The depoliticization of climate disasters
Unpacking the entanglement of satellites with parametric climate risk insurance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13129237 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Bergsvik (0009-0003-0496-7278, Wageningen University & Research, corresponding author), Sanneke Kloppenburg (0000-0002-2209-3370, Wageningen University & Research) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Pages | 100221-100221 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-12 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Earth System Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2589-8116 • E-ISSN: 2589-8116 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.esg.2024.100221 |
| OpenAlex | W4402481887 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 25 |
Satellites permit (near) real-time visibility of a wide range of environmental conditions, across large areas, and to diverse audiences. In climate risk management, this technology is becoming entangled with parametric insurance technology. In areas with large uninsured populations and scarcity of environmental data, satellite-based parametric insurance is increasingly promoted as an efficient way to provide coverage against extreme weather events. Satellites can facilitate payouts for events like tropical cyclones using environmental proxies (e.g., wind speed) and demographic data, bypassing traditional post-disaster assessments. Using qualitative methods, we investigate how the entanglement impacts the understanding, management and governance of climate disasters. We find that both technologies reduce on-the-ground complexities through how such disasters are perceived, anticipated, and governed. The entanglement intensifies the depoliticization of climate disasters and further compromises climate justice. This development in climate risk governance is crucially relevant to consider in the ongoing Loss and Damage Finance negotiations. • Satellite technology is becoming entangled with parametric insurance technology. • This entanglement shapes how climate risks are seen, understood and addressed. • The entanglement privileges insurance logics above climate justice
Climate change · Geography · Linguistics · Parametric statistics · Physics · Quantum entanglement · Quantum mechanics · Statistics · Unpacking · Mathematics · Space exploration and regulation · Geology · Oceanography
‘From Space to Village’
Beyond depoliticization and divisive antagonism
Reassembling ‘green’ finance scholarship
Is transparency furthering clarity in multilateral climate governance? The case of climate finance
Insuring the reef
Smart adaptation or data colonialism? Interrogating the role of digital technologies in climate adaptation
Quantifying national responsibility for climate breakdown
Scrutinizing environmental governance in a digital age
A portrait of the different configurations between digitally-enabled innovations and climate governance
Digitalizing environmental governance for smallholder participation in food systems
Digitalization between environmental activism and counter-activism
The Legitimacy, Accountability, and Ownership of an Impact-Based Forecasting Model in Disaster Governance
Preempting the next disaster
Smart Earth
Financialisation, Climate Finance, and the Calculative Challenges of Managing Environmental Change
Paying ex gratia
Seeing like a satellite
Rescaling index insurance for climate and development in Africa
The Nature That Capital Can See
Grounding Big Data on Climate-Induced Human Mobility
Rents, Experiments, and the Perpetual Presence of Concessionary Weather Insurance
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |