– There was a time where adaptation was kind of seen as a no no. The thought was that we are not going to have to adapt because we are going to stop the problem of climate change from happening. But over the past 15 years there has been a growing realization that climate change is not something in the distant future, but that it is something happening now, says Robin Leichenko.
Robin Leichenko, Professor of Geography at Rutgers University and co-Director of the Rutgers Climate Institute, directs our attention to the importance of adaptation.
Leichenko notes that when Hurricane Sandy hit New York City the fall of 2012 it became an eye opener for both the residents and officials of the city.
– When experiencing an extreme event, a city wakes up and understands that this is something we need to prepare for.
Not any adaptation is going to be a good adaptation to climate change
As the gravity of the challenges that climate change will present for our urban futures sink in, there has been a growing concern regarding the who, how and what in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Leichenko stresses that we need to see climate change not just as an environmental issue, but an equity issue.
– Equity is really thinking about the needs of disadvantaged communities, making sure that climate change adaptation works for all members of society, and that it not only protects vital infrastructure, but the people using the infrastructure.
– Attention to equity is really bringing the community voice into adaptation planning and making sure that adaptation projects do not unevenly benefit or differentially harm certain areas or neighborhoods of a city, continues Leichenko.
Experiences from New York City - multiple dimensions of equity
Leichenko is currently serving as co-chair for the New York City Panel on Climate Change, co-chair of the Society and Economy Sector of the New York State Climate Assessment, and co-PI of the NOAA RISA Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast.
Earlier assessments conducted by the New York City Panel were highly focused on infrastructure, such as protecting the water and energy grids, but the main pushback to these assessments came when asking: how is the city thinking about the people of New York?
– They asked us to take into account what they call community-based equity or community-based adaptation. We need to make sure that we understand uneven vulnerabilities, and what areas of the city are most vulnerable to climate change.
In this regard, Leichenko explains how the city of New York was interested in mapping the patterns of social vulnerability and how these patterns overlay with climate change stressors.
– Social vulnerability can be associated with lower income, it can be associated with lower educational attainment, in the case of New York it can be lack of English as a first language, which can all create reasons for why you have less capacity to adapt.
In this work Leichenko also discovered differing views on what equity entails.
– It was an interesting challenge to bring community groups into conversation with the city to navigate between these competing views of equity, as equity as process, equity as having a voice in decision making versus, equity as identifying which neighborhood need something and this city is going to direct resources towards it.
Together with seeing equity in terms of process, Leichenko stresses that we need to consider the larger context of environmental and social justice in society and try to understand the root causes of vulnerability.
– We need to take into account the existing environmental problems of a city, but also existing social problems, rising levels of social inequality, lack of health insurance, all the other significant social and environmental stressors.
– The conversation about climate change and equity becomes a much broader conversation about bigger picture issues like structural racism, growing income inequality, housing insecurity, and so forth, and where climate change connect with those issues, says Leichenko.
Reorganization and rethinking
From her work in New York, Leichenko had several learning experiences on how to bring communities into the conversation on climate change adaptation.
– All around there is a big issue of trust. Is this partnership going to be where the scientists show up, they leave, they write their rapport, or are communities going to have a genuine voice and a genuine influence in the city processes.
Leichenko urges us to try to rethink the questions we ask, rethink the actors involved, broaden the groups of expertise, and strive towards reorganizing the process of research and practice on climate change adaptation to become more inclusive.
Listen to Professor Robin Leichenko in conversation with Professor Karen O’Brien on the importance of equity and community development in climate change adaptation, with experiences from New York City.