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Living within planetary limits requires attention to justice as biophysical boundaries are not inherently just. Through collaboration between natural and social scientists, the Earth Commission defines and operationalizes Earth system justice to ensure that boundaries reduce harm, increase well-being, and reflect substantive and procedural justice. Such stringent boundaries may also affect ‘just access’ to food, water, energy and infrastructure. We show how boundaries may need to be adjusted to reduce harm and increase access, and challenge inequality to ensure a safe and just future for people, other species and the planet. Earth system justice may enable living justly within boundaries.

Since 2010, a severe drought has affected central Chile, resulting in losses that prompt the need to evaluate and improve adaptation responses. The evaluation process requires the engagement of mul...

Environmental assessments increasingly call for just transformations, yet do not offer concrete visions of what these might be. This paper conceptualizes and operationalizes Earth system justice (ESJ) through articulating just ends which minimize significant harm to humans from Earth system change while ensuring access to needed resources for all and just means which involve reallocation of resources, responsibilities, and risks. We argue that Earth system justice is underpinned by recognition and epistemic justice, inclusivity and procedural justice, and corrective and distributive justice with a scope that encompasses intragenerational, intergenerational, and interspecies justice concerns. This Earth system justice framework provides the theoretical underpinning for assessing proposals for international environmental policy based on Earth System Boundaries (ESBs) and for proposing just approaches to sustainability transformations.

This article analyzes the impact of socio-natural disasters on social capital at a local level, studying the cases of the communities of Chanaral and Diego de Almagro after the flooding and mudflow disasters of 2015. Specifically, we explore different dynamics of social capital in the response to the emergency, recovery and reconstruction stages, exploring its role in strengthening adaptation and resilience capacities for disaster risk reduction. Through the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with survivors of the disaster, we explore the nature and role of social trust and its influence on the formation and consolidation of bonding, bridging and linking social capital in the context of disaster is analyzed. The results unpack the role of social capital in the response, recovery and reconstruction processes after a disaster event, which directly influences the development and consolidation of capacities for community adaptation, highlighting the role of trust for the strengthening of resilience. Likewise, the article provides details about the role of institutions and authorities in the consolidation of bridging and linking social capital, which requires the generation of formal and fluid communication channels that allow for the creation of trust, not only among the members of the community, but between the community and the institutions and authorities.

Deep structural transformations aimed at strengthening climate action and community participation are occurring in Chile, especially after the social unrest of October 2019. The ongoing political crisis has even generated the unprecedented possibility of writing a new constitution through an entirely democratic process. This article explores to what extent these structural transformations are also associated with cognitive and relational changes in the population, especially in terms of community participation. An online survey (n = 1.117) was applied to people over 18 years old in Punta Arenas in November 2020. This is the southernmost city of the American continent, one of the areas most affected by climate change, highly isolated from the rest of the country, and with a strong regional ecological identity. Results show that climate change is perceived as the main environmental problem affecting the city, with multiple negative consequences, but also with some potentially positive impacts. At the same time, environmental and constitutional expectations suggest the state of the environment is deemed to be critical for the future of the city. However, a traditional top-down understanding of community participation still prevails as most participants perceive the citizens’ role in dealing with environmental issues as limited to individual, passive, and reactive actions, or reduced to being responsible consumers. These results show that transforming institutions, rules and regulations alone does not guarantee a broader engagement of local communities in more ambitious, committed, and lasting climate action, even with a high climate change concern in the population. Creating strategies aimed at more profound cognitive and relational changes from a bottom-up perspective will also be necessary to avoid negative transformation trajectories.

