Low carbon development and poverty: exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries
| dc.contributor.author | Wlokas, Holle | |
| dc.contributor.author | Rennkamp, Britta | |
| dc.contributor.author | Torres, Marta | |
| dc.contributor.author | Winkler, Harald | |
| dc.contributor.author | Boyd, Anya | |
| dc.contributor.author | Tyler, Emily | |
| dc.contributor.author | Fedorsky, Catherine | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-02-05T11:10:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-02-05T11:10:25Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2012 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-02-04T07:08:39Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Climate change and poverty mostly fall into the adaptation category in the current research literature and relevant policy-making. The strong connection between poverty and adaptation rests on the assumption that poor countries produce only low carbon emissions. They will also be most affected by the impacts of climate change. Therefore, efforts on poverty and climate change concentrate mostly on adapting to the consequences of climate change. If we acknowledge current findings of poverty research, we find that this separation between mitigation and adaptation does not hold anymore. Recent research suggests that poverty demographics have changed between 1990 and 2010. The majority of the poor nowadays live in middle-income countries, and not only in low-income countries. Emissions in middle-income countries increase, while their governments try to reduce emissions in the long term without jeopardising socio-economic development. Climate change presents a threefold policy challenge for middle-income countries. They need to: i) design mitigation actions in such a way that they contribute to alleviate poverty; ii) reduce emissions, helping to slow global warming in a way that does not compromise the competitiveness of their economies, because without collective action by all, the costs of inaction affect mostly the poor; and iii) prepare to adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change. The paper unpacks the linkages between low-carbon development, mitigation and poverty in middle-income countries (where the majority of the poor live). Most middle-income countries pursue carbon-intensive development paths and will need to mitigate emissions towards low-carbon development paths. How can mitigation actions contribute to poverty alleviation? An explorative analysis of mitigation actions in five middle-income countries shows that mitigation has moved on the political agendas over the past five years. Yet, these efforts are not necessarily linked with poverty alleviation instruments. Most mitigation action can have positive and negative poverty effects. Their impacts depend on an adequate pro-poor policy mix. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Wlokas, H., Rennkamp, B., Torres, M., Winkler, H., Boyd, A., Tyler, E., & Fedorsky, C. (2012). Low carbon development and poverty: exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries. <i>Energy Research Centre</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16811 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Wlokas, Holle, Britta Rennkamp, Marta Torres, Harald Winkler, Anya Boyd, Emily Tyler, and Catherine Fedorsky "Low carbon development and poverty: exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries." <i>Energy Research Centre</i> (2012) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16811 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Wlokas, H., Rennkamp, B., Torres, M., Winkler, H., Boyd, A., Tyler, E., & Fedorsky, C. (2012). Low Carbon Development and Poverty: Exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries. Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Journal Article AU - Wlokas, Holle AU - Rennkamp, Britta AU - Torres, Marta AU - Winkler, Harald AU - Boyd, Anya AU - Tyler, Emily AU - Fedorsky, Catherine AB - Climate change and poverty mostly fall into the adaptation category in the current research literature and relevant policy-making. The strong connection between poverty and adaptation rests on the assumption that poor countries produce only low carbon emissions. They will also be most affected by the impacts of climate change. Therefore, efforts on poverty and climate change concentrate mostly on adapting to the consequences of climate change. If we acknowledge current findings of poverty research, we find that this separation between mitigation and adaptation does not hold anymore. Recent research suggests that poverty demographics have changed between 1990 and 2010. The majority of the poor nowadays live in middle-income countries, and not only in low-income countries. Emissions in middle-income countries increase, while their governments try to reduce emissions in the long term without jeopardising socio-economic development. Climate change presents a threefold policy challenge for middle-income countries. They need to: i) design mitigation actions in such a way that they contribute to alleviate poverty; ii) reduce emissions, helping to slow global warming in a way that does not compromise the competitiveness of their economies, because without collective action by all, the costs of inaction affect mostly the poor; and iii) prepare to adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change. The paper unpacks the linkages between low-carbon development, mitigation and poverty in middle-income countries (where the majority of the poor live). Most middle-income countries pursue carbon-intensive development paths and will need to mitigate emissions towards low-carbon development paths. How can mitigation actions contribute to poverty alleviation? An explorative analysis of mitigation actions in five middle-income countries shows that mitigation has moved on the political agendas over the past five years. Yet, these efforts are not necessarily linked with poverty alleviation instruments. Most mitigation action can have positive and negative poverty effects. Their impacts depend on an adequate pro-poor policy mix. DA - 2012 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Energy Research Centre LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2012 T1 - Low carbon development and poverty: exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries TI - Low carbon development and poverty: exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16811 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16811 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Wlokas H, Rennkamp B, Torres M, Winkler H, Boyd A, Tyler E, et al. Low carbon development and poverty: exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries. Energy Research Centre. 2012; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16811. | en_ZA |
| dc.language | eng | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | University of Cape Town | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.department | Energy Research Centre | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment | |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) | * |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_ZA |
| dc.source | Energy Research Centre | en_ZA |
| dc.subject.other | Greenhouse gas mitigation | |
| dc.subject.other | Energy policy | |
| dc.subject.other | Sustainable development | |
| dc.title | Low carbon development and poverty: exploring poverty alleviating mitigation action in developing countries | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Journal Article | en_ZA |
| uct.subject.keywords | low-carbon development | en_ZA |
| uct.subject.keywords | mitigation actions | en_ZA |
| uct.subject.keywords | poverty alleviation | en_ZA |
| uct.subject.keywords | developing countries | en_ZA |
| uct.type.filetype | Text | |
| uct.type.filetype | Image | |
| uct.type.publication | Research | en_ZA |
| uct.type.resource | Article | en_ZA |