Calls for Papers

 

Call for Papers for Special Issue, Vulnerable populations: The role of population dynamics in climate change resilience and adaptation

Although the cause of the climate crisis is largely attributable to the accumulative emissions of the Global North, it is the poorest regions of the world that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and will disproportionately suffer adverse health effects due to extreme heat, growth of disease vectors, increasing water scarcity, soil erosion, crop failure, flooding of low-lying areas, etc (IPCC, 2014).

Projected population growth and vulnerability to the possible effects of climate change are generally positively correlated (Price, 2020). There is a broad consensus that high rates of population growth adversely affect development and welfare improvements, and can negatively impact the availability of natural resources (Das Gupta et al., 2011; Beegle and Christiaensen, 2019; Price, 2020). The precise relationships between high rates of population growth, low levels of economic development, climate vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation are complex and geographically uneven. However, in areas vulnerable to climate change, high rates of population growth have a negative impact on the community's resilience and adaptive capacity (Beegle and Christianensen 2019; Price 2020).

Importantly, climate-change related impacts exacerbate existing inequalities of power. Women and girls are frequently the most disadvantaged and least skilled members of a community and therefore disproportionately vulnerable. A lack of adaptive capacity in the face of climate change associated extreme weather events has the potential to disrupt sexual health and family planning services, amplifying the vulnerability of women to such events as well as increasing exposure to sexual and gender-based violence (Kwauk and Braba, 2017; Price, 2020; Logie, et al. 2021). Poor resilience and adaptive capacity can also lead to wider social conflict and climate induced migration with associated negative impacts on welfare (Kelley, 2016; Cattaneo et al. 2019).

The proposed special issue of The Journal of Population and Sustainability will focus on population growth as a factor in the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities in facing the impacts of climate change. We are interested in publishing papers examining both natural population growth and those considering local growth due to migration, including the effects of urbanisation upon the vulnerability of urban populations to climate change. In addition, papers considering the effects on resilience and adaptation resulting from migration from the Global South to the Global North are welcomed. Moreover, we are particularly interested in papers examining how climate change relates to the vulnerability of particular demographic groups, especially children and women in high fertility countries.

Deadine for full article submissions via the journal's website: 31st December 2022.
Enquiries should be directed to the editor: editor@jpopsus.org

Posted 2022-01-10, updated 2022-06-08

 

References

Beegle, K. and L. Christiaensen. 2019. Accelerating Poverty Reduction in Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32354 (accessed 29 November 2021).

Cattaneo, C., M. Beine, C.J. Frölich et al. 2019. 'Human migration in the era of climate change'. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 13 (2): 189–206.

Das Gupta, M., J. Bongaarts and J. Cleland. 2011. Population, Poverty, and Sustainable Development: A Review of the Evidence. Policy Research Working Paper 5719. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.

IPCC. 2014. 'Summary for policymakers'. In Climate change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1–32. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/ar5_wgII_spm_en-1.pdf (accessed 29 November 2021).

Kelley, C. 2016. 'On sustainability, vulnerability, climate and conflict'. The Journal of Population and Sustainability 1 (1): 35–44. https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2016.1.1.35 Klein, Naomi. 2014. This Changes Everything. London: Penguin

Kwauk, C. and A. Braga. 2017. Three Platforms for Girls’ Education in Climate Strategies. Brooke Shearer Series Number 6. Washington DC: Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/wp- content/uploads/2017/09/platforms-for-girls-education-in-climate-strategies.pdf (accessed 25 November 2021).

Logie, C.H., D. Toccalino, A.C. Reed et al. 2021. 'Exploring linkages between climate change and sexual health: a scoping review protocol'. BMJ Open 11:e054720. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054720

Price, R.A. 2020. The Linkages between Population Change and Climate Change in Africa. K4D Helpdesk Report 900. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies.