Civil Society and the Integration of Climate Change Risks into Planning and Policy-making

The author identifies five key functions for CSOs to promote the inclusion of climate risks in policy: improving public access to climate information, advocating for vulnerable groups, promoting accountability, supporting inclusive disaster risk reduction, and participating in inter-institutional coordination. The paper highlights that in developing countries, particularly Andean nations, local-level climate data is often scarce or inaccessible, and policy tends to favor high-GDP sectors over the most vulnerable small-scale producers. It argues that CSOs can bridge the gap between research institutions and the public and use community monitoring to ensure adaptation resources are distributed equitably.

• Civil society organizations can perform five primary functions to ensure climate change risks are integrated into policy: acting as a bridge for climate information, advocating for vulnerable groups, modeling accountability to ensure transparency, promoting inclusive disaster risk reduction, and engaging in local and national inter-institutional coordination.
• In Andean countries like Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, accessing local climate projections is difficult because data from limited meteorological stations often cannot be extrapolated to different altitudes and ecosystems, and there is limited capacity to read satellite imagery.
• Climate policy in developing countries often prioritizes economic activities with high GDP contributions, leaving 'invisible' low-scale activities and those living near the poverty line at higher risk of exposure to climate fluctuations.
• A 2009 study by the Central Bank Reserve of Peru illustrated a gap in vulnerability analysis by focusing on regions where over 20% of GDP comes from agriculture and fishing linked to foreign markets, which excluded thousands of small producers in the Peruvian highlands.
• Community monitoring at the local level is identified as an effective engagement tool to protect citizens' rights and prevent elites from unequally distributing adaptation resources.
• Disaster risk reduction serves as a critical entry point for community-based adaptation, especially for those suffering from short-term climate variability and lacking access to official climate forecasts.
• To improve national planning, governments should be more open to qualitative research results and a wider diversity of actors, while implementing accountability and transparency processes to ensure work quality.

APA

Canales, N. (2010). Civil Society and the Integration of Climate Change Risks into Planning and Policy-making. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-9-response-4.pdf

Chicago

Canales, Nella. Civil Society and the Integration of Climate Change Risks into Planning and Policy-making. World Resources Institute, 2010. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-9-response-4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Canales |first1=Nella |title=Civil Society and the Integration of Climate Change Risks into Planning and Policy-making |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2010 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-9-response-4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{canales2010civil, author = {Canales, Nella}, title = {{Civil Society and the Integration of Climate Change Risks into Planning and Policy-making}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2010}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-02/wrr-2010-11-question-9-response-4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }