Editing IPCC:AR6/SR15/Chapter-5 (section)

=== 5.3.1 Sustainable Development in Support of Climate Adaptation ===

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Making sustainable development a priority, and meeting the SDGs, is consistent with efforts to adapt to climate change ( ''very high confidence'' ). Sustainable development is effective in building adaptive capacity if it addresses poverty and inequalities, social and economic exclusion, and inadequate institutional capacities (Noble et al., 2014; Abel et al., 2016; Colloff et al., 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r81|81]]</sup> . Four ways in which sustainable development leads to effective adaptation are described below.

First, sustainable development enables transformational adaptation (see Chapter 4, Section 4.2.2.2) when an integrated approach is adopted, with inclusive, transparent decision-making, rather than addressing current vulnerabilities as stand-alone climate problems (Mathur et al., 2014; Arthurson and Baum, 2015; Shackleton et al., 2015; Lemos et al., 2016; Antwi-Agyei et al., 2017b) <sup>[[#fn:r82|82]]</sup> . Ending poverty in its multiple dimensions (SDG 1) is often a highly effective form of climate adaptation (Fankhauser and McDermott, 2014; Leichenko and Silva, 2014; Hallegatte and Rozenberg, 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r83|83]]</sup> . However, ending poverty is not sufficient, and the positive outcome as an adaptation strategy depends on whether increased household wealth is actually directed towards risk reduction and management strategies (Nelson et al., 2016) <sup>[[#fn:r84|84]]</sup> , as shown in urban municipalities (Colenbrander et al., 2017; Rasch, 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r85|85]]</sup> and agrarian communities (Hashemi et al., 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r86|86]]</sup> , and whether finance for adaptation is made available (Section 5.6.1).

Second, local participation is effective when wider socio-economic barriers are addressed via multiscale planning (McCubbin et al., 2015; Nyantakyi-Frimpong and Bezner-Kerr, 2015; Toole et al., 2016) <sup>[[#fn:r87|87]]</sup> . This is the case, for instance, when national education efforts (SDG 4) (Muttarak and Lutz, 2014; Striessnig and Loichinger, 2015) <sup>[[#fn:r88|88]]</sup> and indigenous knowledge (Nkomwa et al., 2014; Pandey and Kumar, 2018) <sup>[[#fn:r89|89]]</sup> enhance information sharing, which also builds resilience (Santos et al., 2016; Martinez-Baron et al., 2018) <sup>[[#fn:r90|90]]</sup> and reduces risks for maladaptation (Antwi-Agyei et al., 2018; Gajjar et al., 2018) <sup>[[#fn:r91|91]]</sup> .

Third, development promotes transformational adaptation when addressing social inequalities (Section 5.5.3, 5.6.4), as in SDGs 4, 5, 16 and 17 (O’Brien, 2016, 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r92|92]]</sup> . For example, SDG 5 supports measures that reduce women’s vulnerabilities and allow women to benefit from adaptation (Antwi-Agyei et al., 2015; Van Aelst and Holvoet, 2016; Cohen, 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r93|93]]</sup> . Mobilization of climate finance, carbon taxation and environmentally motivated subsidies can reduce inequalities (SDG 10), advance climate mitigation and adaptation (Chancel and Picketty, 2015) <sup>[[#fn:r94|94]]</sup> , and be conducive to strengthening and enabling environments for resilience building (Nhamo, 2016; Halonen et al., 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r95|95]]</sup> .

Fourth, when sustainable development promotes livelihood security, it enhances the adaptive capacities of vulnerable communities and households. Examples include SDG 11 supporting adaptation in cities to reduce harm from disasters (Kelman, 2017; Parnell, 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r96|96]]</sup> ; access to water and sanitation (SDG 6) with strong institutions (SDG 16) (Rasul and Sharma, 2016) <sup>[[#fn:r97|97]]</sup> ; SDG 2 and its targets that promote adaptation in agricultural and food systems (Lipper et al., 2014) <sup>[[#fn:r98|98]]</sup> ; and targets for SDG 3 such as reducing infectious diseases and providing health cover are consistent with health-related adaptation (ICSU, 2017; Gomez-Echeverri, 2018) <sup>[[#fn:r99|99]]</sup> .

Sustainable development has the potential to significantly reduce systemic vulnerability, enhance adaptive capacity and promote livelihood security for poor and disadvantaged populations ( ''high confidence'' ). Transformational adaptation (see Chapter 4, Sections 4.2.2.2 and 4.5.3) would require development that takes into consideration multidimensional poverty and entrenched inequalities, local cultural specificities and local knowledge in decision-making, thereby making it easier to achieve the SDGs in a 1.5°C warmer world ( ''medium evidence, high agreement'' ).

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