scholarly journals Climate Justice, the Global South and Policy Preferences of Kenyan Environmental NGOs

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Todd Beer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Global South ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Greenhouse Gasses ◽  
Environmental Ngos ◽  
Global North ◽  
Global Agreement

Negotiations for a global agreement to address climate change have often pitted the nations of the heavily industrialized Global North against the nations of the developing Global South. The Global North has tended to emphasize the common responsibilities of all nations to reduce emissions while nations of the Global South have tended to place more emphasis on the differentiated responsibilities. The Global North-South negotiating positions are derived from the inequality in: the historical and current emissions of greenhouse gasses, the emerging consequences of climate change, and the geo-political negotiating power between nation-states. However, these broad sweeping categories miss diverse goals and policy preferences among civil society actors within nations. Through in-depth, in-person interviews, this research documents the surprisingly strong presence of Global North policy preferences among the field of Kenyan environmental NGOs – a field that is significantly divided among the “climate justice” policy priorities strongly associated with nations of the Global South and “emissions reductions for all” priorities associated with nations the Global North. Qualitative data captures the rationale of KENGOs for the respective policy script preferences. Utilizing the nation-state as a unit of analysis would miss this variation among civil society actors within the Global South, variation that demonstrates the complex interaction between the diffusion of global policies and domestic social contexts.

scholarly journals Governing Net Zero Carbon Removals to Avoid Entrenching Inequities

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Healey ◽  
Robert Scholes ◽  
Penehuro Lefale ◽  
Pius Yanda
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Global North ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Interdisciplinary Effort ◽  
Global Agreement

Climate change embeds inequities and risks reinforcing these in policies for climate change remediation. In particular, with policies designed to achieve “net zero” carbon dioxide, offsets may be considered inequitable if seen to avoid or delay gross emission reductions; offsets to emissions through technologically mature methods of carbon dioxide removals (CDR) require natural resources at scales threatening food security; knowledge of the potential of immature CDR is largely a global north monopoly; and CDR in particular environments is ill-understood and its implications for development unexamined. The use of CDR to contribute to robust progress toward Paris climate goals requires global agreement on simultaneously reducing emissions and enhancing removals, equity in burden sharing, and an interdisciplinary effort led by individual jurisdictions and focused on the co-development of technologies and governance to create CDR portfolios matched to local needs.

Improving Climate Change Resilience in Global South Cities Through South-South Climate Finance

2022 ◽  
pp. 440-448
Author(s):  
Dumisani Chirambo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Global South ◽  
Climate Finance ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Global North ◽  
Community Science

Climate change is likely to exacerbate inequality and poverty in Global South cities despite the presence of international agreements and conventions to enhance sustainable development such as the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, replicating Global North development models in the Global South might not be sufficient to address the climate change and development aspirations in the context of Asia; hence, Global North innovation capabilities might not be sufficient to address Global South climate change challenges. This paper provides an inductive analysis of the innovations and policies that could facilitate improved climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of developing Asian cities. The paper concludes that innovative climate change policies should utilise emerging climate finance mechanisms such as South-South climate finance modalities to promote community science/citizen science and social innovation rather than building hard infrastructure as this could improve the governance and distribution of resources in cities.

scholarly journals Climate Change Litigation in the Global South: Filling in Gaps

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
Joana Setzer ◽  
Lisa Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Global South ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Homogenous Group ◽  
The Relationship

New scholarship has identified trends, constraints, and opportunities for climate litigation in the Global South. While countries in the Global South tend to experience a lack of capacity within government agencies, civil society, and the judiciary, the Global South is not a homogenous group. Where climate litigation has been identified, the judiciary is often implementing government policy prescriptions in the absence of detailed climate legislation or filling enforcement gaps. But there are also a number of countries where climate litigation is not taking place or where gaps exist between ongoing litigation and traditional definitions of climate litigation. The scholarship is yet to further explore the relationship between climate legislation and litigation in the Global South, in particular in circumstances where ripe policy and legislative conditions for climate litigation exist. Taking into account different regional and national experiences, this essay explores that relationship.

scholarly journals Just Transition at the Intersection of Labour and Climate Justice Movements: Lessons from the Portuguese Climate Jobs Campaign

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrislain Eric Kenfack
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Key Words Climate Change ◽  
Global North ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The One ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
Political Economic

In the current context of climate change and its accompanying adverse effects on natural, human and social systems, the imperative of transitioning to low- and preferably post-carbon societies has become a non-negotiable reality if we want to avoid reaching the point of no return in terms of environmental and climate catastrophe. Such a transition requires that the interests and needs of workers and their communities be taken into consideration to make sure they do not bear the heaviest part of the burden in terms of loss of jobs and means of survival, and that they are prepared to face the new, post-carbon labour environment. The concept of Just Transition was coined to describe both the socio-political project put forward by trade unions in response to climate change, and the recognition by climate activists that the livelihoods and security of workers and their communities must be ensured during the transition to a post-carbon society. However, just transition movements are divided between two quite different orientations, which are labelled “affirmative” and “transformative.” On the one hand, affirmative just transition advocates envisage a transition within the current political-economic system. Transformative just transition activists, on the other hand, envisage a post-capitalist transition. This article, drawing upon an extensive case study of the Portuguese climate jobs campaign, goes beyond showing how these orientations shape the positions taken by union and climate activists. The article also analyses how the conflicts and cooperation between these key actors can shed light on the possibilities and/or limitations of just transition as a framework for the collective action needed to achieve rapid, deep decarbonisation of economies in the Global North context. KEY WORDS: climate change; just transition; labour environmentalism; climate jobs; climate justice; climate activism

