Theoretical Analysis of the Relationship Between Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Abstract

The adoption of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has made the relationship between climate change and sustainable development a centre of interest for researchers. This work aims to analyse the theoretical dimensions that govern this relationship. For that reason, a systematic literature review was conducted following the PRISMA protocol, based on 17 selected peer-reviewed scientific papers. Content analysis was carried out using QualCoder software; the analysis reveals that the climate change–sustainable development relationship is overwhelmingly framed by the conceptual dyad of synergies and trade-offs (n=53 occurrences in a text passage) and systematically co-occurs in the same passages (n=16 co-occurrences). Furthermore, the code integration appears (n=15 occurrences) and is situated in opposition to the code separation. The relationship is primarily framed at local and national spatial scales. Additionally, concrete policy and research operationalisation have no occurrences in the text. Finally, the moderate quality of the selected articles, the limited size of the corpus, and the fact that the coding was performed individually are limitations of the study. This work represents an integrated conceptual mapping of the theoretical relationship; it adopts a coding framework that distinguishes it from previous work

JEL Classification: Q54, Q01, Q56

Paper type: systematic literature review with a theoretical focus