Politics Of Climate Change Research Articles

Ethiopian Federalism: Philosophical and Institutional Design Limitations and a Case for Loose Federalism

Abstract This article attempts to answer the question: is Ethiopian federalism sustainable? Once deemed a thought vanguard of building Ethiopia as a new ‘multi-national’ state, existing philosophical and institutional design limitations are increasingly making its sustainability problematic amidst the revival of its rival alternatives-unitarism and secessionism. This article argues for re-inventing the system in the spirit of loose federalism, ensuring its continued relevance to the fast changing political climate in Ethiopia. To this end, it calls for a robust revisit, re-negotiation and redesign of i) distribution of self-rule and shared rule powers, ii) vertical and horizontal inter-governmental relations, and iii) House of Federation of the system. A central challenge is how to secure sufficient political trust between the federal and regional governments and among the regional governments of the federation. This requires a ‘workable platform and rules of the game’ for running a smooth grand elite bargaining process.

Contemporary Influences on the Role of Imams in Britain: A Critical Analysis of Leadership and Professionalisation for the Imamate in 21st Century Britain

This article is based on the findings from a research project, referred to hereafter as #ImamsBritain, commenced with a series of discussions with Imams in the north of England. The role of the Imam has undergone far-reaching changes over the last thirty years chiefly due to the changing socio-economic and political climate, which in turn has directly affected the needs of Muslim communities. Consequently, Imams are now seen as professionals who need a wider range of pastoral care skills that go beyond those of their traditional role, which was mainly focused on religious teaching and spiritual guidance, The second stage of the data analysis for the research involved the exploratory Group Delphi technique, in which the Imam respondents underwent the processes of two critical reflections on the data collected. The resultant findings reflect their individual perceptions of the kind of training and development they need. This provides a unique framework for constructing a professional guide for Imams in Great Britain. The discussions and critical analyses in this paper draw on the discourses of professionalisation and pastoral care and relevant reports and reviews on Imam training in Europe and Canada.

Meeting the challenges of food-energy-water systems in typical mega-urban regions from final demands and supply chains: A case study of the Bohai mega-urban region, China

The safety of food-energy-water (FEW) systems in mega-urban regions (MURs) is an urgent issue for achieving regional sustainable development. However, with the rapid growth of the population, the economy and urbanization and uncertainty inherent in climate change and international politics, FEW systems in MURs face tremendous challenges not only because of increasing demands and inadequate resources but also because of the dependence on imports from other regions. Therefore, it is essential to identify the critical connections and change features in FEW systems from economic actions to better meet these challenges. Taking the Bohai MUR as a case study, this study explores FEW changes embodied in trade, final demands and supply chains during 2002–2012 and identifies important nodes and critical supply chains by combining a three-scale input-output (IO) model with structural path analysis (SPA). The results show that FEW flows embodied in trade were significantly increased during the 10 years. The Bohai MUR turned from a net importer to a net exporter in embodied food and energy from 2002 to 2012. In final demands, the ratios of consumption and investment in embodied FEW obviously decreased, but exports increased significantly. Exports were always the largest consumer of embodied FEW, and urban households also consumed them. The top 20 critical supply chains from the final demands to the upstream production sectors for food, energy and water systems in 2002 and 2012 are listed. One and three common routes in the top 5 critical supply chains strongly impact embodied FEW. The common critical routes of each subsystem in time are also identified. Embodied FEW change factors and coping strategies are explored as well. This study will help stakeholders make responsible production and consumption decisions to improve the resilience of FEW systems and achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the mega-urban scale.

The Chineseness of Urban Cultural Policy in Taiwan

ABSTRACT The narrative of Chinese culture occupied the central position in Taiwan’s cultural policy agenda after the Kuomintang (KMT) retreated to the island in 1949, but the primary (if not exclusive) focus on Chinese culture became contentious after democratisation and bentuhua (“Taiwanisation”) in the late 1980s. This prompted the KMT to redesign and renegotiate its cultural policy objectives in accordance with the changing political climate. Nevertheless, as shown in this article, these revisions were not as extensive or as progressive as one might have anticipated. This study examines the roles and meanings attached to Chinese culture by the KMT in the context of urban cultural policy. Drawing on interviews with local policymakers and policy document analysis, it explores cultural policy in Taipei during the KMT’s incumbency in the city (1998–2014), arguing that despite the adoption of multiculturalism and bentuhua narratives at the national and municipal levels of government, the KMT’s version of Chinese culture continued to dominate cultural policy discourse in Taipei until as late as 2014.

Conceptualising uncertainty and the role of the teacher for a politics of climate change within and beyond the institution of the school

ABSTRACT This predominantly conceptual paper explores “uncertainty”: it foregrounds students engaged with climate change, in all its socio-political and more-than-human complexity, as political subjects within and beyond the school. It combines conceptual work on Rancièrian political philosophy with empirical work on teaching climate change in a range of schools in the Southeast of England. The paper makes the case for the educational importance of engaging with a Rancièrian logic of politics as a democratic mode of twenty-first century existential engagement. This takes seriously citizenship as a dynamic of schooling, which occurs through momentary rupture that can never be fully pre-determined or foreclosed. The paper applies ideas of a “thing-centred pedagogy” to pay deep attention to the unbounded subject matter of climate change. It explores how such an approach opens the scope of engaging with issues of adapting to, and living with, the ontological uncertainties of human-induced climate change, including the tensions and complexities of how to act within and beyond the school. This includes political subjectification as transformation, by which students (and teachers) take up their freedom to act. The paper integrates interviews with nine teaching staff working with students aged between 4–18 years-of-age, including in local authority controlled schools, academies and the private sector. While the fieldwork was conducted in England, its conceptual emphasis has international relevance, focusing as it does on a politics of schooling for global climate change.

From Kyoto to Paris and Beyond: The Emerging Politics of Climate Change

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.

Imaginary lock-ins in climate change politics: the challenge to envision a fossil-free future

ABSTRACT Various path dependencies and carbon lock-ins prevent ambitious climate action. In this study, we develop and apply the concept of imaginary lock-ins, or the challenge to envision a decarbonized future beyond the status quo of a fossil-dependent society. We propose a typology of competing imaginaries attached to climate action. Specifically, we distinguish between techno-optimism, ecological modernization, disruptive innovations, and system change. We then explore these competing imaginaries for the case of Sweden. The country plans to become the world’s first fossil-free welfare state by 2045. Based on documents, interviews with stakeholders inside and outside the multi-stakeholder initiative Fossil Free Sweden, and an interview series with all major Swedish party leaders, we illuminate the contested imaginaries of a fossil-free future. While techno-optimism and ecological modernization largely suppress more radical or transformative imaginaries, imaginary lock-ins allow us to assess the potentials and limitations of an initiative to orchestrate climate action.

The Politics of Climate Change and the Rising Demand for Global Energy in the 21st Century

Established that most governments prefer to boost global energy supply because it improves economies and translates to gainful employment for citizens, the rising global demand for energy from various sectors continues to trigger unprecedented consequences on the environment, resulting in hazardous implications. Hence, scientists argue that the rising demand for global energy by industrialized nations increases the vulnerability of persons and polities where these energy and mineral resources abound. Consequently, governments, multinationals, etc. are at a crossroads regarding how best to address this dilemma. Creswell's mix-method research deign and Merlyn's ex-post facto research methods for analyzing qualitative and quantitative data previously obtained from similar studies were used for attaining the objectives of the research. The study identified troubling and high-level politicking at play in most affected countries. Recommendations geared towards addressing the dilemmas emanating from the rising global demand for energy by governments and scholars were proffered.

