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There are clear linkages between climate change and development. In the first place, climate change is a result of unsustainable socioeconomic development, which has driven the emission of greenhouse gases that are causing anthropogenic climate change (Cohen, 1998). In turn, sustainable development can reduce vulnerability to climate change, because vulnerability depends on factors linked to development, including access to economic, ecological, social and human resources, and inadequate institutions, governance and infrastructure (Ayers and Huq 2009; Dodman et al., 2009; Huq et al., 2006; Klein et al., 2007). Finally, the impacts of climate change can impede development and threaten the efficacy and sustainability of development investments (Burton and Van Aalst, 2004; Klein et al., 2007).

Responses to climate change involve both mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation here refers to limiting the …