Este artículo analiza los distintos significados del concepto de participación, para avanzar hacia un modelo más inclusivo de gobernanza del cambio climático en Chile. Para ello, se presenta una revisión bibliográfica que discute distintas epistemologías, teorías y definiciones de la participación, con énfasis en las dificultades para su implementación en el contexto chileno. Posteriormente, se revisan los mecanismos de participación ciudadana desplegados en el desarrollo de instrumentos de gobernanza del cambio climático existentes en Chile. Se distinguen tipos de participación utilizados y se identifican experiencias conducidas desde la sociedad civil y la academia. Finalmente, se discuten los alcances y las limitaciones de los modelos de participación implementados y se resalta la importancia de incrementar la influencia de la sociedad civil y de mejorar los mecanismos existentes. Esto se explica por un escenario de cambio climático que posiblemente requerirá una mayor cantidad de actores involucrados en la toma de decisiones, para anticipar posibles divisiones frente al desarrollo de acciones de adaptación o mitigación más radicales, y que al mismo tiempo demandará mayores niveles de responsabilidad, compromiso y acción de la ciudadanía.

There is growing recognition that routine climate change framing is insufficient for addressing the challenges presented by this change, and that different framings of climate change shape stakeholders' practices and guide policy options. This research investigated how stakeholders conceptualise climate change in terms of its seriousness and related uncertainty, and a resilience approach as a possible policy option to confront this uncertainty. An application of the conceptual framework provided by Handmer and Dovers' typology of emergencies is novel to the climate change field. Results show that there is a tendency to frame climate change as complex (with uncertainty representing part of that complexity) and to confront this complexity with less complex policies and solutions. No pattern of a conceptual link between uncertainty and resilience was observed. The results presented in this study offer empirical evidence to inform theory and provide helpful insights to inform policy design and practice.

A severe drought has affected central Chile since 2009. Various adaptation responses have been developed, and a participatory process is required to learn from them. To enable this, a transdisciplinary approach was adopted to achieve two objectives: first, to test an approach for assessing the effectiveness of existing measures to respond to drought, specifically to distil strengths and weaknesses of implementation, and developing recommendations; second, to reflect on results from a pilot project conducted to ascertain its potential for scalability in terms of processes employed. The research was organized per the three types of knowledge needed to address complex problems through transdisciplinarity: systems, target and transformation knowledge. Using the recent drought as a boundary object, we conducted the pilot in two locations in Chile where we carried out literature reviews, interviews and focus group discussions were carried out. We identified adaptation measures at national and local scale, a set of which were evaluated applying the Index for the Usefulness of Adaptation Practices (IUPA). Results indicate that through IUPA, we could systematically account for the perceived effectiveness of applied measures. Strengths such as autonomy in the decision-making process emerged as key factors that could also be applied in other contexts, whereas weaknesses such as lack of integration with other policy domains, programs or projects were identified. To address weaknesses, key recommendations were proposed, which are congruent with context-specific expectations, capacities, experiences and knowledge, given that they were articulated by local actors. Results present empirical evidence on the important utility of transdisciplinary approaches in the evaluation of adaptation measures and can support the development of metrics related to adaptation process at the local scale.

The resilience perspective has emerged as a plausible approach to confront the increasingly devastating impacts of disasters; and the challenges and uncertainty climate change poses through an expected rise in frequency and magnitude of hazards. Stakeholder participation is posited as pivotal for building resilience, and resilience is not passive; rather, stakeholders are actively involved in the process of building resilience. Who is involved and how they are involved are crucial aspects for developing resilience in practice. Nevertheless, there are few empirical studies available to inform theory or show how these issues are addressed. This study focuses on revealing how practitioners frame the issue of participation in relation to resilience, its relevance to a changing climate and how, in consequence, they construct practices. Using Hajer's [(1995). The politics of environmental discourse: Ecological modernization and the policy process. New York] Social-interactive discourse theory, in this interdisciplinary research, we study the frames and subsequent practices developed around a disaster management policy initiative in Australia: the Natural Disaster Resilience Program in Queensland. What emerges from the research findings as critical and requiring urgent attention is stakeholder and especially local government and community participation, and for this to become socially relevant, challenges such as meaningful communication and power structures need to be addressed. What is also critical is to move from experiential learning to social learning. Additionally, the results presented here offer empirical evidence on how broadening the pool of actors can be implemented, and the opportunities that this opens up for building resilience.