The Policy and Politics of Climate Change in California: The Integration of Environment and Economy

캘리포니아는 환경과 경제의 통합적 접근을 통하여 가장 선도적이고 성공적인 기후변화 정책을 수행해왔다. 그러한 통합은 환경 보호에 대한 정치적 지지 세력을 창출하는 효과를 가져왔으며 확장된 지지층은 실효성 있는 정책의 수립, 정책 수행의 효과, 지속가능성, 성공 가능성을 높였다. 그리고 지지층이 더욱 강력한 기후변화 정책을 다시 지지하는 선순환적 환류 현상이 반복되었던 것이다. 통합적 접근은 대기오염 정책에서 시작하여 본격적인 온실가스 감축, 재생에너지 사용 확대, 에너지 효율성 향상이라는 환경 목표의 달성과 녹색 산업 성장과 그에 따른 고용 창출이라는 경제적 성과를 설명하는 가장 중요한 요인이다. 캘리포니아에서는 선도적 통합적 접근을 가능케 했던 캘리포니아적 특수성들이 존재한다. 그것은 환경과 경제의 상생 협력의 전통, 환경 보호와 경제 성장은 상호의존 관계라는 강한 인식, 환경 보호로 경제적 이득을 보는 산업들의 존재와 녹색 산업의 성장, 캘리포니아 규제 기관의 전문성 및 독립성, 캘리포니아에게만 허용된 강력한 규제를 위한 ‘면제’ 제도, 환경 단체들의 로비 및 연대 역할 등이다. 환경과 경제의 통합적 접근은 캘리포니아 만의 독특한 방식은 아닐지 모른다. 그러나 캘리포니아는 통합적 접근의 평범하지 않은 성공 사례이기 때문에 미국의 여타 주들, 연방 정부, 외국정부들이 정책 모델로 캘리포니아를 연구하거나 추종했다.

주한 미 평화봉사단(PeaceCorps Korea) 협상과정의 성격과 1960년대 초중반 한미관계

Peace Corps, founded under the Kennedy Administration to assist the United States in its foreign humanitarian aid, symbolized a fragmentary discourse of ‘war over peace’ to create an environment in favor of the American global imperative. Peace Corps was seen as an appropriate means to disseminate certain American ideals and values and expand American political, economic, and social agendas. This study examines how the ongoing discourse of ‘peace’ also arose in the negotiations for the Peace Corps Korea program to challenge the narrative and certain beliefs that Peace Corps Korea was a successful project of public diplomacy beneficient to the Korea-US relations.<BR> Since Korea showed interest in the Peace Corps, debate over the suitability of the Korea program pervaded the minds of many American agencies involved. However, the American’s refusal to grant the Korean program in the first negotiation was an effect of the lack of singularity from the Korean government and the American development agencies in the determining program fields that would befit certain developmental justifications in Korea and, most importantly, a policy that pushed the Korean program back on the priority list. Later, the changing political climate in Indochina became a turning point in the negotiations. The Korean government’s proposal to send troops in aid to the Americans in Vietnam allowed the reopening of the negotiations to bring in Peace Corps to Korea. In return to the proposal, the US gave in in the second negotiation and provided immense human and material support to Korea. The discrepancy between Korean’s courtship to bring Peace Corps and Korean’s lack of interest in support and execution of the Korea program, however, suggests that Peace Corps Korea was a byproduct of other political motives apart from a developmental standpoint.

Just “performance nonsense”?: How recipients process news photos of activists’ symbolic actions about climate change politics

Abstract In this article, I investigate how recipients make sense of images that show symbolic actions by environmental activists during two recent United Nations Climate Change Conferences. Environmental advocacy groups are successful in creating visibility for their symbolic actions via news visuals, but little empirical evidence exists about how ordinary media recipients engage with this type of imagery. Can they understand the intended meaning of complex visual rhetoric used by environmental activists? I use think-aloud protocols to uncover the cognitive strategies which are used in processing these stylised visual claims. Results show that news photos rarely manage to communicate the intended meaning of symbolic actions. By systematically analysing various stages of visual frame processing, this study offers insights into specific configurations of the image-viewer relationship that cause high levels of ambiguity and prevent staged visual claims from being understood as intended. Yet I also find empirical evidence for a visual framing approach that works well and describe this recipe for effective communication via symbolic action photography.

