Dissertations / Theses: 'Barriers to climate change justice'

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Oliveira, Karen Alvarenga de. "Climate change and distributive justice." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.418105.

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Blomfield, Megan. "Global justice, natural resources and climate change." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.653075.

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In this thesis I examine the problem of climate change in the light of a theory of justice for natural resources. I discuss the implications of this theory regarding how to deal with climate change fairly, and consider the relevance of historical injustices in natural resource use to our current attempts to achieve climate justice. In presenting this account, I discuss a number of arguments in the climate justice literature that draw on a principle of equal shares for certain natural resources - the atmosphere, for example, or resources that can be conceptualised in terms of ecological space. I argue that though natural resources are appropriate objects of egalitarian distribution, justice does not entitle individuals to equal shares of these resources. In place of the principle of equal shares, I defend a contractualist justification of natural resource rights; according to which these rights should be allocated to enable all human beings to satisfy their basic needs as members of self-determining political communities. Resources have not been used justly in the past, given that the history of our world is one of colonialism, the resource curse, and the dispossession of indigenous peoples. To deal with climate change fairly, I argue that we must seek to ensure that individuals and collectives can exercise adequate control over what happens to the world's natural resources in the future - both within their territory and further afield. I use this alternative conception of natural resource justice to consider the question of where to set the ceiling on future greenhouse gas emissions, how to share the resulting emissions budget, and how to understand historical accountability in the face of unavoided climate impacts.

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Vuori, Vappu. "“1,5℃ to Stay Alive” - Climate Justice Discourse and Climate Change Denial Discourse in Climate Change Politics." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22691.

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Climate change as a global phenomenon threatens human rights and causes social injustices. This thesis examines the genealogies of climate justice discourse and climate change denial discourse in the context of international climate change politics. The aim is to understand the construction of and the correlation between the discourses and how the discourses relate to human rights. The thesis employs discourse analysis with a conception of climate justice and a neoclassical realist theory applied to climate change politics. Climate justice discourse is found to interact with chiefly moral and political terms, whereas the denial discourse interacts mainly with economic and scientific terms. Consequently, there is a lack of interaction between the discourses as they operate in different levels of communication and it has, to some extent, caused stalemate in climate change politics. Additionally, while climate justice discourse makes use of the human rights framework, the denial discourse undermines it.

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Tomlinson, Luke Lindsay. "Justice, governance and climate change : designing fair and effective climate institutions." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2d9f47d1-77da-4406-8514-5c40da041879.

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Multilateral efforts are yet to produce meaningful action on climate change. Part of the problem with these approaches is a perceived lack of fairness among state actors. Whilst academic discussion has traditionally focused on the issue of distributive fairness, very little has been said about procedural fairness in this respect. To this end, this thesis analyses principles of procedural justice in order to develop practical policy measures for institutional design. It does so in four steps. First, it argues that procedural justice is important for reaching a mutually acceptable agreement when there is reasonable disagreement about the substantive ends that collective action should achieve. Second, it develops several principles of procedural justice that should govern the decision-making processes of climate institutions. This includes principles that govern who should participate in decisions, how these decisions should take place, and how transparent they should be. Third, it considers the relative value that procedural justice should be given against other important ends. In doing so, it proposes that procedural justice is a fundamental feature of fair and effective climate institutions. Finally, it considers what this means for climate institutions in practice by determining a set of pragmatic policy prescriptions that can guide the design of climate governance institutions.

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Banuelos, Liana (Liana M. ). "Overcoming Barriers to Institutionalize Climate Change Resiliency Practices : MassDOT." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118266.

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Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 91-93).
The most pronounced climate change effects in northeastern United States will be increased precipitation events, more frequent heat waves, and substantial sea level rise. These temperature and flooding outcomes place substantial risk on vital infrastructure that supports economic development, public health, and access to resources and amenities within the state of Massachusetts. As such, there is a need to mitigate these risks through long-range planning and climate change adaptation strategies. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) recognizes that infrastructure must be fortified through these methods but has yet to establish a systematic approach for quantifying climate change impacts, evaluating the costs and benefits of selective intervention, and implementing adaptation strategies. However, MassDOT operates within a complex political setting of constraints and conditions that may or may not be conducive to particular implementation mechanisms. Additionally, the hydrologic modeling and spatial analysis needed to identify specific areas of transportation infrastructure that are especially vulnerable to climate change effects will not be completed until late 2018. Cognizant of these constraints, this thesis aims to (1) synthesize the best climate change resiliency strategies from other large infrastructure owners/DOTs and (2) draw upon lessons learned from other agencies to recommend strategies for overcoming barriers to institutionalization at MassDOT. In this way, the department will have a roadmap to addressing existing gaps and barriers to implementation once the climate adaptation and vulnerability assessment tool has been developed. By strategically protecting infrastructure that will have the greatest benefit to MassDOT's constituents at the least cost, the department will be able to minimize the impacts of climate change and maintain a satisfying level of service despite increasing climate stresses on infrastructure and operations.
by Liana Banuelos.
M.C.P.

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Brookes, Andrew. "Arguing about the climate : towards communicative justice in international climate change politics /." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/7081.

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Saritas, Alan. "Perceptions of barriers to climate change adaptation by Uppsala farmers." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-398615.

