scholarly journals Editorial: Is There a New Climate Politics?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Anna R. Davies ◽  
Vanesa Castán Broto ◽  
Stephan Hügel

Addressing climate change globally requires significant transformations of production and consumption systems. The language around climate action has shifted tangibly over the last five years to reflect this. Indeed, thousands of local governments, national governments, universities and scientists have declared a climate emergency. Some commentators argue that the emergency framing conveys a new and more appropriate level of urgency needed to respond to climate challenges; to create a social tipping point in the fight against climate change. Others are concerned to move on from such emergency rhetoric to urgent action. Beyond emergency declarations, new spaces of, and places for, engagement with climate change are emerging. The public square, the exhibition hall, the law courts, and the investors’ forum are just some of the arenas where climate change politics are now being negotiated. Emergent governing mechanisms are being utilised, from citizens’ assemblies to ecocide lawsuits. New social movements from Extinction Rebellion to Fridays For Future demonstrate heightened concern and willingness to undertake civil disobedience and protest against climate inaction. Yet questions remain which are addressed in this thematic issue: Are these discourses and spaces of engagement manifestations of a radical new climate politics? And if these are new climate politics, do they mark a shift of gear in current discourses with the potential to effect transformative climate action and support a just transition to a decarbonised world?

Author(s):  
Alcides Huamaní Peralta

<p>Se pretende explicar y analizar las implicancias que ha tenido la inversión pública de los gobiernos locales y el gobierno regional en el Departamento de Puno sobre el desarrollo socioeconómico; en los últimos años<a href="file:///C:/Users/FORTUNATO/Desktop/aptos%20ria%2018n3/8-%20INVERSI%C3%92N%20P%C3%99BLICA%20alcides%20huamani%20peralta.doc#_msocom_1">]</a> , la gestión pública es cuestionado principalmente porque éstas no han mostrado mejoras significativas en el desarrollo socioeconómico a pesar del incremento de recursos. Se ha considerado información anual del 2007 al 2014, referida a gobiernos subnacionales; para el primer objetivo se ha realizado la caracterización de gobiernos locales y gobierno regional; para el segundo objetivo, se analiza las implicancias que tiene la inversión pública sobre el desarrollo socioeconómico, mediante un modelo econométrico. Se ha caracterizado a la gestión de los gobiernos locales y el gobierno regional, encontrando problemas en la ejecución de inversiones, como la falta de calidad en proyectos de inversión, hechos de corrupción, limitadas capacidades de autoridades y funcionarios, y problemas de transparencia y procesos participativos; se ha evidenciado que las inversiones públicas tienen efectos muy limitados o marginales sobre el desarrollo socioeconómico en nuestro departamento, esto se infiere de los resultados del modelo econométrico aplicado. Conforme a la evidencia empírica, los gobiernos subnacionales no han generado mejoras significativas en las condiciones de vida de la población y condiciones favorables para el sector privado.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p align="center"><strong>ABSTRACT.</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>We  try to explain and analyze the implications that had the public investment of local governments and the regional government in the Department of Puno about the socio-economic development; in recent years, was questioned mainly because they have not shown significant improvements in the socio-economic development despite the increase of resources. It has been considered annual information from 2007 to 2014, referring about sub-national governments; for the first objective it has been taken characterization of local government and regional government; for the second objective, it has been analized the implications that has the public investment on the socio-economic development, using an econometric model. It has been characterized the management local governments and regional government, finding problems in the execution of investments, such as the lack of quality in investment projects, acts of corruption, limited capacities of authorities and civil servants, and problems of transparency and participatory processes;  this shows that public investments have very limited or marginal effects on the socio-economic development in our department, this is the conclussion  from the results of the applied econometric model. According to the empiric evidence, sub-national governments have not generated significant improvements in population’s  living conditions and favourable conditions for the private sector.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Key words: public management, private investment, standard of living.<strong></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>


Author(s):  
Saurabh Thakur

Anthropogenic climate change has emerged as the most disruptive socio-political issue in the last few decades. The Kyoto Protocol’s failure to curb the rising greenhouse gases emissions pushed the UNFCCC-led negotiations towards a more flexible, non-binding agreement at the Paris COP21 meeting in 2015. The Paris Agreement’s hybrid approach to climate change governance, where flexible measures like the nationally determined commitments are balanced against the ambition of limiting the global temperature within the two-degree range, ensured the emergence of an increasingly complex and multi-stakeholder climate change regime. The article outlines the roadmap of the transition from the top-down approach of Kyoto Protocol to the legally non-binding, bottom-up approaches adopted for the post-Paris phase. The article outlines the post-Paris developments in international climate politics, which hold long-term geopolitical and geoeconomic implications. The article focuses on the fundamental shifts and balances within the UNFCCC architecture and examines the four fundamental features of this transition—the interpretation of differentiation and common but differentiated responsibilities, the evolving role of emerging economies in the negotiations, the rising profile of non-party stakeholders in shaping the climate action strategies and the emergence of climate justice movements as an alternate site of climate action.


