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The history of Climate and Development

Climate and Development is published in cooperation with Stockholm Environment Institute.

There is now incontrovertible evidence that climate change is happening, and that both its cause and its impacts are tightly linked with human development. Over the past decades climate change has increasingly been framed as a development issue, as well as an environmental concern. Climate and Development is the first journal dedicated explicitly to the links between climate variability, climate change and climate policy on the one hand, and development needs, impacts and priorities on the other.

The plans for Climate and Development originate from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, which was published in 2007. The report contains several chapters that assess climate change in the context of development, as well as regional chapters on Africa, Asia, Latin America and Small Islands. In preparing these chapters, the authors were struck by two issues: (i) there is no single journal in which relevant papers are published, and (ii) most of the relevant papers were written by experts from the developed world.

Climate and Development aims to address both issues. First, its Aims & Scope bring together research interests that were previously dispersed over a range of different journals focusing on either climate change or development. The members of its editorial board have been carefully selected to represent the full spectrum of conceptual, policy-analytical and empirical studies of the interactions between climate impacts, mitigation, adaptation and development on scales from the local to global.

Second, the journal actively encourages submissions from developing-country experts. For example, it has introduced a manuscript category 'case studies', which allows for the publication of project results without presenting them in a theoretical framework. These project results might otherwise only be published in an internal project document and remain invisible for others, including IPCC authors. In addition, the journal has initiated a capacity-building activity known as 'writeshops', which provide training and mentoring to developing-country experts with limited experience in academic publishing.

The first issue of Climate and Development came out in March 2009. It was well received and was followed by a large number of new submissions, securing sufficient material to continue publication at least four times a year. By 2018, it has grown to 8 issues a year.

The publication of Climate and Development is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Stockholm Environment Institute, which also hosts the editorial office. Collaboration with the Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) provides contact with a large network of developing-country experts, and is key in the organisation of the writeshops.