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.

Who makes the world? Academics and (un)cancelling the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-427
Author(s):  
Leonie Holthaus ◽  
Nils Stockmann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
Homogenous Group ◽  
The Past ◽  
Long Line ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

In this essay, we consider the role of academics as change-makers. There is a long line of reflection about academics’ sociopolitical role(s) in international relations (IR). Yet, our attempt differs from available considerations in two regards. First, we emphasize that academics are not a homogenous group. While some keep their distance from policymakers, others frequently provide policy advice. Hence, positions and possibilities of influence differ. Second, our argument is not oriented towards the past but the future. That is, we develop our reflections on academics as change-makers by outlining the vision of a ‘FutureLab’, an innovative, future forum that brings together different world-makers who are united in their attempt to improve ‘the world'. Our vision accounts for current, perhaps alarming trends in academia, such as debates about the (in)ability to confront post-truth politics. Still, it is a (critically) optimistic one and can be read as an invitation for experimentation. Finally, we sympathize with voices demanding the democratization of academia and find that further cross-disciplinary dialogues within academia and dialogues between different academics, civil society activists and policymakers may help in finding creditable solutions to problems such as climate change and populism.

scholarly journals Sustainability and Politics: Explaining the Emergence of the 2020 Budapest Climate Assembly

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6100
Author(s):  
Daniel Oross ◽  
Eszter Mátyás ◽  
Sergiu Gherghina
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Prime Mover ◽  
Deliberative Process ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between political participation and the pursuit of sustainability at the local level has been investigated extensively in the literature. In this content, the emergence and extensive use of citizens’ assemblies receive particular attention. Much research focuses on the functioning of these assemblies and potential impact in the community. However, we know very little about why such initiatives occur. This article fills that gap in the literature and aims to explain why a citizens’ assembly on climate change was organized. It focuses on the Citizens’ Assembly in Budapest (Hungary), organized in the fall of 2020 with randomly selected citizens. The findings illustrate that although civil society initiated the deliberative process, the prime mover of the Citizens’ Assembly was political. Local politicians pursued this objective to fulfil their election pledges, ensure ideological consistency and promote sustainability.

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.

scholarly journals On the Path to Forced Sobriety: The Church Spearheading the Temperance Movement

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Lal Lawmzuali
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Temperance Movement ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The relationship held with liquor varies from person to person; a dear friend to those habituated to drinking however, a foe to those that lost a husband, a mother, a daughter and a son to liquor addiction, be it through consumption orharm induced by another consumer(s). The case of the Mizo Christians presents a unique construct on the making of a good Christian thoroughly rooted by the British Missionaries. One necessary pre-condition to the making of a good Christian was abstention from their beloved zu implying the renunciation to the ‘thing’ that held a tread that connected them to their cultural past. Thus, making abstention the symbol of the indigenized Christian and the culture left behind. The passing of years had only increased the Church’s aversion to the drink. Government policy enforced in 1973 had caused for such varieties to be introduced in the state. Prior to the introduction of the Mizoram Excise Act, 1973, civil society had done much to curb the proliferation of country liquor. The Mizoram Presbyterian Church in particular had lobbied for ‘total prohibition’ since 1991 which resulted in the enforcement of their objective, leading the reluctant Government to implement ‘forced sobriety’ in the state.

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 Clientelism as Civil Society? Unpacking the Relationship between Clientelism and Democracy at the Local Level in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Anciano
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Global South ◽  
Local State ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Marginalised Groups ◽  
The Relationship

This article, building on analyses from the global south, attempts to reframe democratic expectations by considering where previously maligned practices such as clientelism may hold moments of democracy. It does so by comparing the theory of civil society with that of clientelism, and its African counterpart neo-patrimonialism. It argues that clientelism as civil society may fulfil democratic tasks such as holding the (local) state accountable, strengthening civil and political liberties and providing channels of access for previously marginalised groups. Clientelism is not necessarily a reflection of imposed power relations but, at times, can demonstrate a conscious political strategy, to generate development, on the part of its protagonists.

INTERCONNECTION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMPONENTS FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE NORTH

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
N. N. ILYSHEVA ◽  
◽  
E. V. KARANINA ◽  
G. P. LEDKOV ◽  
E. V. BALDESKU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Ecological Footprint ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
The North ◽  
Strong Positive Relationship ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Relationship

The article deals with the problem of achieving sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between the components of sustainable development, taking into account the involvement of indigenous peoples in nature conservation. Climate change makes achieving sustainable development more difficult. Indigenous peoples are the first to feel the effects of climate change and play an important role in the environmental monitoring of their places of residence. The natural environment is the basis of life for indigenous peoples, and biological resources are the main source of food security. In the future, the importance of bioresources will increase, which is why economic development cannot be considered independently. It is assumed that the components of resilience are interrelated and influence each other. To identify this relationship, a model for the correlation of sustainable development components was developed. The model is based on the methods of correlation analysis and allows to determine the tightness of the relationship between economic development and its ecological footprint in the face of climate change. The correlation model was tested on the statistical materials of state reports on the environmental situation in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra. The approbation revealed a strong positive relationship between two components of sustainable development of the region: economy and ecology.

Protecting Natural Resources

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérémie Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Conservation Of Natural Resources ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Do So

This chapter focuses on the connection between the international legal framework governing the conservation of natural resources and human rights law. The objective is to examine the potential synergies between international environmental law and human rights when it comes to the protection of natural resources. To do so, it concentrates on three main areas of potential convergence. It first focuses on the pollution of natural resources and analyses how human rights law offers a potential platform to seek remedies for the victims of pollution. It next concentrates on the conservation of natural resources, particularly on the interconnection between protected areas, biodiversity, and human rights law. Finally, it examines the relationship between climate change and human rights law, focusing on the role that human rights law can play in the development of the current climate change adaptation and mitigation frameworks.

The Historiography of Environmental History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. McNeill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.

Transnational Social Movements and Peaceful Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Milcíades Peña
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Transnational Social Movements ◽  
Relational Perspective ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Interactive Dynamic ◽  
Dominant Treatment

The chapter discusses the relationship between social movements and peaceful change. First, it reviews the way this relationship has been elaborated in IR constructivist and critical analyses, as part of transnational activist networks, global civil society, and transnational social movements, while considering the blind sides left by the dominant treatment of these entities as positive moral actors. Second, the chapter reviews insights from the revolution and political violence literature, a literature usually sidelined in IR debates about civil society, in order to cast a wider relational perspective on how social movements participate in, and are affected by, interactive dynamic processes that may escalate into violent outcomes at both local and international levels.

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