This master thesis examines the representation of climate justice discourses at the by various parties at the COP26 in Glasgow, 2021 and how these are manifested in the subsequent policy outcome, the Glasgow Pact. To coherently categorize the wide interpretations of climate justice, this study adopts a theoretical framework proposed by Schapper (2018), where climate justice is differentiated through international, intra-societal and intergenerational dimensions. Through the lens of critical discourse analysis, statements made at the higher-level segment of the event are analyzed according to their storylines to identify which climate justice discourses are exercised by varying actors. The sample consists of 17 statements of various countries categorized by different coalitions. In comparison, the findings indicate that the Glasgow Pact recognizes most discourses in some form, but that it sides with developed nations on account of knowledge claims, non-binding policy language and an absence of any discourse on historical responsibility or the right to use fossil fuels. Consequently, the mismatch of what is said and done reveals power imbalances at the negotiations, and therefore threaten the credibility of the COP as a fair and inclusive arena for climate negotiations.

While UNFCCC negotiations generally have adopted a neoliberal version of the contestedconcept of climate justice in the last 30 years, the acceptance of the Loss and Damage Fundduring COP27 indicates a possible shift in the climate justice discourse. To examine possibleshifts in the portrayal of climate justice, statements delivered by state representatives fromfive coalitions during COP21 and COP27 have been analyzed using a qualitative framinganalysis. The coalitions represent both victims of climate change and the causers of it. Theanalysis has been based on a theoretical framework consisting of six different climate justiceframes: neoliberal, distributive, intergenerational, rights-based, transformative, and ecologicaljustice. During COP21, a clear division appeared between ‘victim coalitions’ who portrayedtheir own vulnerability and partly described the injustice of climate change, and the ‘causercoalitions’ who foremost used neoliberal framings of the issue. During COP27, the divisionwas less obvious. Rights-based framings increased in prominence, but fragmentation withinthe coalitions was observed. The controversy did no longer seem to revolve aroundportraying vulnerability. Rather the division was split between the critical states demanding atransformative shift in the global climate regime, and the uncritical ones. The study indicatesthat alternative justice norms continue to break new grounds in the UNFCCC framework, butthe specific implications on politics are yet to be seen.

No description available.

No description available.

There has been growing recognition in recent environmental discourse that environmental justice, which is normally understood to mean the disproportionate effect of climate change on minority groups, also takes the form of epistemic injustice. In the Canadian context, this means the exclusion of Indigenous philosophies, values, and perspectives from discourse about environmental ethics, as well as the spheres of policy and governance as they pertain to the environment. At the same time, there has been increasing concern with creating just outcomes for future people. Given that future generations have made no contribution to the pollution that causes climate change, but will feel its worst effects, many environmental and political philosophers have recently pointed to the need for a strong theory of intergenerational justice, especially as it pertains to the environment. In this thesis, I argue that an essential part of achieving intergenerational environmental justice in Canada is working toward the rectification of both material and epistemic harms toward Indigenous peoples which are perpetuated by the “rationalistic” conception of nature which sees nature as an instrumentally valuable resource to be exploited for human gain. I explore the historical construction of this conception of nature and its pervasiveness in recent work on environmental ethics in order to show how Indigenous perspectives have historically been suppressed through colonialism, and more recently been subjected to epistemic oppression within Western environmental ethics. I then focus specifically on intergenerational environmental justice as a field in which Indigenous philosophies have faced the greatest exclusion, and may also have the most to teach us. I conclude by providing a brief overview of recent Indigenous environmental activism as an expression of Indigenous values, and look to treaties as understood by Indigenous philosophies as a potential framework for moving together toward a just future for all.

In the face of dire threats posed by anthropogenic climate change, a growing international Movement for Fossil Fuel Divestment has emerged to challenge the political and economic power of the fossil fuel industry. Building off a history of college and university divestment campaigns, students are spearheading the movement to rid their institutions’ endowments of investments in the top 200 companies with the largest reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas. Highlighting perspectives from within the movement and drawing from literature in social movement theory and Climate Justice, I explore three crucial components of the student Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement: Climate Justice, perceptions of risk, and potential political impacts. I argue that Fossil Fuel Divestment is a powerful component of the broader Climate Movement because it is mobilizing and radicalizing a new generation of activists to fight the climate crisis, challenging the dominant paradigm of individualized climate action, and is significantly influencing the public discourse on climate change. In seeking to further illuminate the power of this movement, I explore the possibilities and limitations of divestment as a tactic for Climate Justice and offer recommendations for moving forward.

