Justice and Inclusion in Urban Climate Adaptation Planning

limate change is “having a devastating environmental, social and health impact on urban populations” IPCC, 2022), with those that are economically vulnerable and socially marginalised disproportionately affected. As a result, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) has called for climate adaptation solutions which are “effective, feasible, and conform to principles of justice” (IPCC, 2022). Furthermore, there is a central, current global ambition outlined at the 28th Conference Of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for developing “justice-centred urban adaptation efforts”.
Justice within climate adaptation planning should consider the three aspects of environmental justice: distributional justice, differences in harms and goods; recognitional justice, recognition and treatment of diverse values, preferences, abilities, identities, and histories; and procedural justice, access to decision-making processes and the related institutional arrangements. Increasingly there are additional concerns regarding environmental privilege, where the exercise of economic, political, and cultural power of some groups offers exclusionary benefits and protection from harm at the expense of others. Despite this there have been very few studies that have considered how justice has been considered in local climate adaptation processes. Those that have looked at this identified that there is little recognition of how environmental privilege and historical injustices contribute to climate vulnerabilities, little consideration of potential negative/ differentiated impacts on different publics and lack of sustained procedural. Therefore, there is an urgent to need to develop frameworks which can assess justice and inclusion within climate adaptation planning and apply this to evaluate current approaches so that recommendations for improvements to climate adaptation processes can be made.

This Research Assistant Internship will aim to contribute to understanding the justice and inclusion considerations in urban climate adaptation planning by:

• Reviewing current literature on justice in climate adaptation
• Developing a framework to evaluate justice and inclusion considering distributional, recognition, procedural justice alongside environmental provide.
• Applying the framework to current local, national, and international plans
• Making recommendations to improve consideration of justice and inclusion to climate adaptation planning

This internship will offer the following benefits:

• Opportunity to gain familiarity with the relevant literature and experience working in climate adaptation and environmental justice, areas of growing interest and international concern
• Opportunity to work with a small but engaged group of lecturers, researchers and PhD students working in related areas
• Opportunity to develop skills in critical and creative thinking
• Opportunity to work towards publishing a peer reviewed paper

The follow expertise and experience is needed:

• Interest in climate adaptation and environmental justice
• An ability to critically review literature
• An ability to integrate ideas and think creatively
• An ability to apply frameworks consistently
• Excellent communication skills for both academic and non-academic audiences

Submission of a peer-reviewed paper, brief and presentation for organisations involved in climate adaptation planning

1. Please send your CV and a brief cover letter outlining your interest and suitability to the project supervisor(s). Please contact the project supervisor(s) in advance of submitting the application with any questions.

2. If selected by the project supervisor, the student must then complete the Placement /Internship Application form. This ensures that there is approval of PhD supervisor, and the necessary information is obtained to extend funding (for DTP1 students) or confirm placement requirement fulfilled (for DTP2 students), and to fulfil ESRC reporting obligations.  

Please note:

• Research Assistant Internships must not be undertaken with the student’s current supervisor and/or home department.
• DTP1 students (those whose funding commenced before Oct24): a maximum of 4 Research Assistant internships will be funded. These will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Once the 4 DTP1 places are filled, we will inform PIs that only DTP2 students are eligible for the Research Assistant internships. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL DTP1 PLACES HAVE NOW BEEN FILLED.
• DTP2 students (those whose funding commenced from Oct24): are required to complete a 3-month placement, which is funded through their studentship. No limits to number that can be funded.
• Reports: at the conclusion of the internship, the student will be required to complete an internship report, which will include a question for the internship host to feedback on the internship.

Contact liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk with any questions.