ABSTRACT
The world is ramping up its actions toward combating human-induced climate change. Through the COP processes, national governments have committed to a wide variety of mitigation and adaptation actions through their NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) to emissions reduction. While actions are to be primarily taken at national level, it is made clear that ‘parties may use internationally transferred mitigation outcomes to achieve NDCs’ (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement). This opens a path for such things as carbon-market development, biofuels production and other forms of green energy and green economy development. While national actions plans and programs are intended to yield multiple benefits to humans and nature – i.e. 'climate security' – failure to adapt to or mitigate the hypothesized effects of climate change is forecast to result in dramatic social and environmental instability, including mass migration and resource-related violent conflict. While effects will be felt unevenly both within and among states and regions, the overall outcome is anticipated to be negative
In this chapter we introduce ‘the boomerang effect’, defined here as the emergence of largely unanticipated and unintended negative consequences of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and programmes on domestic non-state actors that result in negative feedbacks on the state. By 'state', we mean government actors taking decisions as representatives of the state. The chapter has three objectives. First, to contribute directly to theory by articulating a framework for analysing one particular aspect of maladaptation, that is 'the boomerang effect'. Second, to present an overview of the chapters in this collection reflecting on the real and potential unanticipated and unintended negative effects at the local level (local level side effects ‒ LLSEs) and at the state level (state level boomerang effects ‒ SLBEs). Third, to draw lessons from the cases for research, policy and practice.
