Assessing the impact of the securitization narrative on climate change adaptation in Nigeria

In Nigeria, the threat posed by climate change is leading policymakers and the media to frame climate change as a security threat that warrants support for adaptive actions. We draw upon securitization theory to examine how security narratives affect climate change adaptation. Using primary and secondary data, we find that although securitization arguments are easily identified in climate change policies and action plans in Nigeria, the implications of securitization for adaptation policy and practice are harder to discern. We find that adaptation is not as urgent a policy as would be expected from the logic of securitization. The transformation of security framing into urgent adaptation actions appears difficult because there are no urgent adaptation measures. We also find that people’s level of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change is a function of deeper socio-political dynamics and processes that defy the political theatre of securitization.publishedVersio

The process of integrating risk management: usefulness, standardisation and adaptation

In this paper we analyse how a municipality set out to integrate risk management throughout an organisation with more than 9000 employees in six divisions and over 100 sub-units. An objective was to ensure coherence in risk management related work conducted in various sub-units in the municipality. Being forerunners, those involved had to find their own way. We identify three focus areas of importance in the integration process: usefulness, standardisation and adaptation. We describe and discuss the activities within these focus areas, and their value to the integration process. We collected the data in this study over a six-year period. The period encompasses the development from intention, where only a few people were involved, to realisation in divisions and sub-units. The study is delimited to risk management related to safeguarding the population

Identifying hazards to include in risk analyses

A risk analysis should provide decision makers with information regarding relevant hazards. The initiating phase, where the risk analysts identify hazards to be included in the risk analysis, lays the foundation for the rest of the analysis. This phase is, therefore, of great importance. In this paper, we examine how risk analysts in a municipal setting identified potential adverse events and how they chose which ones to analyse in the risk analysis. The municipalities under study had important similarities with respect to exposure to hazards and government regulation. With these similarities as a starting point and studying how the initiating phase took place, the paper focuses on impact regarding the uniformity of adverse events. Looking at events included in the Comprehensive Risk and vulnerability Analyses (CRAs), seems to reveal a predominance of uniformity. This is reasonable given the previously mentioned similarities. It is arguably also a result of many risk analysts using the same sources to retrieve ideas of potential hazards. The latter is alarming when considering risks not listed in these sources, like emergent or local risks

Identifying hazards to include in risk analyses

Open Access, by the CCBY 4.0 Link to publisher's version:https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351174657 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.1201/9781351174664-238/identifying-hazards-include-risk-analyses-leonhardsen-olsen-nilsenA risk analysis should provide decision makers with information regarding relevant hazards. The initiating phase, where the risk analysts identify hazards to be included in the risk analysis, lays the foundation for the rest of the analysis. This phase is, therefore, of great importance. In this paper, we examine how risk analysts in a municipal setting identified potential adverse events and how they chose which ones to analyse in the risk analysis. The municipalities under study had important similarities with respect to exposure to hazards and government regulation. With these similarities as a starting point and studying how the initiating phase took place, the paper focuses on impact regarding the uniformity of adverse events. Looking at events included in the Comprehensive Risk and vulnerability Analyses (CRAs), seems to reveal a predominance of uniformity. This is reasonable given the previously mentioned similarities. It is arguably also a result of many risk analysts using the same sources to retrieve ideas of potential hazards. The latter is alarming when considering risks not listed in these sources, like emergent or local risks.publishedVersio

Assessing the impact of the securitization narrative on climate change adaptation in Nigeria

In Nigeria, the threat posed by climate change is leading policymakers and the media to frame climate change as a security threat that warrants support for adaptive actions. We draw upon securitization theory to examine how security narratives affect climate change adaptation. Using primary and secondary data, we find that although securitization arguments are easily identified in climate change policies and action plans in Nigeria, the implications of securitization for adaptation policy and practice are harder to discern. We find that adaptation is not as urgent a policy as would be expected from the logic of securitization. The transformation of security framing into urgent adaptation actions appears difficult because there are no urgent adaptation measures. We also find that people’s level of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change is a function of deeper socio-political dynamics and processes that defy the political theatre of securitization