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David Samuel Williams
David Samuel Williams
2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellow

David Samuel Williams was born in Germany to British and Irish parents. David studied for a BSc in Geography at the University of Salford, Manchester, before completing an MSc in Global Transformation and Environmental Change at the University of Hamburg. The focus of his master’s thesis was on assessing the vulnerability of informal settlements to climate change—a project he was able to continue during his PhD. He continues his PhD in Political Science from the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), a scientific entity of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) in Hamburg. His PhD is conducted as part of IMPREX (Improving Predictions and Management of Hydrological Extremes), an EU H2020-funded project with multiple collaborating institutes. This project focuses on assessing and enhancing the capacity of local governance for climate change adaptation in informal settlements and small island states.

Williams has worked with communities particularly affected by climate change in Durban, South Africa, and Mauritius. He is particularly interested in how climate change exacerbates inequality. As part of the Mercator-IPC Fellowship program, he will be assessing the consideration of marginalized communities in the UNFCCC National Adaptation Plan process and how this consideration might be enhanced.

Project: “How National Adaptation Plans Can Address and Consider Vulnerable Communities”

The recent IPCC Special Report on global warming of 1.5°C clearly illustrates the future impacts of climate change, highlighting the urgency of adaptation. As a response to these climate change impacts, the UNFCCC National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) were devised as key mechanisms for implementing adaptation and reducing risks. However, there is still a lack of understanding around how to develop processes that consider vulnerable communities in climate change adaptation practices suitable for NAPs. This is key for Turkey, which if included in the Non-Annex I group of low-income countries, will be required to submit a NAP to the UNFCCC.

Using the city of Istanbul as a case study, this research project aims at bridging this knowledge gap by exploring and assessing existing approaches to climate change adaptation and how these currently address and consider vulnerable communities. It will identify and develop processes for enhancing the consideration of vulnerable communities in climate change adaptation practice suitable for NAPs. This multi-level governance approach will contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of climate change adaptation processes both at the local and at the national level.

A Policy Content Analysis for Evaluating Urban Adaptation Justice in Istanbul

The article, co-authored by 2020/21 Mercator-IPM Climate Change Fellow David Samuel Williams, IPM Senior Scholar and Climate Change Coordinator Ümit Şahin, and former Mercator-IPM Climate Change Fellows Akgün İlhan, Hande Paker and Ethemcan Turhan, was published in the July 2022 issue 136 of Environmental Science and Policy.

Click here to download the document.

Welcoming of the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows

We welcome our 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı, David Samuel Williams, Elena Dück, Jan Schierkolk, Karolína Augustová, Michael Kaeding and Özge Geyik.

Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı | The "Green New Deal for Turkey" to Tackle The Climate Crisis

David Samuel Williams | How National Adaptation Plans Can Address and Consider Vulnerable Communities

Elena Dück | International Cooperation in Education: A Cornerstone of Sustainable Foreign Policy

Jan Schierkolk | Promoting Civic Participation in EU-Turkish Municipal Cooperation

Karolína Augustová | Violent Impacts of EU's Externalization Politics on Refugees' Everyday Mobility in Turkey

Michael Kaeding | Turkey’s (Enhanced) Engagement in EU Agencies: A Potential Membership Substitute Mechanism in a Differentiated European Union

Özge Geyik | Climate Change and Nutritional Sustainability: Aligning Climate Change, Food Production and Public Health Nutrition Targets

The Welcoming of the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows

The Welcoming of the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 19 at The Seed. The event began with welcoming remarks by Yusuf Leblebici, followed by remarks from Fuat Keyman and Michael Schwarz. The event continued with a speech by Mercator-IPC Visiting Senior Fellow Pankaj Mishra and a Q&A section moderated by Senior Scholar Senem Aydın-Düzgit. The speech was followed by a movie screening that introduced the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı, David Samuel Williams, Elena Dück, Jan Schierkolk, Karolína Augustová, Michael Kaeding, and Özge Geyik. 

Please click here to watch the broadcast.

Please click here to watch the speech by Mercator-IPC Visiting Senior Fellow Pankaj Mishra and a Q&A section moderated by Senior Fellow Senem Aydın-Düzgit.