Climate adaptation planning is increasingly approached locally through a social justice lens to ensure the needs of the most vulnerable are addressed. This study aims to identify trends in how recognitional, distributional, and procedural justice are considered within climate adaptation plans over time and across socio-demographic contexts. We coded these forms of justice in 101 climate adaptation plans and related documents published in the United States between 2010 and 2021 and conducted a series of regressions to understand patterns over time and across contexts. Newer plans more commonly addressed each type of justice, with a marked shift in plans published after 2017. More recent plans addressed new elements of recognitional justice (e.g. historical marginalisation, racial justice), a broader scope of distributional justice approaches (e.g. more strategies related to greenspaces, food, and green jobs), and more procedural justice-related initiatives to engage marginalised residents in adaptation. Plans from more Republican-leaning communities considered recognitional and distributional justice to a lesser degree than those from more Democratic-leaning areas. Plans by larger communities were more likely to address procedural justice and include strategies for monitoring the impacts to marginalised people. Plans from communities with a larger percentage of residents living in poverty addressed distributional justice more often and acknowledged more injustices faced by marginalised groups more often. We observed no trends in the treatment of procedural justice related to racial demographics or income. We discuss potential reasons for these trends and their implications.
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This content will become publicly available on August 4, 2025
Understanding how justice is considered in climate adaptation approaches: a qualitative review of climate adaptation plans
Despite a growing focus on climate justice, prior research has revealed
scant details about how marginalised groups have been engaged in
local climate adaptation processes. This study aims to understand how
justice is considered in these processes through a qualitative review of
climate adaptation plans and related documents from US municipalities.
We reviewed 101 plans published between 2010 and 2021 using the
three-dimensional framework of recognitional, distributional, and
procedural justice. Overall, our findings revealed a stronger focus on
recognitional and distributional justice than procedural. Recognitional
justice mainly focused on who is most vulnerable to climate change
and how, with most plans adopting a similar understanding of
vulnerability. Plans less frequently acknowledged how historical
injustices contribute to vulnerability. Distributional justice was
addressed through adaptation strategies across six areas (e.g. health
and safety, buildings, green infrastructure, professional development,
food, and transit), focusing greater attention on expanding existing
programmes than new initiatives. Little attention was given to the
potential negative impacts of proposed strategies. Procedural justice
was mainly considered through one-off opportunities, rather than more
extensive engagement in decision-making. Most plans lacked
implementation considerations, for justice or otherwise, but when
included, details mainly focused on who would be involved and not
how strategies would be implemented. These findings provide an array
of approaches to incorporate justice in adaptation planning and
support several considerations for developing future plans.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1810851
- PAR ID:
- 10538954
- Publisher / Repository:
- Taylor & Francis
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Local Environment
- ISSN:
- 1354-9839
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 20
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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