 2021 global climate negotiations in Glasgow which are anticipated to usher in a huge increase in international financing for climate change adaptation, with tens of billions of additional dollars committed annually. This significant rise in climate finance is a huge opportunity to prioritise longer-term adaptation in the face of pressing socio-economic challenges. Yet, adaptation investments have not always reduced vulnerability: in some cases they have even led to increased risk, especially for marginalised groups. It is vital this is addressed before the next wave of finance is distributed. Alongside the urgency to act and to scale up adaptation, there is a need to work harder at including marginalised groups and building accountability, both to those affected by climate change and to the international community providing finance. These goals do not always align well, with a risk that accountability and inclusion will be trumped by the demands for rapid and large-scale action. This Fellowship will open a new research agenda on the tensions between urgency and scale, and inclusion and accountability in climate change adaptation, and will generate research, networks and capabilities to increase the effectiveness and equity of new funds.Metrics offer an original lens to analyse these tensions. Metrics are not just neutral measurement tools: they can influence policy and practice, as seen for example in how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have consolidated a global understanding of extreme poverty. Within adaptation, metrics define what constitutes success in processes and outcomes, who should benefit, and over what timeframe. For example, success might be defined as putting in place a new adaptation policy or increasing awareness of climate impacts within a community. These concepts of success are often defined through international processes, without engagement from national policymakers or marginalised groups. There has now been over a decade of experience of applying adaptation metrics, offering an as-yet unexplored body of empirical evidence; with the coming large increase in adaptation finance now is a crucial juncture to leverage this data, and open metrics up to focused scrutiny. The Fellowship will apply theory rarely used in adaptation research from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to analyse the development and application of adaptation metrics, and their influence on decision-making. This will build understanding of how tensions around accountability are being navigated, and how they might be addressed through new approaches. The Fellowship will also advance STS theory through analysing qualities of adaptation that offer new perspectives, for example, the interactions between international and national finance and policy, the under-explored empirical contexts in the Global South, and the multiple forms of knowledge embedded within adaptation decision-making. This will develop STS theory on how knowledge production influences decision-making across international and national finance and policy and will also be of interest to scholars of public finance and accountability in other fields where funds are rapidly scaled up.The Fellowship will not only advance scientific knowledge but also influence how climate finance is framed, implemented and evaluated to support more effective adaptation. Research will be coproduced through iterative engagement with policymakers and practitioners and will develop and test new approaches to accountability. The Fellowship will convene an international community of practice of academics and practitioners to develop research and policy advances beyond the Fellowship and through which it will offer global leadership on this topic.