A combination of the urban heat island effect and a rising temperature baseline resulting from global climate change inequitably impacts socially vulnerable populations residing in urban areas. This dissertation examines distributional inequity of exposure to urban heat by socially disadvantaged groups and minorities in the context of climate justice. Using Cutter’s hazards-of-place model, variables indicative of social vulnerability and biophysical vulnerability are statistically tested for their associations. Biophysical vulnerability is conceptualized utilizing a urban heat risk index calculated from summer 2010 LANDSAT imagery to measure land surface temperature , structural density through the normalized difference built-up index, and vegetation abundance through the normalized difference vegetation index. A cross-section of twenty geographically distributed metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the U.S. are examined using census derived variables at the tract level. The results of bivariate correlation analysis, ordinary least squares regression, and spatial autoregression analysis indicate consistent and significant associations between greater social disadvantage and higher urban heat levels. Multilevel modeling is used to examine the relationship of MSA-level segregation with tract-level minority status and social disadvantage to higher levels of urban heat. Segregation has a significant but varied relationship with the variables, indicating that there are inconsistent associations with urban heat due to differing urban ecologies. Urban heat and social vulnerability present a varying landscape of thermal inequity in different urban areas, associated in many cases with residential segregation.

abstract: Climate adaptation has not kept pace with climate impacts which has formed an adaptation gap. Increasingly insurance is viewed as a solution to close this gap. However, the efficacy and implications of using insurance in the climate adaptation space are not clear. Furthermore, past research has focused on specific actors or processes, not on the interactions and interconnections between the actors and the processes. I take a complex adaptive systems approach to map out how these dynamics are shaping adaptation and to interrogate what the insurance climate adaptation literature claims are the successes and pitfalls of insurance driving, enabling or being adaptation. From this interrogation it becomes apparent that insurance has enormous influence on its policy holders, builds telecoupling into local adaptation, and creates structures which support contradictory land use policies at the local level. Based on the influence insurance has on policy holders, I argue that insurance should be viewed as a form of governance. I synthesize insurance, governance and adaptation literature to examine exactly what governance tools insurance uses to exercise this influence and what the consequences may be. This research reveals that insurance may not be the exemplary adaptation approach the international community is hoping for. Using insurance, risk can be reduced without reducing vulnerability, and risk transfer can result in risk displacement which can reduce adaptation incentives, fuel maladaptation, or impose public burdens. Moreover, insurance requires certain information and legal relationships which can and often do structure that which is insured to the needs of insurance and shift authority away from governments to insurance companies or public-private partnerships. Each of these undermine the legitimacy of insurance-led local adaptation and contradict the stated social justice goals of international calls for insurance. Finally, I interrogate the potential justice concerns that emerged through an analysis of insurance as a form of adaptation governance. Using a multi-valent approach to justice I examine a suite of programs intended to support agricultural adaptation through insurance. This analysis demonstrates that although some programs clearly attempted to consider issues of justice, overall these existing programs raise distributional, procedural and recognition justice concerns. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2020

Sea-level rise and inland flooding driven by climate change threaten the health, economic development, and social stability of Native American Tribes and Indigenous Nations. Further, loss of traditional lands threatens the cultural practices and ties to heritage that provide ontological grounding for many Indigenous Peoples. While the Federal Trust Doctrine implies a responsibility for federal policy to aid Tribes by compensating them for impacts of sea-level rise, there is no legislation securing compensation for Indigenous Nations not recognized as Tribes. Due to the incommensurable nature of the damage to Native American and Indigenous communities who lose their lands to sea-level rise, any processes of compensation must transcend relocation measures and monetary transactions. Further, to combat aid programming that perpetuates the social, legal, and cultural disenfranchisement of Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples, legislation for compensation must endorse and empower Tribes’ and Nations’ autonomy by meaningfully including their insights. This study records the perspectives of members of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes and Gullah/Geechee Nation on climate change in the Southeastern U.S., specifically, sea-level rise washing out ancestral lands. This study’s ultimate purpose is to understand how Tribe and Nation members perceive the response and responsibility of the U.S. government in these situations. This study also presents a legal/political analysis of climate justice in these contexts, an exploration of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions as a mechanism for climate justice, and culminates in a policy proposal regarding climate justice for Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples.

Der gegenwärtige Klimawandel ist menschengemacht. Bei allem Erschrecken darüber birgt diese Erkenntnis jedoch den Ansatz zur Bewältigung der Krise: Was von Menschen gemacht ist, kann der Mensch auch ändern. Die Ursachen des Klimawandels sind eng verknüpft mit dem Ressourcenverbrauch einer einseitig wachstumsorientierten Wirtschaftsweise und der ihr korrespondierenden gesellschaftlichen Mentalität. Sie fordern uns heraus, die Strukturen, die unserer Rechtsordnung zu Grunde liegen, neu zu denken. 'Climate Justice' lässt sich aus verschiedenen Perspektiven angehen. In unserer Gesellschaft dominiert eine anthropozentrische Sichtweise, der sich in verschiedenen Spielarten physiozentrische Positionen entgegen stellen. Vorliegender Band vereint Vorträge, die im Jahr 2022 auf einer Sommerakademie der Juristenfakultät der Universität Leipzig zum Thema 'Ökologische Transformation von Gesellschaft und Recht' in Halle/Saale gehalten wurden und die die Stärken und Schwächen dieser Sichtweisen diskutieren. Die mit dem Thema der Tagung benannte Herausforderung wird aus wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher, juristischer und (rechts-)philosophischer Sicht angegangen. Die Vorträge finden ihre Ergänzung durch weiterführende Beiträge, die wichtige Aspekte unseres Verhaltens zu Klima und Umwelt und der Lösung von Problemen in diesem Zusammenhang mit ebenso interdisziplinärer Herangehensweise vertiefen.