The climate challenge as a development opportunity

When climate change is framed as a global problem requiring collective regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, developing-country governments see little reason to prioritise the issue over others.

- Navroz K. Dubash

After all, the rich, industrialised countries who contributed disproportionately to the problem are themselves backing away from decarbonisation and climate-finance commitments, while low-income countries bear the brunt of the costs of climate change. Decision-makers in developing countries understandably conclude it may be more rational to hunker down and focus on climate resilience rather than emissions reductions.

But this is not the only way to frame the problem. While climate change undoubtedly poses a global collective-action problem, in practice climate outcomes are shaped by myriad decisions concerning development objectives such as industrial development, urbanisation, job creation, and local pollution management. Because late developers often have not entirely locked into energy systems, transport infrastructure, urbanisation plans, and energy consumption patterns, they have greater flexibility to steer investment and consumption choices toward lower-carbon and climate-resilient options.

In other words, the climate challenge can be framed as a choice among alternative development pathways. In many cases, development choices are also climate choices, and in a world where being a low-carbon economy confers a competitive edge, the absence of structural lock-in could become an advantage.

Pursuing a climate-as-development approach is not easy or foolproof: It requires considerable state capacity, strategy-setting capabilities, and full mobilisation of the necessary technologies and finance. Importantly, it does not negate concerns about climate equity. Developing countries may opt to pursue the climate-as-development opportunity, but rich countries that disproportionately caused the problem remain on the hook to support this transition. Yet, this perspective offers an alternative to the zero-sum framing of climate policy and a basis for nationally specific visions.