The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects 1-2018 Disproportionate Realities: The limC ate Justice Implications of Mitigation Policies Across Scales Tinuviel Carlson [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/honors Part of the Environmental Education Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Environmental Law Commons, International Law Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, Law and Politics Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, Sustainability Commons, and the Transnational Law Commons Recommended Citation Carlson, Tinuviel, "Disproportionate Realities: The lC imate Justice Implications of Mitigation Policies Across Scales" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 21. https://repository.usfca.edu/honors/21 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract, Keywords, and Acknowledgments ........................................................................ Page ii List of Figures and Tables .................................................................................................... Page iii List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................. Page iv Introduction .......................................................................................................................... Page 1 Literature Review .................................................................................................................. Page 3 Conceptualizing authority and global governance .................................................... Page 3 Shift in global authority with the global climate governance ................................... Page 4 Scales of transnational actors: local and beyond .................................................... Page 10 Methods and Analysis ........................................................................................................ Page 12 Analytical Framework of Climate Justice ........................................................................... Page 14 Historical implications of the environmental justice movement ............................ Page 18 Conceptualization of the climate justice movement ............................................... Page 22 Findings .............................................................................................................................. Page 24 Potential for strong local-level climate governance mitigation action ................... Page 24 Climate justice implications in a database of local urban climate experiments ..... Page 26 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... Page 31 References ........................................................................................................................... Page 33 Appendix A ......................................................................................................................... Page 36 i ABSTRACT Global climate change will have disproportionate effects on low-income and minority communities around the world producing important justice challenges. As national governments increasingly rely on local governments, civil society, and private transnational actors to establish and implement climate actions policies, it is important to assess whether and how these newly emergent actors can address these justice challenges. First this thesis examines concepts of justice in relation to climate change across different scales in order to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework of climate justice. This conceptual framework expands the scale of the international climate justice movement address local concerns. Further, the framework is used as an analytical tool for examining the justice implications of urban climate change initiatives in a database of 627 experiments within 100 global cities. The results reveal that the vast majority of climate experiments at the local-level are predominantly led by local governments. However, experiments led by community based organizations, NGOs, and private actors were much more likely to include climate justice concerns. As cities and local governments become leaders in implementing climate actions, concerns for climate justice should be included within the creation of climate policy. KEYWORDS Climate Change, Climate Justice, Climate Governance, Authority, Mitigation, Local ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Brian Dowd-Uribe for his continuous positive support and motivation throughout my process of researching and writing this thesis. Additionally, I would like to thank the International Studies departments at the University of San Francisco for their encouragement and support throughout my academic career, which has allowed me to write this honors thesis. Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank my friends and family for their patience and constant encouragements. ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Total sub-state and non-state climate initiatives by country 1990-2012. - Page 10 Figure 2. Comparison of the frequency distribution of cities and experiments in different world regions. – Page 30 Figure 2. Distribution of frequency of different types of actors leading urban climate change experiments. – Page 31 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Development of the core principles of climate justice summarized. – Page 24 iii LIST OF ACRONYMS: C40 Group Cities Climate Leadership Group CCP Cities for Climate Protection COP Conference of the Parties EPA Environmental Protection Agency (United States) GHG Greenhouse Gas ICLEI International Council for Local Environmental Incentives INDC Intended National Determined Contributions IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change LA21 Local Agenda 21 NAZCA Non-State Action Zone for Climate Action NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations SIDS Small Island Developing States UEC Urban Environmental Conference UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UN United Nations WMO World Meteorological Organization iv INTRODUCTION The disproportionate realities of climate change are most clearly illustrated by the heightened number and increased severity of natural disasters and toxic environmental degradations which are experienced on the global scale. Stories continue to emerge of vulnerable and often helpless people and communities which are facing increasingly dire and unprecedented conditions from the destabilization of the earth’s climate system. Communities around the world are confronted with severe impacts of climate change, such as, droughts, floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters on a daily basis (Tokar, 2013). Though these impacts are felt globally, they disproportionately affect the Global South which is considered underdeveloped, as well as low-income and minority communities across the globe living in vulnerable ecosystems. These vulnerabilities within these ecosystems are exacerbated since these communities have limited financial and technical resources to protect themselves Although numerous initiatives from public and private actors have emerged, which aim to mitigate global anthropogenic climate change, environmental degradation continues to reach new and alarming levels each year. Scientists have produced compelling evidence that shows that the entire earth system is now operating outside of boundaries that are considered to be safe, meaning the future impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly unpredictable. Further, the scientific evidence available shows that the human quality of life will suffer substantially, leading to further degradation by the year 2050, if we continue on our current path (Hickmann, 2016). Further, these disproportionate impacts are not a new phenomenon, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007 stated that climate change could cause increases in malnutrition and consequent disorders; increased deaths, disease and injury due to heatwaves, floods, storms, fires and droughts; the increased burden of diarrheal disease; the increased frequency of cardiorespiratory diseases due to higher concentrations of ground level ozone; and, the altered spatial distribution of some infectious disease vectors (IPCC, 2007). The global challenge has been whether we can develop an effective and equitable climate governance regime to provide a solution to the rapidly advancing issue of global climate change. The multidimensional issue of climate change demands cooperative political action across scales. Since the emergence of climate change as a global political issue, the climate governance regime has been unable to create a legal framework that will stabilize the climate system. However, after more than two decades of negotiations the global climate governance regime developed a new 1 legal framework which includes obligations for nearly all countries to take actions against climate