Author(s):  
Loren R. Cass

Climate politics presents difficulties for study given its interdisciplinary nature and the scientific complexities involved in climate change. Climate change politics had got its start in the mid- to late 1980s, as climate science became more and more accessible to policy makers and the general public. Yet prior to 2008, climate politics was only touched upon in major publications on international relations, with the exception of policy journals. Climate change was frequently referenced in articles on a range of topics, but it was not the primary focus of analysis. The recent years have seen an explosion in literature focusing on the topic, however. The potential for massive economic, political, and ecological dislocation from the consequences of climate change as well as from the potential policies to address the problem have since resulted in an extensive literature, with scholars addressing aspects of climate politics from every paradigm within international relations, as well as drawing on research in numerous other related disciplines. In addition, efforts to address the consequences of climate change have evoked controversial ethical and distributive justice questions that have produced an important normative literature. Overall, the literature on climate politics centers on two issues: how we can explain the international political response to climate change, as well as how the international community should respond to climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Ursin ◽  
Linn C. Lorgen ◽  
Isaac Arturo Ortega Alvarado ◽  
Ani-Lea Smalsundmo ◽  
Runar Chang Nordgård ◽  
...  

In the fall of 2019, Trøndelag County Council, Norway, organized a Climate Workshop for children and youth. The intention of the workshop was to include children’s and youth’s perspectives as a foundation for a policy document titled “How we do it in Trøndelag. Strategy for transformations to mitigate climate change”. The workshop involved a range of creative and discussion tools for input on sustainable development and climate politics. In this article, we aim to (1) describe and discuss innovative practices that include children and youth in policymaking related to climate action, and (2) discuss the theoretical implications of such policymaking in relation to children’s rights, young citizenship, and intergenerational justice. We employ a generational framework and perceive climate politics as inherently ingrained in intergenerational justice, where no generation has a superior claim to the earth’s resources, yet power is unfairly concentrated and accumulated among adult generations. We draw on contributions by various stakeholders involved: Two young workshop participants, two county council policymakers, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Childhood Studies and Design.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Markus Lederer

The idea of a green deal transforming industrialized societies’ climate policies in a sustainable manner has become highly popular in various countries. The study takes up this notion focusing on climate policy initiatives in Canada and the EU, raising three interrelated issues: (i) on a descriptive level, the study asks where we stand and what has so far been achieved regarding climate policy; (ii) analytically, the study provides a theoretical explanation of why progress has been slow in the EU and hardly visible in Canada, making use of the concept of carbon democracy; (iii) on a prescriptive level, the study explores what will be needed to make a green deal successful, arguing that one has to accept that a green deal is a deeply political project that will create winners and losers and that not all losers can be compensated under the label of a “just transition”. The argument advanced is that the EU and Canada represent a form of carbon democracy in which the extensive use of carbon laid the foundation for establishing democratic institutions and strongly shaped them. The paper shows that the extensive influence of carbon-related activities not only empowers specific non-state agents but is rather deeply enmeshed in the societal and political genome of both regions’ polities. The claim that follows is that climate politics in Canada and the EU will have to be deeply transformative and therefore disruptive in order to be successful.  


