“Lord, here comes the flood”: Investigating the chains of climate change discourses in Kiribati Lasse Kolbjørn Anke Hansen Master’s thesis Spring 2012 Department of Comparative politics University of Bergen Abstract This thesis is aimed at uncovering the chains of climate change discourses in Kiribati. Building a theoretical and analytical framework from literature on accountability and responsiveness, I separate between four dimensions of discourses on climate change: the electoral channel, the state actor interactions, non-electoral citizen participation, and finally, the non-domestic interactions. This is supplemented by previous research on small and island states, cultural and historical aspects related to politics in the Pacific, as well as studies on domestic climate change policy formation. An exploratory single-case study is done using data triangulation with a main emphasis on elite and expert interviews conducted during fieldwork on Fiji and Kiribati in early 2012. Through interviews with centrally placed political, organizational, bureaucratic and academic persons I have been able to secure inside accounts of the phenomenon under scrutiny. This has been corroborated by documentary, archival and to a certain degree observational data. The main findings are that there is little interaction on broad climate change policies in Kiribati between political actors, and the discourses that do exist are dominated by the government. However, citizens, parliament and civil society seem more inclined to engage the government on concrete, “street level” issues. The government also interacts with non-domestic actors frequently on climate change, but due to a reliance on foreign technical and financial assistance, the former is in a disadvantaged position in this relationship most times. Drawing on previous literature on small states, climate change policy formation and accountability theory, I am able to set forth hypotheses explaining these results. Structural, institutional and cultural factors work together with the valence-ness of the climate change issue to create limited discourses outside government circles. At the same time, these causal effects also contributed to the interactions on climate change being mainly focused on concrete events that perhaps could be traced back to climate change, such as coastal erosion, but without this being done explicitly in most cases. I conclude that it is hard to see how one can easily change the structural conditions that are inherent to the country’s smallness and isolation. An implication of my hypothesized causal relationships is that non-domestic actors are playing, and must continue to play, an important role in strengthening the capacity and ability of all political actors in Kiribati. However, more research is needed to determine whether the factors set forth are necessary or sufficient to create the lack of climate change discourse beyond “street level” implementations observed. ii Acknowledgements This thesis has taken me the better part of one year, and what a year it has been! However, I would not have been able to do it without help along the way. First of all, my supervisor, professor Lise Rakner at the Department of Comparative Politics have been invaluable. She somehow always knew when I needed comfort and when I needed a strict hand. I am also thankful for Professor Stein Kuhnle supervising my early outlines. I would also like to thank the KliMPS groups and Climate Crossroads project for allowing me to participate, present and get feedback on my project from the beginning to the end. Thanks also to Lars Svåsand and the Democracy and Development group at the Department for Comparative Politics for letting me present an earlier draft of this thesis and for useful comments. Edvard Hviding and Camilla Borrevik at the Department of Social Anthropology at UiB were also very helpful by giving me first-hand accounts of how to do fieldwork in the Pacific region and putting me in touch with their contacts. Furthermore, I cannot thank the people of Fiji and Kiribati enough for the warmth and hospitality they showed me during my fieldwork. I want to give extra praise to the staff at Café Victoria in Suva: thank you for allowing me to sit for hours with my pot of tea. The same goes to Neemia, Taraem, Freda and the rest of the staff at the Utirerei Guesthouse on Tarawa. Thanks for keeping me company so far from home and for the laughs we shared. It showed that friendship can truly grow across all distances. Thanks also to Biri for the egg sandwiches that kept me going. They deserve a bigger audience. To all those who took the time and effort to speak with me for my thesis: this one is for you. Hope you find it useful. I would also like to thank my parents and all my teachers from the 18 years I have spent in school. Each and everyone have inspired me in some way, and they gave me the belief that education was the key to everything. A special thanks goes to my 9th grade teacher who told me that I should study political science. I followed your advice and look where it got me! To Timone, Lukas and Theodor: thank you so much for reminding your uncle what truly matters when he became too involved in his work. To the crew at Ullaloftet: I am proud to have shared all the ups and downs that come with writing a master’s thesis with such wonderful people! Finally, behind every successful man stands a surprised woman. I started going to the study hall to be with her and now we’re engaged. Dina, you are my everything! iii Table of Contents Chapter 1 – Introduction: climate change discourses in a small island state.................................... 1 1.1. Contributions of my thesis ........................................................................................................................... 4 1.2. Setting the scene: The case of Kiribati ......................................................................................................... 5 1.2.1. Climate change and Kiribati .................................................................................................................. 6 1.2.2. Kiribati and climate change on the international arena ....................................................................... 7 1.3. Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2 – Theorizing climate change interactions: smallness, culture and accountability ........... 10 2.1. Previous studies of small and island states: smallness as limitation or opportunity? ............................... 10 2.2. Cultural and historical factors of the Pacific .............................................................................................. 15 2.3 Climate change and policy-making ............................................................................................................. 17 2.4. Four dimensions of discourse: political interactions, responsiveness and accountability ........................ 19 2.4.1. The first dimension: Voters and government interaction through the electoral channel ................. 21 2.4.2. The second dimension: State actors alleviating the shortcomings of the electoral channel? ........... 23 2.4.3. The third dimension: Civil society and non-electoral citizen participation ........................................ 25 2.4.4. The fourth dimension: non-domestic actor interaction and external accountability ........................ 28 2.5. Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 3 – Methodology: case study research using data triangulation ...................................... 32 3.1. Doing case study research ......................................................................................................................... 32 3.2. Case selection: generalization?.................................................................................................................. 35 3.3. Data collection: methodological triangulation ......................................................................................... 38 3.3.1. Qualitative interviewing ..................................................................................................................... 39 3.3.2. Other data sources: triangulating using documentation and archival records .................................. 44 3.4 A final reflection: measurement validity and conceptual stretching .......................................................... 46 Chapter 4 – Presentation of results: executive dominance and reliance on foreign assistance ...... 48 4.1. Short summary of domestic climate change policies of Kiribati ................................................................ 48 4.2. Electoral channel: Climate change and elections ...................................................................................... 50 4.3. State actors interaction on climate change ............................................................................................... 53 4.3.1. The courts and the government ........................................................................................................ 53 4.3.2. The relationship between parliament and the government .............................................................. 54 iv 4.4. Non-electoral citizen and civil society participation .................................................................................