Climate change and vulnerable coastal communities in Ghana

• Main Author: Adodoadji-Dogbe, Catherine Doe
• Published: SOAS, University of London 2018
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.766716

This study examines the relationship between climate impacts and existing vulnerabilities amongst coastal dwellers in Ghana. The study analyses how social relations of power affects access to resources and decision making and their implications for vulnerability and adaptive capacity under changing climatic conditions. It also examines the role that policy plays in addressing vulnerabilities to climate impacts in the study communities. Using a perspective that is important but often overlooked in the study of vulnerability and adaptation to climate impacts in Ghana, the thesis examines the root causes i.e. the structural and relational drivers of vulnerability and the extent to which adaptation policies address these root causes. This thesis contributes to the ongoing debate on the politics of adaptation, the need for adaptation policies to address the underlying causes of vulnerability specifically the social relations of power that produce inequalities. A qualitative mixed-methods approach consisting of participatory tools, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were used in collecting data at the household, community and institutional level. Results from the study show that existing vulnerabilities created from development trajectories pursued in the past interact with climatic impacts to further exacerbate vulnerabilities and decrease adaptive capacities of households in the study communities. It also shows that unequal social relations of power drive differential vulnerability patterns among households in the study communities. The results show that the access profile of a household influences the strategies used in responding to climatic impacts. Also, climate change related adaptation policies by government and other actors do not adequately address the underlying causes of vulnerability consequently perpetuating vulnerabilities and reducing the adaptive capacities of households in the study communities. The study concludes that for adaptation policies to be more effective they need to address the underlying causes of vulnerability or the existing inequalities that reproduce and sustain vulnerability to climate impacts and which undermine adaptive capacities.