Global Politics and Climate Change: Decolonial Perspectives, International Governance, and Agreements

Course Administration and Introduction

• Perusal Time: A perusal for the assignment is scheduled for this Friday. The assigned reading for this week is highly relevant and encourages rethinking international relations from a decolonial perspective, incorporating indigenous knowledges and practices.

• Assignment Progress: As of the check this morning, only $8\%$ of students have completed the perusal assignment, and a significant $84.8\%$ have not yet started. Students are reminded that this also counts towards course engagement.

Decolonial Perspectives on Climate Change: India Logan Riley's Speech

• Lecture Overview: The lecture will cover:

  • India Logan Riley's speech at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in $2021$, highlighting the relationship between climate change and colonialism.

  • Challenges posed to the international community regarding climate action.

  • Discussions on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and the concept of global governance.

  • Connections to theoretical discussions from the beginning of the semester, if time permits.

• India Logan Riley's Speech (COP26, Glasgow, $2021$): The speech was chosen for its explicit decolonial lens, which helps illustrate how different analytical frameworks shape our understanding of global political problems like climate change, and consequently, the proposed solutions.

  • Key Connections to Consider: While watching the speech, the audience was prompted to reflect on how Logan Riley connects:

    • Climate change to colonialism (both historical and contemporary).

    • Climate change to resource and land debates.

    • Indigenous knowledges and practices to understanding and responding to climate change, including the role of indigenous activists.

    • Climate justice to broader debates about justice in global politics.

  • Personal Narrative and Colonialism: India Logan Riley, from Gatskahmunu on Aotearoa (New Zealand), shared personal experiences linking catastrophic climate events (e.g., Australian wildfires in February, causing red skies and respiratory issues in her homeland) to historic colonial injustices. She highlighted the Doctrine of Discovery, formulated in Europe, as enabling historical violence, murder, and land theft by the British Crown for resource extraction, displacing indigenous communities and ending their practices. She recounted experiencing these processes personally at age $10$ when local councils tried to seize community land for a highway, and later, the New Zealand government stealing foreshore and seabed for deep-sea oil drilling.

  • Frustration with Inaction: Logan Riley expressed deep frustration that despite years of giving the same speech about rising sea levels, wildfires, and biodiversity loss since her first climate talks in Paris, global emissions continue to rise. She noted that she is the same age as these climate negotiations, having grown up while the Global North, colonial governments, and corporations 'fudged with the future.'

  • Indigenous Leadership and Solutions: She asserted that indigenous and frontline communities are leading the remaking of the world, preventing fossil fuel extraction and expansion, halting high-emission infrastructure, and rejecting false solutions. Cited that in the US and Canada alone, indigenous actions have stopped or delayed greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual emissions. Her core message: "climate change is the final outcome of the colonial project, and in our response we must be decolonial, rooted in justice and care for communities like mine who have borne the burden of the global North greed for far too long." She urged backing indigenous leadership, warning that complicity in inaction leads to death and destruction.

  • Calls to Action: Proposed specific actions:

    • Entrenching rights frameworks within the Paris Rulebook.

    • Redistributing finance from 'war games' towards 'loss and damage' in a just transition.

    • Richer countries committing to steep emissions reductions this decade, rather than relying on carbon markets to offload responsibility.

• Palpable Frustration: The speech conveyed a clear frustration and anger despite the speaker's smile, highlighting the lack of sufficient action on climate change despite widespread recognition of the problem and escalating catastrophic weather events.

The United Nations and Climate Action

• UN's Broader Role: Beyond peace and security, the UN, as outlined in its $1945$ founding charter, also focuses on promoting socioeconomic goals and better living standards, supported by numerous specialized agencies.

• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Introduced in $2000$, these were eight international development goals for the UN to achieve by $2015$. Signed by $191$ member states and $22$ international organizations, they included eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality, and ensuring environmental sustainability. While significant progress was made (and most goals were missed), they set a precedent for global collective action.

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Unveiled in $2015$ as a successor to the MDGs, these $17$ goals served as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. They cover areas like poverty eradication, education, gender equality, and climate action. The SDGs demonstrate the UN's role in global agenda-setting and organizing collective responses, influencing actors from international organizations to states and local institutions.

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

  • Establishment: The UN General Assembly established the IPCC in $1988$.

  • Mandate: Its primary task is to collate and disseminate scientific knowledge on climate change and its impacts.

  • Assessment Reports (AR): The IPCC is renowned for its assessment reports, first published in $1990$. The most recent, the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), was published between $2021$ and $2023$, comprising three reports plus a synthesis report.

    • AR6 Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis (2021): A massive document ($3,950$ pages) with contributions from over $230$ scientists from $66$ countries, drawing on more than $14,000$ scientific papers.