Editorial: Is There a New Climate Politics?

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?

Scalar Mismatches and Underlying Factors for Underutilization of Climate Information: Perspectives From Farmers and Ranchers

Growing demand for water resources coupled with climate-driven water scarcity and variability present critical challenges to agriculture in the Western US. Despite extensive resources allocated to downscaling climate projections and advances in understanding past, current, and future climatic conditions, climate information is underutilized in decisions made by agricultural producers. Climate information providers need to understand why this information is underutilized and what would better meet the needs of producers. To better understand how agricultural producers perceive and utilize climate information, we conducted five focus groups with farmers and ranchers across Montana. Focus groups revealed that there are fundamental scalar issues (spatial and temporal) that make climate information challenging for producers to use. While climate information is typically produced at regional, national, or global spatial scales and at a seasonal and mid- to end-of-century temporal scales, producers indicated that decision-making takes place at multiple intermediate and small temporal and spatial scales. In addition, producers described other drivers of decision-making that have little to do with climate information itself, but rather aspects of source credibility, past experience, trust in information, and the politics of climate change. Through engaging directly with end-users, climate information providers can better understand the spatial and temporal scales that align with different types of agricultural producers and decisions, as well as the limitations of information provision given the complexity of the decision context. Increased engagement between climate information providers and end-users can also address the important tradeoffs that exist between scale and uncertainty.

Climate Change Politics in Canada and the EU—from Carbon Democracy to a Green Deal?

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.&#x0D;

Speaking for the youth, speaking for the planet: Greta Thunberg and the representational politics of eco-celebrity

ABSTRACT Greta Thunberg is the world’s best-known environmental activist. She has been covered by the international press, featured on television talk shows, presented in music videos, and been the object of social media memes – a visibility that has made her a global celebrity. But unlike other public figures whose stardom is attached to, rather than driven by environmental activism, Thunberg’s eco-celebrity is anchored to her role in starting a global climate movement. Her activism is youth-centric and her eco-politics highly confrontational. Focusing on English language media from around the world, this essay explores how Thunberg’s rise to global eco-celebrity has been media-centric while still being remarkably resistant to co-optation within the broader terrain of climate change politics. Emphasis is placed on how Thunberg has used her celebrity status to take aim at the material realities and social practices that have caused the climate crisis, and push for radical and immediate change.

Policy Characteristics, Electoral Cycles, and the Partisan Politics of Climate Change

Abstract Domestic policies are the cornerstone of the new global climate governance architecture. However, what motivates vote-seeking politicians to pursue climate policies remains remarkably unclear, as the climate politics literature suggests that climate policies are usually not perceived as a vote winner. The present article revisits this issue and argues that a better understanding of the relationship between electoral competition and climate policy making requires taking into account differences both in party ideologies and in policy characteristics. Studying twenty-nine democracies between 1990 and 2016, the analysis finds that climate policy production overall tends to increase as the election approaches due to increases in “soft” policies, such as subsidies, research grants, and information instruments, and relatively stable production rates of “hard” policies like taxes and regulations over the electoral term. Regarding partisan politics, left governments are found to produce more hard, but not more soft, climate policies than center and right governments, especially before elections. This suggests that partisan and electoral incentives are important reference points in the fight against climate change.