Purpose – To confront the increasingly devastating impacts of disasters and the challenges that climate change is posing to disaster risk management (DRM) there is an imperative to further develop DRM. The resilience approach is emerging as one way to do this, and in the last decade has been strongly introduced into the policy arena, although it is not new for DRM practitioners and researchers. Nevertheless, resilience is a highly contested issue, and there is no agreed definition of it, which has resulted in confusion for stakeholders when applying it to practice. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how resilience is framed by researchers and DRM practitioners. Design/methodology/approach – The analytical framework used was Hajer's “social-interactive discourse theory”, combined with analysis of government documents, in-depth interviews with practitioners and observation of field and practices within the context of the Natural Disaster Resilience Program in Queensland, Australia. Findings – One of the key findings is that the idea of “bouncing back” is central to the resilience discourse but different interpretations of this idea results in real-world implications. Three different ways (storylines) in which practitioners construct the meaning of disaster resilience emerge from this study. Importantly the divergences between these storylines reveal possibilities for reframing to occur and these could lead to different policy options and practices. Originality/value – The results presented in this paper offer empirical evidence on how resilience is understood on the ground, contributing to extending resilience theory and informing DRM and resilience practice.

In theory, building resilience is touted as one way to deal with climate change impacts; however, in practice, there is a need to examine how contexts influence the capacity of building resilience. A participatory process was carried out through workshops in regions affected by drought in Chile in 2014. The aim was to explore how resilience theory can be better applied and articulated into practice vis-á-vis participatory approaches that enrich the research process through the incorporation of co-produced. The results show that there are more differences in responses by type of actor than between regions, where issues of national interest, such as ‘education-information’ and ‘preparedness’, are highlighted over others. However, historically relevant local topics emerged as differentiators: decentralisation, and political will. This reinforces why special attention must be given to the different understandings in knowledge co-production processes. This study provides evidence and lessons on the importance of incorporating processes of the co-production of knowledge as a means to better articulate and transfer abstract concepts, such as resilience theory, into practice., Sustainability Science, 12 (1), ISSN:1862-4065, ISSN:1862-4057

International audience; Research on climate change policies can contribute to policy development by building an understanding of the barriers faced in policy processes, and by providing knowledge needed throughout policy cycles. This paper explores the thematic coverage of research on climate change policies related to rural areas, rural development, and natural resource management in Latin America. A three-tier framework is proposed to analyse the selected literature. The results show that research studies have focussed on the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from forests, and adaptations to climate change in agriculture. There is little policy research on other vulnerable sectors (e.g., water and health) and emitting sectors (e.g., energy and industry) in the context of rural development. Our analysis highlights the various research gaps that deserve increased scientific attention, including: cross-sector approaches, multi-level governance, and the stages of policy adoption, implementation and evaluation. In addition, the selected literature has a limited contribution to theoretical discussions in policy sciences.

Climate adaptation has become a pressing issue. Yet little attention has been paid to the consequences of adaptation policies and practices for sustainability. Recognition that not every adaptation to climate change is a good one has drawn attention to the need for sustainable adaptation strategies and measures that contribute to social justice and environmental integrity. This article presents four normative principles to guide responses to climate change and illustrates the significance of the ‘sustainable adaptation’ concept through case studies from diverse contexts. The principles are: first, recognize the context for vulnerability, including multiple stressors; second, acknowledge that differing values and interests affect adaptation outcomes; third, integrate local knowledge into adaptation responses; and fourth, consider potential feedbacks between local and global processes. We argue that fundamental societal transformations are required in order to achieve sustainable development pathways and av...

