




































Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 3 (1): 147–150, January 2020 

 
BOOK REVIEW 
  

Climate Change Adaptation in the Global South 
 

Chandni Singh  
 
Anamika Barua, Vishal Narain and Sumit Vij, eds. 2019. Climate Change 
Governance and Adaptation: Case studies from South Asia. Boca Raton: CRC 
Press, ISBN: 9781138054509, pp. 187, GBP 110 (Hardbound).  
 

In 2019, South Asia experienced severe 
floods, record-breaking heatwaves, 
increasing rainfall variability, and the rapid 
melting of glaciers. Climate change is 
undoubtedly exacerbating these extreme 
events and there are clear signals that such 
impacts will intensify in the future (IPCC 
2018), especially in parts of South Asia. As 
the poor and most vulnerable cope with 
and prepare for such a heightened risk 
regime, climate change adaptation 
becomes a critical tool in the suite of 
actions that governments and exposed 
populations can undertake. In Climate 
Change Governance and Adaptation: Case 
Studies from South Asia editors Anamika 
Barua, Vishal Narain, and Sumit Vij offer 

us a rich set of case studies examining how climate adaptation is 
implemented and governed across South Asian countries. They draw on 
knowledge of researchers and practitioners working across a spectrum of 

                                                        
 Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore.IIHS Bangalore City Campus, 197/36, 
2nd Main Road, Sadashivanagar Bangalore 560080. India; csingh@iihs.ac.in 

Copyright © Singh 2020. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 
4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic 
Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.101  

https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.101


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [148] 

sectors to highlight how climate change is not only ―redefining the roles of 
different actors in governance processes‖ (p. ix) but also necessitating 
―adaptive governance to deal with increased uncertainty and risk associated 
with future impacts‖ (p. 93).  

The book is divided into three sections: 1) climate change governance and 
societal challenges, 2) adaptation through effective governance, and 3) 
climate change governance at national/regional scales. Under each section, 
individual chapters present case studies, and I will discuss a few illustrative 
ones to give a sense of the depth and breadth of the topics that are covered 
in the book.  

The literature on perceptions of climate change and variability has 
burgeoned since 2010 but often stops at recording perceptions of changes 
in temperature, rainfall, and extreme events. The more challenging question 
that seems to be left out is — how these everyday lived perceptions and 
experiences can enable adaptation for decision-making? Chapters 2 and 3, 
in fact, address this gap by drawing on data from Uttarakhand and Nepal 
respectively, to explore how meanings that people associate with 
environmental change1 can then turn such bottom-up meaning-making into 
improved local participation and inclusive adaptation action.  

In Chapter 3, Floriane Clement focuses on forms of natural governance in 
the terai (lowland plains) of Nepal and discusses to what extent deliberative 
governance can open spaces where local concerns and national priorities 
around resource governance, risk management, and adaptation can come 
together. Using the lenses of ‗fairness‘ and ‗competence‘ to gauge the 
quality of deliberative processes, Clement examines how and why different 
actors across scales form coalitions as a way to represent their needs and 
aspirations. The initial results from this essay suggest promise, as she finds 
that ‗even within an unequal public sphere, deliberation can support the 
opening up of discourses towards…shared understandings of 
farmers…vulnerabilities‘ (p. 46). Importantly, the case study demonstrates 
how current national climate change policies fail to recognise local 
experiences of climate change and that creating spaces to allow for different 
‗storylines‘ of adaptation are critical to inclusive action.  

It is posited that a significant outcome of climate change in South Asia will 
be increased migration (Rigaud et al. 2018). In an exceptionally well-argued 
chapter, Anne Wesselink et al. (Chapter 5) discuss the critical and often 
contentious issue of climate-induced migration with empirical examples 

                                                        
1 Broader term which encapsulates natural resource degradation and climate variability. 



[149] Chnadni Singh 

from Bangladesh. They chart the conceptual development of climate-
induced migration and highlight the place of Bangladesh in this literature as 
‗a laboratory of sorts, in which a series of national-level strategic plans, 
projects, programmes, trust funds and financing schemes are being 
designed and tested…‘ (p. 78). Synthesising the burgeoning empirical 
literature on climate and migration from Bangladesh, they demonstrate how 
discourses on migration within the national government and international 
donor community tend to remain simplistic and blind to the non-climatic 
drivers of migration such as land grabs and unequal power. Recognising the 
multiple drivers of migration is the first step to inclusive adaptation 
planning and implementation; and the authors end with the concept of 
‗phronesis‘ (p. 83) to act as a guiding principle for effective adaptation. 
Phronesis, an Aristotelian term, is defined as practical wisdom, can help 
reorient climate migration discussions from ‗what is true‘ to ‗what is good‘ 
(p. 83). Perhaps, this discussion on what good or effective adaptation might 
look like is an important normative shift for adaptation researchers and 
practitioners alike. 

While the book focuses on climate adaptation, in Chapter 8, Joyashree Roy 
et al. turn to governing climate mitigation actions. A sort of misfit at first 
glance, the chapter is an important reading for climate researchers 
examining mitigation and adaptation synergies. Using the concept of 
‗vertical integration‘ (p. 139), the authors explore how national governments 
are interpreting global mitigation targets (e.g. reducing global average 
temperature to well below 2°C) and how interpretations percolate to inform 
state action plans, industrial emissions norms, and finally, individual 
behaviours. Citing examples from India such as incentivising solar e-
rickshaws and diversifying the energy mix to include bioenergy, they find 
that India‘s strong fiscal federalism does not always translate into effective 
vertical alignment of climate mitigation actions. Beyond technology 
transfer, they argue, transformative changes are required that encompass 
scientific, social, economic, and institutional realities that national and state 
governments are often compelled to operate within.  

Overall, Climate Change Governance and Adaptation: Case Studies from South Asia 
is an important book with rich empirical examples of adaptation 
governance. I, however, think that an opportunity to provide a concluding 
chapter has been missed. A chapter that the authors could have used for 
tying the different cases together and synthesising the key findings that 
could then inform a transformative agenda for climate governance. 
However, by showing the importance of local dynamics and realities in 
shaping adaptation processes and outcomes, the book makes an important 
contribution and will be a valuable reading for students and researchers in 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [150] 

natural resource management, climate change adaptation, and development 
studies. 

 

REFERENCES 

IPCC. 2018. ―Summary for Policymakers‖ In Global Warming of 1.5C. An IPCC 
special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related 
global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the 
threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty, edited by V. 
Masson-Delmotte, et. al. IPCC (in press). Accessed on 18 December 2019. 
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15_SPM_version_r
eport_LR.pdf  

Rigaud, K. K., A. de Sherbinin, B. Jones, J. Bergmann, V. Clement, K. Ober, J. 
Schewe, S. Adamo, B. McCusker, S. Heuser, and A. Midgley. 2018. Groundswell: 
preparing for internal climate migration. Washington, DC: World Bank. 
https://doi.org/10.1596/29461 

https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15_SPM_version_report_LR.pdf
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15_SPM_version_report_LR.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1596/29461

