Often there is a wide gap between how uncertainty is understood and experienced from ‘below’ by the lived experiences of local people, how it is conceptualised and represented from ‘above’ by climate scientists and experts and how the ‘middle’ – civil society, NGOs, academics – can  potentially function as brokers between the ‘below’ and ‘above’.

The Research Council of Norway funded project ‘Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation’ sought to bridge the diverse perspectives between the below, middle and above by organising three round tables in Gandhinagar, Mumbai and Kolkata in January 2018, bringing together perspectives and experiences of government officials, academics, practitioners and activists. These built on an earlier round table organised in Oslo in August 2017. The aim was to understand the way climate change and uncertainty are experienced and understood by diverse stakeholders in order to explore ways to foster transformative, socially just and inclusive development to cope with the challenges of climate change uncertainty.

Authors:

Mihir R. Bhatt, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), Ahmedabad
Lyla Mehta, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK and Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway
Shibaji Bose, Policy Influence Research Uptake Consultant, India
Hans Nicolai Adam, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway
Shilpi Srivastava, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK
Upasona Ghosh, Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR), Kolkata
Synne Movik, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway
NC Narayanan, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay
Lars Otto Naess, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK
D. Parthasarathy, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay
Catherine Wilson, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway
Vishal Pathak, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), Ahmedabad