Laura Kuhl

Northeastern University | NEU · School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs Program

Transformational adaptation is increasingly viewed as necessary to prevent the worst offsets in development gains due to severe climate impacts. However, clarity regarding how to produce transformational adaptation in practice is lacking, creating problems for project design and implementation. This paper examines (1) how transformational adaptatio...

Limited information and insufficient resources are inherent challenges for climate policy, and policy makers must grapple with how to design and implement adaptation policies under conditions of scarcity. Drawing on empirical evidence from Honduras, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Puerto Rico, and analysis of the global landscape of adaptation finance, this p...

This paper uses an environmental justice framework to explore whether existing vulnerabilities in Puerto Rico are associated with the rate of electricity restoration after Hurricane María. Based on the literature discussing the relationship be tween vulnerability and environmental justice, we expected that the areas identified as vulnerable to envi...

Coastal cities, home to more than three billion people and growing rapidly, are highly vulnerable to climate change. Increasingly, there are calls for climate adaptation that goes beyond business-as-usual approaches, transforms socioeconomic systems, and addresses underlying drivers of vulnerability. Although calls for transformational adaptation a...

International climate finance is an integral part of the global climate policy regime. Because available adaptation finance is significantly below identified needs of developing countries, competition for scarce resources incentivises countries to design projects to align with funding priorities. One of the areas where this dynamic is particularly...

Over the last decade, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for water management have gained traction as triple-win options for climate action due to their ability to address social, economic, and environmental challenges. Recent developments in the literature of NbS have resulted in a body of work addressing questions about knowledge and justice. In line w...

Transitions studies has much to offer to the study of climate adaptation. While there are several factors that explain why climate adaptation has not been the subject of sustainable transitions research historically, the process of adapting to climate impacts is well-suited to the analytical frameworks developed in transitions studies. Key areas wh...

As evidenced in the UNDP LAC portfolio, NbS offer the potential to enhance the resilience of market systems while also achieving environmental goals. NbS can strengthen local market system resilience to benefit the economy, vulnerable households, and the environment, and ensure that the region is better prepared for future shocks and stresses.

UNDP has been implementing NbS to support climate adaptation and mitigation and biodiversity conservation throughout LAC. These projects provide a strong evidence base of the job and livelihood benefits of investments in NbS, including direct job creation, new livelihood opportunities, and increased incomes from PES, certification, biodiversity-fri...

Resilience has recently emerged as a conceptual and operational buzzword spanning every facet of the international development agenda. The rise of resilience provides renewed opportunities for geographers to critically engage with the policy sphere and shape ongoing discourse over the nature of resilience programming. Yet, while aspects of the poli...

Smallholder agriculture is the foundation of global food systems, yet smallholders face severe socio-economic and environmental challenges that can destabilize livelihoods and threaten their resilience. Given that smallholder farmers rely on household production to meet their nutritional needs, management of soil fertility, biodiversity, and other...

Coastal regions of developing countries are highly vulnerable to climate impacts. Climate change is projected to increase sea level rise, coastal storm events, and natural resource scarcity, impacting coastal ecosystems and societies. These climate impacts intersect with other anthropogenic stressors contributing to the degradation of coastal habit...

Technologies help build farmer resilience to climate change, but the relationships among technology transfer, adoption, vulnerability, and resilience are not well-understood. This paper empirically examines the technology transfer process for smallholder farmers in Honduras from an adaptation perspective. It addresses two questions: (1) How does te...

Market systems interventions are an increasingly common approach to agricultural development. While the impacts of these interventions on poverty reduction and market participation by smallholders has been studied, little is known about their contributions to building climate resilience. This paper analyzes the compatibility of market systems and c...

Hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people directly depend on smallholder farming systems. These farmers now face a changing climate and associated societal responses. We use mapping and a literature review to juxtapose the climate fate of smallholder systems with that of other agricultural systems and population groups. Limited direct evid...

Achieving sustainable development and meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals requires that there be an effective process of negotiating and implementing sustainable development policies and practices. This paper characterizes an evolving approach that we define as sustainable development diplomacy. Based on an analysis of the history of clima...

Problems that require risk management are usually cross-disciplinary in nature, which makes it difficult to educate students and professionals on common language, skills, and strategies. Recognition of the interdisciplinary nature of many water challenges in terms of quality, allocation, future supply, infrastructure, damages, etc. has led to the e...

With rising sea levels and possible storm intensification due to climate change, current United States urban coastal flood management strategies will be challenged. Due to limitations of current flood management strategies, evacuation is likely to become increasingly prominent in many coastal areas. Thus it is important to think critically about ch...

Technology alone will not be able to solve adaptation challenges, but it is likely to play an important role. As a result of the role of technology in adaptation and the importance of international collaboration for climate change, technology transfer for adaptation is a critical but understudied issue. Through an analysis of Global Environment Fac...

Climate change adaptation is local and place-based. Local places are often heterogeneous with respect to a number of elements that include geography, infrastructure, culture, economics, politics, and ethnicity. Neighborhoods in large cities and metropolitan complexes reflect this diversity. Thus, it seems to us that climate change adaptation planni...

This article reviews the concept of an energy technology innovation system (ETIS). The ETIS is a systemic perspective on innovation comprising all aspects of energy transformations (supply and demand); all stages of the technology development cycle; and all the major innovation processes, feedbacks, actors, institutions, and networks. We use it as...

Specialty care involves services provided by health professionals who focus on treating diseases affecting one body system. In contrast to primary care - aimed at providing continuous, comprehensive care - specialty care often involves intermittent episodes of care focused around specific medical conditions. In addition, it typically includes multi...

San Felipe is a village on the coast of Ecuador known for collecting clams from mangroves. Being a clam collector is a highly marginalized occupation in the region, and as such, the concheros of San Felipe are socially stigmatized. Based on an analysis of the interplay of ecological and social conditions, we describe a form of property and means of...