Development Aid and Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries

This book examines development aid for climate change adaptation. Increasing amounts of aid are used to help developing countries adapt to climate change. The authors seek to discover how this aid is distributed and what constitutes the patterns of adaptation-aid giving. Does it help vulnerable countries, as donors promise, or does it help donors achieve economic and political gains? Set against the backdrop of international climate change negotiations and the aid allocation literature, Betzold and Weiler’s empirical analysis proceeds in three steps: firstly they assess adaptation aid as reported by the OECD, then statistically examine patterns in adaptation aid allocation, and finally qualitatively investigate adaptation aid in three large climate donors: Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. With its mixed-method research design and comprehensive data, this work provides a unique, state-of-the-art analysis of adaptation aid as a new stream of development aid.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction.- 2. The History and Political Economy of Adaptation Aid.- 3. Setting the Stage: A Mixed Methods Research Design.- 4. Descriptive Analysis: Adaptation Aid Flows in the OECD CRS.- 5. Quantitative Analysis: Who Gives Adaptation Aid to Whom?.- 6. Qualitative Analysis: Adaptation Aid in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.- 7. Conclusion.

About the Author :
Carola Betzold is Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Göttingen, Germany.  She is also Associate Fellow at the Institute of Development Policy and Management at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Her research centres on climate change politics, from the local through to the global level.  Florian Weiler is Lecturer in Political Science at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He currently researches international environmental problems and the role of interest groups in national and international policy-making processes.

Review :
“This book provides a useful starting point. It touches upon all relevant points in the current debates about adaptation finance but focuses on the analysis of the role of specific vulnerability indicators for explaining the allocation of adaptation aid.” (Katharina Michaelowa, The Review of International Organizations, Vol. 13, 2018)