Climate change, human vulnerability, and social risk management
The authors of this paper were motivated by what are perceived to be important gaps in the literature on climate change: lack of attention to how risks associated with climate change might affect households; inconsistent use of key terms such as risk, vulnerability, and adaptation; and lack of clarity on the relationship between risks associated with climate change, adaptation, and vulnerability.
It proposes and applies a social risk management and asset-based conceptual framework to help design interventions that can increase the capacity of society to manage climate risks with a view to reduce the vulnerability of households and maintain or increase the opportunities for development. This framework offers a unifying lens to examine the links between risks, adaptation, and vulnerability and is consistent with IPCC definitions of vulnerability and adaptation.