Enabling Communities to Combat Climate Change Challenges: An Innovative Approach

Researchers have devised a groundbreaking method aimed at assisting communities in preparing for the adverse effects of climate change, including flooding, heat stress, food shortages, and energy disruptions. This approach empowers local community groups to comprehend and deliberate potential climate change impacts while spearheading citizen-led initiatives for climate adaptation.

Scientists have introduced a community-driven strategy to address the impacts of climate change. This initiative encourages local communities to formulate their personalized adaptation plans in response to extreme weather events, and it has already undergone successful testing in the UK, India, and Ghana. The overarching objective is to raise awareness about climate change and promote solutions led by citizens.

By equipping citizens with the tools to identify suitable measures against the threats faced by their communities, scientists have developed a novel method that facilitates preparedness for extreme weather events resulting from climate change, such as flooding.

The process involves researchers bringing together community groups to deliberate and comprehend the probable consequences of climate change within their local areas. In the UK, these encompass not only direct hazards like flooding but also indirect risks such as food shortages and disruptions in energy supply, in addition to physical threats like heat stress.

While most climate adaptation initiatives are typically devised by governments or businesses, rather than empowering citizens to help themselves, this new approach, detailed in a publication on Thursday, June 22, in Nature Climate Change, was devised by researchers from the Universities of Reading and Surrey. It involves the generation of maps and networks to aid citizens in identifying appropriate responses to the challenges confronting their communities.

Professor Tom Oliver, leading the study at the University of Reading, along with researchers from India and Ghana, stated, “Our aspiration is for such methodologies to be universally adopted. We require citizen-led adaptation planning processes in every village, town, and city to ensure optimal preparedness for the significant impacts of climate change.”

Adaptation plans

The methodology was piloted in Reading, Oxford, and Wallingford in the UK. Each group of citizens collaborated to discuss actions that individuals can undertake to safeguard themselves, their households, and their communities against the consequences of climate-related threats. These actions included storing durable food supplies and improving home insulation to enhance resilience during floods and heatwaves. Proactive measures involved advocating for government action to mitigate the most substantial impacts of climate change.

Participants exchanged their collective experiences in implementing these actions before constructing their personalized adaptation plans, identifying specific interventions, determining the approach to achieve them, and establishing the expected timeline. Overall, participants found that this process enhanced their awareness and preparedness for the impacts of climate change.

Professor Nigel Gilbert from the University of Surrey remarked, “The implications of climate change affect citizens in various ways, and this information becomes more meaningful when participants are actively involved in the discovery process. Adaptation plans are also likely to be more realistic when identified and discussed within the community.”

Global collaboration

The methodology was also piloted internationally, specifically in the lower Volta Basin in Ghana and the Assam region in India, with support from the CSIR-Water Research Institute in Ghana and the Indian Institute of Management Nagpur in India.

Local citizens in both regions initially identified the diverse threats posed by climate change. In Ghana, risks included bushfires, droughts, floods, coastal erosion, rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, and the spread of invasive species. Citizens proposed actions such as afforestation, freshwater storage, tree planting, river dredging, and using sandbags to block flood channels.

Residents of Majuli Island in the Assam region of India discussed significant challenges stemming from flooding and erosion, which adversely affected housing and vulnerable agriculture. Their solutions encompassed short-term actions like stockpiling animal feed prior to floods and long-term measures such as exploring alternative sources of income, including fishing and weaving.

Participants from all three regions involved in the study shared their findings and learned how their responses were applicable to their respective locations. A participant from Ghana expressed, “I now have more information on how people in the UK and India are adapting to climate change, and I can apply these insights here in my village.”

Reference: “Empowering citizen-led adaptation to systemic climate change risks,” published on June 22, 2023, in Nature Climate Change.
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01712-6

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• Nature Climate Change: Empowering citizen-led adaptation to systemic climate change risks