Climate change and development cooperation: trends and questions

In recent years, the literature and politics in the traditionally distinct development and climate change cooperation fields are recommending a merger between these fields. The development cooperation literature and politics suggest incorporating climate change into development cooperation; and the climate change literature and politics suggest better links with development cooperation. Six arguments support this shift in perspective (logical, financial, practical, developing country, stakeholder, and reporting arguments), while six arguments justify delinking these discussions (different paths to development, political sensitivity, resources needed, changing target group, global effectiveness, and the conditionality arguments). This paper concludes that while development and climate change are closely linked, there are strong reasons to argue against mainstreaming climate change into development cooperation under current political circumstances.