Must we wait for youth to speak out before we listen? International youth perspectives and climate change education

ABSTRACT In recent years, youth across the planet have begun to mobilise, motivated by the perceived injustices associated with the causes, consequences and politics of climate change. However, education systems lag behind, preoccupied with the “what” and “how” of climate change, rather than engaging it as a social issue in which students themselves are implicated. In this paper, we share the results of our participatory research exploration into youth and climate change through an international education project, in which 99 students from 13 countries joined virtually in a climate change learning experience, culminating in the collaborative development and presentation of a White Paper to the 2018 IPCC Cities and Climate Change Conference. Grounded in a critical global citizenship education framework, this project provides a site to explore climate change education from the perspectives of diverse youth, who inform possibilities for climate change education that addresses justice, individualisation and emotionality.

Karjala kulttuurisena traumana Suomen teatterissa

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Karelia as a cultural trauma in Finnish theatre&#x0D; This article asks how Finnish-language theatre and plays have depicted ceded Karelia and reflected the feelings of the Karelian diaspora. The theatrical art- form is understood as a dialogue between narratives intended for the commu- nity and the reception they receive from them. The article examines the ways in which theatre participated in dealing with the cultural trauma of the diaspora. The changing political climate in Finland and Russia, as well as the ambivalent relationships of the post-war Karelian generations with the traumatic narrative of the older generation, allows three periods to be distinguished: 1. The stage of harmony, longing and nostalgic drama (1940–1965), when the focus was mainly on lost era; 2. The phase of conflicting Karelian orientations (1965–1990), when the influence of the Soviet Union on public debate and interpretations of history was at its strongest; and 3. The stage of consolidation of the Karelian narrative (1990–2020), when epic theatre covering all the war years was performed in Fin- land dealing with forced departure and adaptation, now from the perspective of the evacuees’ own experience and Finnish interpretation of history.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Politics of Climate Change, National Security and Development in Nigeria

The paper examined politics of climate change, National Security and Development in Nigeria. The paper argued that the nature of politics of climate change which is couched in the nature and character of Nigerian state has adversely affected National Security and Development in Nigeria. Democratic elitism was adopted as analytical construct. The main assumption of democratic elitism is that the political elites who rule the people must rule within the purview of democratic tenets and values. The paper relied on secondary sources of data. The main objective of the paper is to critically examine the politics of climate change and its impact on National Security and Development in Nigeria. The paper noted that the sudden and seemingly forceful amalgamation of the 1914 coupled with the unbridled quest for primitive accumulation has not only infused fissiparous tendencies into the politics of Nigeria but has also militarized the political system in Nigeria. Consequently, National Security and Development are undermined. The paper recommended inter alia that democratic institutions should be strengthened and democratic values should be imbibed and demonstrated by Nigerians.

Thinking algorithmically: The making of hegemonic knowledge in climate governance

Algorithms – instructions for acting on data, executed by code – are increasingly being enrolled into climate policy governance via the prediction of policy outcomes, the evaluation of climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, and the design of practitioner actions. Yet the political implications of these technological changes in environmental governance are only just beginning to be theorised. In this paper, we examine one particular facet of this emerging politics: the relationship between thinking algorithmically and hegemonic power. Drawing from Laclau and Mouffe’s theorisation of hegemony we argue that algorithmic forms of reasoning lend themselves towards producing hegemonising knowledge regimes, with important implications for a democratic politics of climate change. Recognising that algorithms stand for wider socio‐technical assemblages that structure and create knowledge, we call for greater attention to the reliance on algorithms within climate governance – less for the algorithms themselves than for their particular epistemic commitments that create algorithmic ways of thinking, with associated claims to power. Through a critical review of scholarship at the intersection of critical digital studies and environmental governance, we first identify three key epistemic commitments involved in thinking algorithmically: induction, abstraction, and optimisation. We then examine the correspondence between these key features of algorithmic thinking and the conditions that Laclau and Mouffe propose form the grounds for hegemony: objectivity, universality, and necessity. Better understanding what “thinking algorithmically” entails, and the forms of knowing and acting that it affords and excludes, is vital, we argue, to begin naming the political implications and transformative potential of new forms of climate governance.