Poor global governance is a barrier to adaptation to climate change and will take decades to overcome, according to a study by Climate Analytics and other researchers, published on Monday 28 October in Nature Sustainability.
This study quantifies for the first time different governance pathways at the national level in the 21st century, using scenarios of Shared Socio-economic Pathways used in climate change research.
It shows that, even in the most optimistic development scenarios, it will take until about 2050 to overcome the weakness of global governance. In pessimistic scenarios characterised by regional rivalries, more than 3 billion people would still live in countries with weak governance, well beyond 2050.
"Governance is a key ingredient of a country’s capacity to adapt to climate change. For example, good governance is important for long-term planning, guidelines and regulations, and can be crucial for governments in successfully leveraging investments in adaptation projects. Conversely, a lack of transparency, high corruption or political instability could deprive a government of that much-needed finance", according to the study's lead author, Marina Andijevic, of Climate Analytics.
The study is based on the World Bank's global governance indicators (political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, Rule of law and corruption control). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)