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

随着气候影响不断加剧，适应气候变化日益成为全球优先事项。《联合国气候变化框架公约》（UNFCCC）巴黎协定要求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，预计该谈判将导致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。面对紧迫的社会经济挑战，气候融资的大幅增加是一个巨大的机会，可以优先考虑长期适应。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，特别是对边缘群体而言。在分配下一波资金之前解决这个问题至关重要。除了迫切需要采取行动和扩大适应范围外，还需要更加努力地包容边缘化群体，建立问责制，既要针对受气候变化影响的群体，也要针对提供资金的国际社会。这些目标并不总是很一致，有可能出现问责制和包容性被迅速和大规模行动的要求所压倒。该奖学金将开启一个新的研究议程，探讨气候变化适应中的紧迫性与规模、包容性与问责制之间的紧张关系，并将催生研究、网络和能力，以提高新基金的有效性和公平性。指标提供了分析这些紧张关系的原始视角。指标不仅仅是中立的衡量工具：它们可以影响政策和实践，例如可持续发展目标巩固了全球对极端贫困的理解。在适应中，度量标准定义了在过程和结果中是什么构成了成功，谁应该受益，以及在什么时间范围内受益。例如，成功可以定义为实施新的适应政策或在社区内提高对气候影响的认识。这些成功的概念往往是通过国际进程确定的，没有国家决策者或边缘化群体的参与。目前已有十多年应用适应指标的经验，提供了大量尚未探索的经验证据；随着适应资金的大幅增加，现在是利用这些数据并开放指标以进行集中审查的关键时刻。该奖学金将应用科学与技术研究（STS）中很少用于适应研究的理论，分析适应指标的发展和应用及其对决策的影响。这将有助于了解围绕问责制的紧张局势是如何处理的，以及如何通过新的方法来解决这些紧张局势。该奖学金还将通过分析提供新视角的适应质量来推进STS理论，例如，国际和国家财政和政策之间的相互作用，全球南方未被探索的经验背景，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，也将引起资金迅速扩大的其他领域的公共财政和问责制学者的兴趣。该奖学金不仅将推动科学知识的发展，还将影响气候融资的框架、实施和评估方式，以支持更有效的适应。将通过与政策制定者和实践者的反复接触共同开展研究，并将开发和测试新的问责制方法。该研究金将召集国际学术界和实践者实践团体，在研究金之外发展研究和政策进展，并通过该研究金在这一主题上发挥全球领导作用。

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.