      • Grim Findings: It warns that human activity is unprecedentedly changing Earth's climate, with some changes now inevitable and irreversible. Temperatures are likely to rise by more than $1.5\degree C$ above pre-industrial levels within the next two decades, potentially exceeding the Paris Agreement's limits. Only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions this decade can prevent climate breakdown.

      • "Code Red for Humanity": The UN Secretary-General described the report as a "code red for humanity," stating that "the alarm bells are ringing… the evidence is irrefutable."

    • AR6 Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (2022): A $3,600$-page document detailing climate change impacts.

      • Vulnerability: Estimates that $3.3$ billion people (around $40\%$ of the world’s population) are now highly vulnerable.

      • Food Security: Forecasts catastrophic impacts on food production, e.g., Africa could lose approximately $30\%$ of land used for maize and $50\%$ for beans.

      • Sea Level Rise: Predicts $1$ billion people will face flooding, particularly devastating for Pacific island nations, where entire islands could be obliterated.

      • Tipping Points: Warns that ecosystems, historically carbon sinks, are reaching tipping points where they will begin releasing captured carbon.

    • AR6 Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change (2022): Outlines necessary mitigation steps.

      • Costs and Disruption: Highlights the enormous financial costs and severe socioeconomic disruption associated with mitigation efforts, pointing to significant political challenges.

    • AR6 Synthesis Report (2023): Integrates findings from the three working group reports.

Climate Change and International Relations Theory

• Discussion Prompt: Students were asked to consider for ~3 minutes how climate change is relevant to global politics, how International Relations (IR) theorists can contribute, and the limitations of existing IR lenses.

• Student Contributions:

  • Relevance: Climate change is a global issue where politics can hold states accountable for their actions (or inaction), as many states make commitments but fail to follow through.

  • IR Contributions: IR experts can analyze political dynamics, apply research, and collaborate with scientists to develop solutions for mitigating climate problems.

  • Limitations of Existing Lenses:

    • Many traditional IR theories are outdated and not applicable to contemporary challenges.

    • The theories often originate from a narrow demographic (e.g., 'old white men'), lacking diverse perspectives.

    • A key limitation is the absence of indigenous lenses, which are crucial due to indigenous peoples' deep connection to land, historical experience, and traditional knowledge.

    • The segregation of thought within IR (e.g., sticking to one 'way of thinking') can hinder a comprehensive understanding. Students suggested a broader view, incorporating multiple theoretical lenses alongside one's own.

    • Realism as a Limitation: Realism, which posits states acting purely in their self-interest and prioritizing individual gain, is limited because it struggles with global problems that require collective action.

• Teacher's Additional Points:

  • Colonialism and Justice: The discussion should encompass the history and origins of the problem, the justice/injustice in terms of who created climate change versus who is suffering, and the obligations of wealthier states.

  • Gendered Aspects: The gendered division of labor in activism and the gendered language used in climate discourse are also relevant.

Global Governance and Collective Action Problems

• Transboundary Problems: Climate change exemplifies a 'transboundary' problem that cannot be contained within a single state and often impacts distant nations (e.g., originating in one state but affecting others). This necessitates international cooperation.

• Historical Precedents: IR has grappled with similar environmental issues:

  • Overfishing: Early concerns about overfishing led to the realization that short-term national interests (maximizing catch) conflicted with long-term sustainability (depleting fish stocks). This constituted a "collective action problem" because individual states might stop, but others could exploit the opportunity.

    • International Whaling Convention (IWC): Signed in $1946$ by $15$ states (now $88$ parties). It aimed to stop overhunting and establish regulations to monitor fish populations, ensuring industry viability. The International Whaling Commission was created. A key contention in debates has been the definition of 'whale.'

  • Long-Range Transboundary Pollution (Acid Rain): A diplomatic dispute in the $1980s$ between the UK and Scandinavian countries. Coal power plants in the UK released sulfur that caused acid rain in Scandinavia, poisoning lakes and rivers (impacting salmon and trout) and dissolving statues. The UK eventually accepted responsibility, installed filters, but Norway still adds $25$ tons of liming to its lakes annually to counteract effects. A significant treaty was signed to reduce sulfur emissions.

• Global Governance:

  • Definition: The textbook defines global governance as a "loose framework of regulation, both institutional and normative, that constrains or guides government conduct in global politics."

  • Elements: Includes international organizations, treaties, shared normative commitments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

  • Challenge to Traditional IR: Global governance challenges foundational IR assumptions:

    • Anarchy: Mitigates the idea of an anarchic international system.

    • State Primacy: Suggests that other actors (international organizations, transnational corporations, NGOs) are as important as states.

    • Material Interests: Highlights the importance of immaterial factors like norms, principles, and laws, not just material interests.

