Climate Change and Social Protection (CCASP) Research Initiative

This note summarises the findings from a series of ‘Blue Skies’ discussions on the issue of climate change and social protection, convened in June 2024, when over 50 social protection, humanitarian and climate experts came together to explore key questions about climate change challenges facing the social protection sector, focusing on five areas: programme design; operational systems; financing; policy alignment; and rights, mandates and institutions, the critical issues identified in a 2023 paper by Costella and McCord.  The note summarises the discussion around each of these areas, setting out the questions explored, the issues raised by participants, and the options put forward for addressing these issues, in relation to future programming, research and advocacy. The note is intended to serve as a thought piece, to spark critical engagement on the issues that institutions and actors working on social protection need to address in order to develop a timely and effective response to the climate challenge.

Prepared for FCDO to provide guidance to practitioners working on social protection, and specifically to:

• Highlight the relevance of climate change to social protection and explain why it is important to consider climate change as part of
• Present ideas for integrating climate change considerations into social protection policy and programming.
• Point to relevant resources on climate change and social protection.

In the report, published in early December 2023, my colleague Cecilia Costella and I argue that, while social protection has the potential to play an important role in helping to manage climate challenges and enable the structural changes required to achieve a green transition, existing social protection systems will need significant transformation in terms of scale and design.

This mapping sets out key current and recent initiatives by the main international actors taking forward the climate change and social protection agenda. It sets out the focus areas of the bi and multi-lateral donor agencies and UN agencies currently leading work on social protection and climate change and the work they are involved in to take forward the climate and social protection agenda, with links to key initiatives, publications and events, but is not an exhaustive listing of all activity in the sector. It is intended to inform and support the development of social protection programming and policy which will accommodate to the growing challenge of climate change. It is one of three outputs financed by the FCDO and produced by STAAR, the other two being a checklist for the integration of climate change into social protection programming and set of potential programming entry points to take forward the climate and social protection discourse.

This report looks at the role of social protection in relation carbon change mitigation, a series of guidance outputs for the FCDO on Climate and Social Protection through the STAAR initiative, including a Mapping of Key Stakeholder initiatives published in November 2023, and a Thematic Guidance Note and Quick Tips note on social protection the environment and climate change for the European Commission.