Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice

231 representation of vulnerable groups in adaptation planning processes for the city, (2) priority setting and framing that recognize the adaptation needs of the vulnerable groups in the city, and (3) outcomes and impacts of adaptation that enhance the freedoms and assets of vulnerable groups in the city. In addition, four potential mechanisms of injustice were identified: the political economy of poverty, thick injustice, technocratic governance, and institutional capacities. These criteria and mechanisms provide a starting point for an urban adaptation research agenda able to more explicitly account for the political forces that underlie decision making about climate change. Applying these ideas to the case of Delhi showed that the city did not meet the three criteria for justice in urban adaptation. However, the analysis provided insights into how justice may be improved given existing processes and priorities. For example, the Bhagidari System could be further developed for poor populations and informal settlements and could be better integrated into the climate change planning process. The vulnerability assessment that is being conducted as part of the state action plan should be conducted in a way that recognizes the sources of vulnerability people face, should be fully integrated into the planning process, and used for priority setting. Finally, the city should evaluate its progress in meeting its climate change goals. Although coordinating climate change and development goals is useful in many ways, it makes it more difficult to know how well the climate change program itself is doing. Therefore, an additional capacity for the city to develop would-be-tools for tracking and monitoring progress in adapting to climate change is needed. The analysis also revealed that at least two mechanisms are responsible for the lack of justice in adaptation in Delhi: a lack of capacity and the political economy of poverty. In identifying these mechanisms, we also identified leverage points for change. Efforts to develop the city’s capacity further should be a priority. There is already some evidence from the involvement of the UNDP that this can be a successful endeavor. In addition, it will be important to find ways to overcome the political and economic barriers to include vulnerable communities and their needs in climate change adaptation. Such efforts will need to account for the broader development dynamics in the city and the ways that climate change adaptation planning intersects and interacts with current practices and priorities. Although this is perhaps a daunting task, there are already tools in place that could be used as starting points, such as the Bhagidari System. This special issue examines the governance of climate change adaptation and encourages decision makers and scholars to reflect on the implications of action taken at different levels. Because cities play an increasingly important role in developing and implementing adaptation actions, it is critical that we develop a greater understanding not only of whether urban adaptation is just, but also why it is or is not. Although we know that in many cases cities have a poor track record of addressing the needs of the vulnerable, their decision to take on the relatively new policy area of climate change is an opportunity for learning. Research can contribute to this learning by uncovering the mechanisms of injustice in urban climate change adaptation, the obstacles and opportunities for greater justice in different contexts, and, more generally, the relationship between where and how climate planning occurs and the benefits that are experienced. Future research should expand on these criteria and findings. Are some mechanisms of injustice more prevalent than others in adaptation? How and when do actors overcome barriers to just adaptation? We can also move beyond descriptive explorations of the mechanisms of injustice to examine how, when, and why these mechanisms of injustice are likely to be at play in adaptation. In addition, adaptation planning requires dealing with greater levels of uncertainty and new types of data and information. Future climate scenarios and their impacts are uncertain, particularly at the city scale (Satterthwaite et al. 2007). To what extent does this uncertainty inhibit justice in adaptation planning? The institutional context in which urban climate change adaptation takes place may also help to determine the extent to which the various mechanisms of injustice influence decision making. One unique feature of urban climate change planning is that it is inherently multilevel (Betsill and Bulkeley 2006, Ebi and Semenza 2008, Corfee-Morlot et al. 2009). As a result, the relative authority of municipal, state, and national governments over key planning resources may help determine the extent to which the mechanisms of injustice are able to influence outcomes. One important requirement for furtheringour understandingof justice inurban climate change adaptation is improvingour understanding of who the vulnerable and vulnerable groups are in a city, their sources of vulnerability, and the barriers they face to building greater levels of capacity. As my analysis and the Delhi case shows, justice in urban climate change adaptation is fundamentally tied to broader issues of accessibility and participation. Existing research on urban injustice, the right to the city, and urban informality, although not explicitly addressing issues of climate change adaptation, therefore has much to contribute to this understanding. Future investments in climate change policy and planning should focus on leveraging and further developing this type of knowledge in a transparent and inclusive way.