| Title | Tackling climate change in low- and middle-income countries |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Elizabeth Robinson (author) |
| Chukwumerije Okereke (author) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.31389/lsepress.tlc.o |
| Landing page | https://doi.org/10.31389/lsepress.tlc.o |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Author(s) |
| Publisher | LSE Press |
| Published on | 2025-10-16 |
| Short abstract | Designing and implementing action to address climate change is one of the most important public policy challenges of our time – and particularly acute for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) around the world. One aspect of that challenge is to tackle climate change without exacerbating poverty. Although there is widespread agreement that LMICs need economic growth to reduce poverty and build resilience to climate change, there are few – if any – precedents on how to achieve this kind of development at scale, and still less agreement on how to go about it. In this chapter we highlight the importance of providing access to low-carbon energy, ensuring food security, protecting nature and biodiversity, and improving adaptation and resilience. We also recognise that any action to tackle climate change needs to be considered within the principles of equity and climate justice. As such, we frame our exploration of ‘what works’ within a sensitivity to national political economy dynamics and the need for effective national institutions. LMIC policymakers must also contend and engage with international political and economic structures and institutions. All told, while there are several promising initiatives around the world, the reality is that we still lack shining examples of countries that have successfully achieved low-carbon and resilient development. Evidence of ‘what works’ in LMICs is sparse. |
| Long abstract | Designing and implementing action to address climate change is one of the most important public policy challenges of our time – and particularly acute for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) around the world. One aspect of that challenge is to tackle climate change without exacerbating poverty. Although there is widespread agreement that LMICs need economic growth to reduce poverty and build resilience to climate change, there are few – if any – precedents on how to achieve this kind of development at scale, and still less agreement on how to go about it. In this chapter we highlight the importance of providing access to low-carbon energy, ensuring food security, protecting nature and biodiversity, and improving adaptation and resilience. We also recognise that any action to tackle climate change needs to be considered within the principles of equity and climate justice. As such, we frame our exploration of ‘what works’ within a sensitivity to national political economy dynamics and the need for effective national institutions. LMIC policymakers must also contend and engage with international political and economic structures and institutions. All told, while there are several promising initiatives around the world, the reality is that we still lack shining examples of countries that have successfully achieved low-carbon and resilient development. Evidence of ‘what works’ in LMICs is sparse. |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Elizabeth Robinson is Professor of Environmental Economics in the Department of Geography and Environment, and is currently Acting Dean of LSE and Political Science’s Global School of Sustainability, seconded from her role as Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Her research focuses on climate change and health, particularly food security and undernutrition, and heat and worker rights. She was on the UK Defra Economic Advisory Panel for five years; Specialist Advisor to the UK House of Lords Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health, and Environment; Working Group 1 lead for the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change from 2016 to 2024; and is currently Chair of the Economics Advisory Group for CCRA4 for the UK’s Climate Change Committee, and is on the Scientific Committee of the Regenerative Society Foundation. Elizabeth previously worked at the University of Reading, the University of Oxford as a Lecturer in the Economics Department and Tutorial Fellow at St Hugh’s College, the Boston Consulting Group, the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, and Natural Resources Institute. She has a first class degree in Engineering, Economics, and Management from Oxford University, and a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University.
Chukwumerije Okereke is Professor of Global Climate Governance and Public Policy at the School of Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. He is a Visiting Professor at LSE and Co-Director of the Center for Climate Change and Development (CCD) in Alex Ekuweme Federal University, Nigeria. He was formerly Co-Director of the Centre for Climate and Justice and of the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme, both at the University of Reading. He was also previously Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. A globally recognised leading scholar on global climate governance and international development, Okereke was the Coordinating Lead Author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report, Working Group 3.