New Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change as Systemic Risk and the Implications for Development

Climate change risks are systemic, causing disruptions across different socio-economic and political domains, whilst climate change-related vulnerabilities are affected by the occurrence of other systemic risks, such as pandemics and financial crises. While understanding of systemic risks – including how to govern them – has been subject to considerable debate amongst scholars of financial crisis and regulation, it is an emerging concern among disasters and climate change academic communities. However, there is little, if any, research that captures the cascading and compounding impacts of systemic risks on the world’s most marginalised and vulnerable communities; there is a lack of integrated inter-disciplinary research that brings together qualitative and quantitative perspectives; a lack of longitudinal research into the implications; and a lack of knowledge about the implications that systemic risks bring for risk management financing and governance ‘on the ground’.

This project will develop a longitudinal and comparative study of three contexts where the team leads already have embedded research and research partnerships: in Latin America, the Horn of Africa and in the UK. In light of the project’s vision, the initial objectives will be to hold an inter-disciplinary research workshop at the OU and a hybrid stakeholder workshop.