Climate Justice Flashcards
What are the principles of UNFCCC?
- Stands only on two legs: sustainable development and international law between nations – other two pillars of UN system are not used explicitly in climate change (Peace and Human Rights)
- To pursue more equitable responses to climate change could use UN’s well-established system or perhaps completely use market mechanisms?
What are the three core concerns for climate injustice?
- Uneven distribution of moral and material harms caused by climate change
- Concern over recognition of difference in causal responsibility, capacity of response and relief
- Right to democracy
What is compound injustice?
- Must account for structural harms/violence
- Future generations are harmed by a degraded climate system no matter how fairly greenhouse gas emissions are distributed
- Echoes colonial exploitation that weakens the colonized nation to such an extent that the colonizer can impose unequal treaties upon it even after it gain independence (Shue, 2014)
How is there structural climate injustice?
- Do not start from a position of equality and justice in climate change responses
- Compound injustice -> historical structural issues
- Intensification of climate colonialism
What are the intersecting axis of climate justice?
- Rights vs. responsibilities w/ respect to self-determining ‘peoples’
- Distributive vs. procedural fairness w/respect to social progress
What is US stance on climate justice?
- US favours a fast track for mitigation and a slow track for justice
- Prioritise mitigation measuring for developing nations
- THEN funding for adaption is desirable in order to transition to a green economy
How is enviromental colonialism exhibited by World Resource Institute (WRI)?
- Study that outlined developing countries must share blame for heating up earth and destabilising its climate
Agarwal and Sunita, 1991
What are the critiques of World Resources Institute (WRI)?
- Report being widely quoted and figures used to influence deliberations on global climate convention
- US government to strengthen its position
- WRI report lacks good data and assessments vary enormously especially in regard to Brazil’s deforestation; claims Brazil accounts for half the greenhouse gas emissions for developing countries as a result
Agarwal and Sunita, 1991
How should the Thirld World critique ‘our common future’ philosphy?
- Whose future generates we seeking to protect, the Western World’s or the Third World’s
Agarwal and Sunita, 1991
What is the value of indigenous climate knowledge?
- Values arise from memories, knowledges, histories and experiences of oppression that differ from nonindigenous scientists, environmentalists and politicians who are framing the issue of climate change today
Whyte, 2017
Why is an alternative approach to climate change needed?
- Anthropogenic climate change is an intensification of environmental change imposed on Ingenuous peoples by colonialism
- Renewing Indigenous knowledges can bring together communities to strengthen their own self-determined planning for climate change
- Offers a critical and decolonizing approach to how to address climate change
Whyte, 2017
How is there a gendered form of colonally imposed environmental change?
- Greater accessibility to Arctic region to produce more human security threats, including sex trafficking
- Opening up of Indigenous territories for capitalism and industrialization to occur through gender violence
Whyte, 2017
What is anti politics?
- Decisions without reference to politics but in technical settings
What is Harris’ (2010) alternative to international climate justice
- Harris (2010) argues that international justice must be replaced with cosmopolitan justice where responsibility for emissions acknowledges ‘people’ rather than states
- Overcome misalignment between political geography of climate change and environmental geography