A prototype multi-purpose index is proposed for use in the evaluation of practices for adaptation to climate variability and change. The Index of Usefulness of Practices for Adaptation (IUPA) allows the user to assign weights and scores to a set of user-defined evaluation criteria. Individual criterion scores are aggregated into a final index value. Both the final value and the individual parameter scores provide useful information for improved decision making in the context of climate change. An innovative aspect of IUPA is that guidance is given to the user through the inclusion of recommendations on evaluation criteria and criterion-specific weight factors. These have been defined by a panel of experts from the Latin-American and Caribbean Region (LAC). Application of the index is demonstrated for an existing adaptation practice from the Coquimbo Region, Chile. The IUPA tool is recommended for use in the evaluation of adaptation practices in their design, implementation and post-implementation phase. It is practical for a quick first assessment or when limited financial resources are available, making the tool especially useful for practitioners in the developing world. The index is flexible both from the perspective of its construction and use. Additional expert opinions can easily be included in the future versions of the tool.

PurposeThis paper seeks to propose measures to improve management of rainfall‐related disasters in Chile.Design/methodology/approachThis research was carried out as a case study in the semi‐arid region of Chile where above‐normal rainy events occur once or twice during some rainy seasons. Measures to improve management are suggested based on theory, field data, and community participation. The method was based on a review of both the scientific literature and the local media; and a semi‐structured survey that was applied to local parties, including the population affected by past disasters. Also, some participatory activities (i.e. workshops) were organized in order to include the community opinions.FindingsResults show that there have been significant advances during the last decade in Chile regarding disaster management. Yet, improvements need to be done at the local level in order to achieve a holistic, proactive and integrative management, including community participation and sharing responsibilities. A key element is increased coordination and cooperation.Practical implicationsBenefit the communities and public agencies associated with disaster management, through practical recommendations based on theoretical issues and findings derived from fieldwork.Originality/valueThis is one of the very few scientific research efforts done in Chile based on a case study that includes social aspects (e.g. community participation, social vulnerability) and disaster management.

Droughts are a recurrent and complex natural hazard whose frequency and magnitude are expected to increase with climate change. Despite the advances in responding and adapting to droughts (with the development of new policies, for example), droughts continue to cause serious impacts and suffering. Developing well-targeted public policies requires further research on adaptation. Specifically, understanding the public perception of drought can help to identify drivers of and barriers to adaptation and options. This research seeks to understand the public perception of drought in central Chile in order to inform adaptation-related policies and decision-making processes. This study focused on the Mega-drought, which was a protracted dry spell afflicting central Chile since 2010.

Current debate on the implementation of resilience in addressing climatic impacts calls for more pragmatic means of reducing losses. In this study we aimed to generate context-specific knowledge about resilience factors for addressing the impacts of drought, with the expectation that bringing forth experiential knowledge on how impacts were addressed in the past would shed light on what constitutes key resilience factors for practitioners working in urban contexts. The study was carried in three of the largest cities in Chile: Santiago, Concepción, and Valdivia. The analytical framework consists of urban and regional resilience incorporating transdisciplinary approaches applying the Resilience-Wheel tool, combined with participatory methods for the co-production of knowledge and qualitative content analysis of documents and workshops. Results show that key determinants of building resilience to drought were: improving education and access to information, enhancing preparedness, promoting technology transfer, reinforcing organizational linkages and collaboration, decentralizing governance, and encouraging citizen participation. The Resilience-Wheel was useful for navigating the conceptual complexity and diversity of perspectives inherent among social actors. The transdisciplinary approach allowed us to co-produce key knowledge that can be applied to build resilience in future, through a bottom-up approach that bridges the science–policy interface., Sustainability, 8 (9), ISSN:2071-1050

This chapter assesses how countries are managing current and projected disaster risks, given knowledge of how risks are changing with observations and projections of weather and climate extremes, vulnerability and exposure, and impacts. It focuses on the design of national systems for managing such risks, the roles played by actors involved in the system, and the functions they perform, acknowledging that complementary actions to manage risks are also taken at local and international level.