Climate resilient development index : theoretical framework, selection criteria and fit-for-purpose indicators

This report aims to contribute to the debate on climate change policies and their link to development. A climate resilient perspective is adopted to understand how climate change policy objectives can be reconciled with development goals. The report reviews the main theoretical concepts that characterise the scientific literature on climate risk and vulnerability assessments, and identifies climate resilient fit-for-purpose indicators accordingly. This makes it possible to build the theoretical foundations to improve understanding of the implications of climate aid financing. The novelty of this report lies in the emphasis given to economic aspects of climate risk, most notably: the concepts of loss and damage, the understanding of factors that enhance economic resilience, the links between climate change policies and development (besides economic growth) and the acknowledgment of the role of natural capital in pursuing development policies. By reviewing grey and peer-reviewed literature, 102 suitable indicators are identified and grouped into six components. A case study is proposed which involves building three climate resilient development indices. The three indices are built for climate resilient development using the same components and indicators but adopting different political perspectives. Our case study demonstrates that although there is some agreement on which indicators should be included in an index for climate resilient development, a single approach to building a global index for climate resilient development does not exist. The high number of differences between the scores of the three indices indicates that a single index in the climate resilient development domain is a sort of chimera. Any index should address a specific policy request with a clear objective. This is a first step to building a fit-for-purpose index.