Principles#
A CRA needs to stand on solid ground, targeting and enabling success factors, while simultaneously providing operational steps for practical implementation. Special emphasis of principles is given at the beginning and ending of a CRA cycle. This section identifies a collection of key principles, norms, and recommended practices which are central to a comprehensive CRA approach that is fair, robust and prudent.
The implementation of these principles requires an open multi-stakeholder process, support of local officials, planners and stakeholders in climate action planning and thus is strongly connected to participatory processes.
Fig. 3 Illustration created by Scriberia with The Turing Way community. CC-BY 4.0. 10.5281/zenodo.3332807#
Social justice, equity and inclusivity – Both, impacts and responses to climate change, affect people and communities in different ways. Many groups in society are particularly vulnerable to climate risks or unequally profit from risk mitigation actions. Age, health, gender, the socioeconomic status (income, living conditions, education), ethnicity as well as social networks may particularly affect the individual climate risk situation. For example, migrant communities, communities in low-income neighbourhoods, poor and elderly people, disabled, and women are disproportionally affected by climate impacts; disasters may further worsen preexisting inequalities. The concept of just resilience aims at targeting the particular needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups to leave no one behind. This includes a broader understanding of underlying social drivers of climate risk as well as its distributional aspects of costs and benefits. The interpretation of justice and its distribution profits from a common process, fostering inclusivity and participation.
Quality, rigour and transparency – Throughout a CRA, quality, rigour and transparency need to be ensured as it is important to guarantee applicability, comparability, validation, and the possibility of standardisation. The CLIMAAX Framework and workflows, uniting in the CLIMAAX Handbook, provide state-of-the-art guidelines and practices, which are supported by scientific findings, international standards, and pilot region applications. Assuming ownership of the CRA process, its individual steps and the risk outcome supports a rigorous and transparent CRA. Further, using local and regional data and (climate) services or connecting with local and regional data hubs and data spaces may increase transparency.
Precautionary approach – A CRA is always confronted with uncertainties, complexities and changing conditions. Flexibility in the CLIMAAX Framework and various mechanisms in the risk workflows aim at minimising such impacts. However, where evidence or confidence is restricted, the process benefits from a precautionary approach instead of inaction. This involves considerations in the Scoping step (e.g., which stakeholder or priority groups to consult and include) or regards the risk evaluation process in the Key Risk Assessment step.