Climate change can only be addressed effectively by simultaneously tackling local and global injustice
As the Climate Change conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan draws to a close, there is an urgent need for a new politics of climate resilient development that opens space for ethical and political engagement by diverse actors.
YESI Director, Prof Lindsay Stringer, is a co-author on a new paper published today in Nature Climate Change that describes how mitigation and adaptation measures grounded in climate justice can advance sustainable development for all.
Worryingly, opportunities for deep engagement are diminishing instead of expanding. Political commitments are competing with multiple crises including conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East, hampering opportunities for climate resilient development. Urgent and fundamental shifts in prevailing development politics and practice – a new politics of climate resilient development centering socially just action from local to global scales - are needed.
Drawing on evidence in the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the paper highlights that coordinated greenhouse gas mitigation and climate change adaptation actions can co-deliver on development priorities. The authors note that increased warming and inequities constrain future mitigation, adaptation and development options, with the economic damages far outstripping mitigation costs. The escalating impacts of climate change are closing the window of opportunity to ensure a sustainable future for all.
A new politics of climate resilient development shifts decision-making away from prevailing path dependencies by addressing unsustainable patterns of resource use and consumption, mobilising already available innovations and practices. To achieve this, climate action needs to be reframed by expanding opportunities for ethical and political engagement in the conditions, pathways and outcomes of development. Just and effective actions across sectors and time frames requires all of society approaches, that engage governments, civil society and private sector actors in collective action, enabling transformative action by creating ‘safe spaces’ for contestation to move beyond entrenched institutions and practices that privilege some and marginalise others.
The example of Cape Town is presented to show how inclusive and integrated planning that engages a wide range of stakeholders in tackling inequity as part of climate action can accelerate climate resilient development.
These findings are particularly timely as we reflect on a challenging COP29, where business as usual appears to be dominating and the urgent need for action is not appreciated.
Read the full paper: 'Pathways for urgent action towards climate resilient development'