Governance Hotspots

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia Sassen
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Young People ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Global South ◽  
National System ◽  
Terrorist Activity ◽  
Global North ◽  
Extreme Responses

Moving on after September 11 will require more than just eliminating organized terrorist networks and providing humanitarian aid, crucial as these two interventions are. There is a much larger landscape of multiple devastations in the global south that the global north cannot escape. While socio-economic devastation may not cause terrorism directly, it does promote extreme responses, such as trafficking in people, and can facilitate recruitment of young people for terrorist activity, both random and organized. These multiple devastations need to be addressed - by world and country leaders, by the supra-national system, by NGOs, by global civil society, by corporate economic actors. The article confines itself to the need for governments' action through new specialized multilateralisms and internationalisms. It argues that we can even make a narrow utilitarian case that it is in the global north's interest to address these issues. The particular cases through which the argument is developed are the growing hyper-indebtedness in the global south and the accumulation of contradictions in the immigration regime prevalent in the global north. Examining these is a way of dissecting the nature of the challenge and identifying specific governance deficits.

Group Companies and Climate Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Global South ◽  
Company Law ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Corporate Group ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Global North ◽  
Group Structures ◽  
Parent Companies

Abstract A string of corporate litigation cases in the United Kingdom highlights the role of corporate group structures in complicating efforts to impose liability on parent companies for the activities of their subsidiaries, particularly where those subsidiaries are located in the Global South. Corporate group structures serve to insulate parent companies against liability for actions of their subsidiaries. This is the case even where economic benefits accrue to parent companies, which are often incorporated in the Global North. These group structures cabin liability for environmental and climate harms within subsidiary companies through reliance on company law principles such as limited liability and separate legal personality. These company law principles allow parent companies to enjoy corporate profits from the activities of their subsidiaries but disavow liability for any environmental damage resulting from such activities. This dichotomy has obvious equity implications, which are exacerbated in the extractive industries and in the context of climate change. Negative climate impacts are and will be felt predominantly in the Global South. In addition, environmental damage removes avenues of climate adaptation for vulnerable populations. But company law principles are not impervious to these equity challenges. These principles have never been absolute and courts have consistently found exceptions to them, although those exceptions have fluctuated in effectiveness and frequency over the years. Recent decisions by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in the United Kingdom imposed duties on parent companies for environmental damage caused by their subsidiaries. Cases following the decision in Chandler v Cape Industries illustrate tension between company law as interpreted in the Global North, and climate and environmental justice as experienced in the Global South. Climate change forces a reconceptualization of company law, including transnational corporate liability. This paper argues that these reconsiderations are not only appropriate, but given the contested histories of many of these companies in the Global South, long overdue.

Changing Climate and Reparatory Justice

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-61
Author(s):  
Clara Rachel Eybalin Casseus
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Transnational Literature ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Management Of Resources ◽  
Neoliberal Policies ◽  
Effective Use

In this chapter, the author draws on transnational literature on displacement by challenging its overemphasis on identities. In contrast, it argues for a deeper engagement of new mobility patterns and other routes that have emerged in localities often situated apart that have not been fully analysed together thus far. Further, an analysis of consequence of neoliberal policies through the use of civil society organisations (CSOs) versus a more effective use of the politics of decentralization contributes to increasing the understanding of both the mechanisms that reproduce (mis)management of resources and the constant marginalisation of constructive endogenous forces to address reparatory justice under the threat of climate change. From Abricots (Haiti) to Beirut (Lebanon), putting in dialogue regions that barely interact in the literature is intended to motivate future studies on the emerging connections between memory, long-distance civic engagement, South-South cooperation, and claims for restorative climate justice.

Cultural Sociology and Civil Society in a World of Flows: Recapturing Ambiguity, Hybridity, and the Political

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianpaolo Baiocchi
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Cultural Sociology ◽  
Global South ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Location ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberal Societies ◽  
Global North

This article “provincializes” cultural sociology and more specifically, the cultural sociology of politics and civil society. It first traces the origins of what is distinctive about the cultural sociology of civil society before discussing its three unspoken assumptions: the assumption of minimal stateness in the lives and worlds of social movements and civil society, the relation between civil and civilized, and the notion that the social location of the political in nonliberal societies might be different than in established liberal societies. It then explains how loosening these assumptions might make cultural sociology travel “better” and cites examples referring to civil society in places in the Global South. Finally, it examines some of the implications of these arguments for the Global North.

scholarly journals Tackling Climate Change in the Global South: An Analysis of the Global Methane Initiative Multilateral Partnership

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 168-175
Author(s):  
Llewellyn Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Administrative Support ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global South ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Climate Crisis

Developing countries are suffering most under climate change and global warming. The tragedy is that countries in the global South have contributed limitedly to climate change with the problem caused mainly by the fiscal activity of the northern developed countries. How effective have policy interventions been in tackling the climate crisis and how has civil society responded to tackling risks. By examining the case of the Global Methane Initiative (a multilateral partnership launched in 2010 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency along with thirty-six other countries to generate a voluntary, non-binding agenda for global collaboration to decrease anthropogenic methane releases), along with empirical analysis from projects in developing countries and through correspondence with the Global Methane Initiative Administrative Support Group in 2011, this paper seeks to explore whether the Global Methane Initiative presents a threat or opportunity, including what key strategies may be effective to either block or assist in advancing the process more decisively. How effective has the Global Methane Initiative been in addressing climate change? In addition to providing analyses of the key findings, this paper provides recommendations that may be explored by civil society groups for a common campaign to combat any deficiencies of the Global Methane Initiative.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document