  • Enabling Cooperation: It suggests that cooperation and collaboration are possible when the right institutional settings are created. This framework is crucial for understanding the systems put in place to address environmental problems.

International Climate Agreements

• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):

  • Establishment: Created in $1992$ at the Earth Summit in Rio, where $154$ states agreed to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

  • Framework: It provides the overarching framework for subsequent international climate treaties.

• Kyoto Protocol:

  • Introduction and Efficacy: Adopted in $1997$ but only became effective in February $2005$. It had $84$ original signatories, with $192$ states having ratified it.

  • Commitments: Committed signatory states to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through legally binding commitments.

  • Mechanisms: Introduced measures for states to implement and monitoring mechanisms for compliance.

  • Flexibility and Emissions Trading: Established an emissions trading scheme, allowing richer polluting countries to purchase 'unspent' emissions from poorer countries. This aimed to ease the transition for richer economies while redistributing wealth to poorer nations.

  • Common but Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR): A core principle acknowledging that richer countries have historically benefited from emissions and thus have a greater capacity and responsibility to address the problem they created.

  • Challenges and Withdrawals:

    • US Refusal: The US, the biggest polluter at the time, refused to ratify the treaty, with President Bush arguing it unfairly impacted US economic strength because China and India had no binding commitments.

    • Canada's Withdrawal: Canada, committed to reducing emissions by $6\%$ below $1990$ levels, actually increased them by $17\%$2015$, adopted by$196$states.</p></li><li><p><strong>Core Goals:</strong> Aims to hold the global average temperature increase to "well below$2\degree C$" above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit it to "$1.5\degree C$".</p></li><li><p><strong>Transformational Change:</strong> Signatories acknowledged that meeting these targets would require significant social and economic transformation.</p></li><li><p><strong>Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs):</strong> Each signatory is required to outline its own NDCs based on local circumstances, capabilities, and priorities. These are submitted every$5$years and are expected to become more ambitious over time. Biannual progress reports are also required.</p></li><li><p><strong>Limitations:</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Non-Binding NDCs:</strong> NDCs are not legally enforceable, meaning there are no sanctions for non-compliance, only normative pressure.</p></li><li><p><strong>Insufficient Targets:</strong> Concerns exist that current NDCs are not sufficient. For example, New Zealand excludes agricultural methane emissions from its targets, which account for approximately$40\%$of its total emissions.</p></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><h4 id="f6d1061d-144f-43d6-85b3-b164ae2171c1" data-toc-id="f6d1061d-144f-43d6-85b3-b164ae2171c1" collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">Visual Illustrations and Conferences of the Parties (COPs)</h4><ul><li><p><strong>Historical Emissions Map:</strong> A map of the world resized to reflect historical emissions shows richer countries (e.g., US, Europe) significantly bloated, while poorer countries (especially Sub-Saharan Africa) appear much smaller or disappear, visually representing the CBDR principle.</p></li><li><p><strong>Absolute Poverty Map:</strong> A similar map resized to reflect populations living in absolute poverty shows the Global North much smaller and the Global South much larger, further illustrating the disparity between those who contributed most to climate change and those most affected.</p></li><li><p><strong>Climate Change Tracker:</strong> An online tool (link provided) monitors whether countries are on track to keep global warming below$1.5\degree C$$. Currently, no country is listed as "Paris Agreement compatible," with many (including New Zealand) falling into the "highly insufficient" category. Recent political discussions in New Zealand may lead to withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

    • COP Conferences: These Conferences of the Parties are major UN climate change summits.

      • Copenhagen (2009): "Not mitigated disaster."

      • Paris (2015): Resulted in the Paris Agreement.

      • Glasgow (2021): Where India Logan Riley delivered her speech.

      • Next COP: Scheduled for Brazil in November.

      • Purpose: These summits provide insights into the negotiations, politics, and challenges involved in reaching international climate agreements.

    Revisiting Theoretical Frameworks

    • IR Discipline's Limitations: International Relations as a discipline has been criticized for being ill-equipped to fully address global political problems like climate change, leading to frustration with established theories.

    • Efforts to Adapt: Mainstream IR theories are attempting to demonstrate their utility in this context.

      • Realism's Perspective: Realist scholars argue that states are inherently self-interested, reluctant to act for the common good, and likely to 'cheat.' They view conferences like the COPs as tools for power politics, where states maximize their own interests. Realism offers pragmatic advice for smaller states (e.g., Pacific Island nations) to form alliances with stronger states to maximize their negotiating power.

    • Renewed Interest: There is a growing emphasis on the environment and a renewed interest in the role of indigenous knowledges, cosmologies, and activism in understanding and combating climate change, as highlighted by Logan Riley's speech and indigenous activists often being at the forefront of the fight.