Author(s):  
Sunil Tankha ◽  
Denise Fernandes ◽  
N.C. Narayanan

Purpose This paper aims to report on a case in which encouraging climate-smart agriculture in the form of better irrigation techniques in India can contribute to both climate change mitigation and adaptation goals by improving resource-use efficiency. It provides grounded institutional analysis on how these transformations can occur. Design/methodology/approach The authors based their research on three complementary approaches: institutional, sociological and technical. The institutional approach analyzed actors and interests in the water-energy nexus in India via over 25 semi-structured key informant interviews. The sociological approach surveyed over 50 farmers and equipment suppliers for insight into technology adoption. The technical component analyzed water and energy consumption data to calculate potential benefits from transitioning to more efficient techniques. Findings Because policymakers have a preference for voluntary policy instruments over coercive reforms, distortions in policy and market arenas can provide opportunities for embedded actors to leverage technology and craft policy bargains which facilitate Pareto superior reforms and, thereby, avoid stalemates in addressing climate change. Enlarging the solution space to include more actors and interests can facilitate such bargains more than traditional bilateral exchanges. Practical implications The analysis provides insights into crafting successful climate action policies in an inhospitable institutional terrain. Originality/value Studies about climate change politics generally focus on stalemates and portray the private sector as resistant and a barrier to climate action. This paper analyzes a contrary phenomenon, showing how reforms can be packaged in Pareto superior formats to overcome policy stalemates and generate technology-based climate and environmental co-benefits in even unpromising terrain such as technologically laggard and economically constrained populations.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jale Tosun ◽  
Lucas Leopold

A growing number of cities in different world regions are forming transnational networks in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In this study, we are interested in the nexus between climate change and urban water management. How do transnational city networks for climate action perceive urban water management? What kind of activities do they adopt for improving urban water management? How effective are these in practice? This study maps 17 transnational city networks that primarily work on climate governance, assesses whether they formally embrace urban water management as a field of activity, and analyzes the extent to which they influence local climate action regarding water-related issues. Our descriptive analysis reveals that the great majority of transnational city networks has embraced goals related to urban water management, mostly framed from the perspective of adaptation to climate change. However, our in-depth analysis of two frontrunner cities in Germany shows that membership in ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) has only limited influence on the initiation and implementation of water-related policy measures.


2021 ◽  
pp. 027046762110496
Author(s):  
Kelvin Zhanda ◽  
Munyaradzi A Dzvimbo ◽  
Leonard Chitongo

This article is based on a distinctive study that seeks to analyse the nascent role of teenagers’ activism and protests for climate change action. With the increasing realisation of children's rights to participation, the past few years have marked the rise of the new dispensation of climate activism and protests in which teenagers have occupied the centre stage. We pay specific reference to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish child climate activist, in as much as she can set a framework upon which Africa can draw parallels, lessons and insights for climate activism and protests. Even though the context may be different, the paper attempts to inform vibrant climate action through activism by children and ultimately climate policies, laws and management for environmental sustainability in Africa. We engaged document review and thematic approaches, and it emerged that children climate activism and protests in Africa are not as vibrant as they should be given the prevalence of climate inaction across the continent. Therefore, there is much to learn from Thunberg by pushing national governments and regional organisations to increase the decision-making space of children in the fight against climate change.


Author(s):  
Taku Maji ◽  
Rashida Ather

The problem of Climate Change has become an enormous political and policy issue, at the same time it is also a conceptual and deliberative challenge. Global temperature is increasing day by day because of human caused greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, and this warming is affecting both nature and human wellbeing. There is an urgent need to address the problem of climate change with all its related issues. While international environmental law has achieved notable successes and International legal programs to deal with climate change are already well underway. Indian climate politics continues to be focused on climate change as a foreign policy concern, and centred on climate negotiations; in a manner that is consistent with India’s development needs and foreign policy concerns. The present paper explores the international climate change politics; negotiation process and domestic policy. It also investigates the issues of fairness and equity in the international climate change law and policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixi Yang ◽  
Mark C. J. Stoddart

This article provides an empirical study of public engagement with climate change discourse in China by analysing how Chinese publics participate in the public discussion around two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and how individual users interact with state and elite actors on the pre-eminent Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Using social network analysis methods and a temporal comparison, we examine the structure of climate communication networks, the direction of information flows among multiple types of Weibo users, and the changes in information diffusion patterns between the pre- and post-Paris periods. Our results show there is an increasing yet constrained form of public engagement in climate communication on Weibo alongside China’s pro-environmental transition in recent years. We find an expansion of public engagement as shown by individual users’ increasing influence in communication networks and the diversification of frames associated with climate change discourse. However, we also find three restrictive interaction tendencies that limit Weibo’s potential to facilitate multi-directional communication and open public deliberation of climate change, including the decline of mutually balanced dialogic interactions, the lack of bottom-up information flows, and the reinforcement of homophily tendencies amongst eco-insiders and governmental users. These findings highlight the coexistence of both opportunities and constraints of Weibo being a venue for public engagement with climate communication and as a forum for a new climate politics and citizen participation in China.


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