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Current emissions are likely to produce substantial impacts for the agricultural sector and the salience for adapting to these changes in the agricultural sector is increasing. While Nordic agriculture is faced with both opportunities and challenges from climate change, a still developing political and institutional structure in combination with an extreme drought during the summer of 2018 is exacerbating existing long-term trends of financial pressure in the sector, particularly for meat and dairy farmers. Previous research has highlighted that there is a relative lack of studies attempting to understand the decision-making process of climate change adaptation and there is a currently a growing field of research focusing on the barriers to adaptation faced by farmers. This study primarily used Grothmann and Patt’s MCCAPP model in order to determine what factors influenced farmers decision-making when deciding to adapt to climate change. The results of this study found that the predominant barrier to adaptation among farmers were uncertainty regarding future climatic impacts, which resulted in a lower confidence in adaptation strategy efficacy to produce financial stability and returns. Climate mitigation was also identified as a potential trade-off when pursuing adaptation strategies. To a lesser degree, farmers also attested to farm-level differences, such as the availability of water resources as impacting the strategies that they were able to pursue. Opportunities to facilitate adaptation through institutional support was identified, as farmers both require better information regarding adaptation strategies and subsequent trade-offs and synergies it might create in relation to farmers priority issues such as financial viability and climate mitigation. More effective means of financial assistance to counteract the effects of extreme climatic conditions was also identified. Lastly, social capital was an important facilitator of adaptation implementation, but one that is threatened due to the continuingly deteriorating socio-economic conditions that farmers experience in their sector.

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Robinson, Pamela J. "Canadian municipal response to climate change, a framework for analyzing barriers." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape4/PQDD_0018/NQ53743.pdf.

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Main, Kelly Leilani. "Revisiting barriers to climate change adaptation in coastal municipalities in Massachusetts." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118243.

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Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 52-[58]).
Massachusetts has positioned itself as a leader in climate adaptation and mitigation action. However, there is little knowledge about how exactly climate adaptation is occurring at the local level and what barriers municipalities in the state face in implementing adaptation strategies. In response to a 2011 study on barriers to climate adaptation in coastal municipalities in Massachusetts that found 'leadership' and 'values and beliefs' as the two main barriers to adaptation, this thesis set out to ask: how, given the increase in extreme weather events and the presence of significant political leadership at the state level, have barriers to climate adaptation for coastal municipalities changed? And if the barriers have changed, what are the new barriers? The research draws on sixteen interviews with staff in six municipalities and arrives at the following findings: (i) barriers to adaptation have shifted from the understanding phase to barriers found in the implementation phase, and include the following cross cutting themes: (ii) private property interests are a significant barrier because publicly funded adaptation projects require public easements on all property that benefits from public funding; (iii) the potential of decreasing property tax revenue continues to be a concern for towns that rely on valuable waterfront property as a pillar of their municipal income; (iv) the town meeting process illuminates many concerns about equity in regards to who should pay for adaptation projects; (v) planners are aware of zoning and land use strategies for long-term adaptation, but such projects are still unpopular and unlikely to pass a town meeting vote in the near term; and (vi) uncertainty about significant damage caused by extreme weather events is more challenging to manage than slow-onset changes such as sea level rise or temperature changes. The findings lead one to believe that adaptation planning is not in fact a bureaucratic issue to be overcome with information, charts, and resources, but a much more fundamentally conceptual issue faced by a society grappling with the implications of shifting economic, social, and environmental conditions caused by climate change. By viewing the story of coastal adaptation through the unique challenges of individual towns and the experiences of the people who make these towns function, one finds that layered deep within this tension is the challenge and opportunity of restoring a highly privatized coastline to the commons.
by Kelly Leilani Main.
M.C.P.

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Ledin, Sofia. "Over the Barriers - A Study on Climate Change Communication on Websites." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Medie- och Informationsteknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-176990.

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This study examines communication about global warming with an emphasis on encouraging a change in a viewers behavior, and how this can be practically visualised on websites. The study first gathers research from the fields of climate change communication, marketing and psychology, then a survey is sent out and an overview of websites about global warming is made. The findings from all this is then applied to a Hi-fi prototype of a website. The study aims to answer the question: How could visualized messages and information about global warming encourage change in a viewers behavior? User tests of the finished prototype gave mixed results. The results suggest that the site succeeded in creating a positive tone and emotional impact, but were not as successful at encouraging change and raising perceived self-efficacy. It may have been successful at encouraging hopefulness, and informing, but it is a bit unclear due to contradicting results from quantitative personal ratings and qualitative interview answers.

Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet

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Running, Katrina Marie. "Towards Climate Justice: Examining Concern for Climate Change in Developed, Transitioning and Developing Countries." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/297009.

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This dissertation is a comparative international study of attitudes towards climate change. Using multilevel models, individual level data from the 2005-2008 wave of the World Values Survey, and country level data from the 2010 Climate Risk Index and the World Bank, this research identifies the factors associated with concern for global warming and support for various environmental policies and behaviors in economically developed, transitioning, and developing countries. The first paper addresses an ongoing debate in environmental sociology about the extent to which concern for environmental problems is a result of the objective deterioration of environmental conditions or subjective values among environmentally-oriented individuals. Findings indicate that a country's recent experience with climate-related environmental disasters has little to no effect on concern for global warming. Some support is found for the subjective values explanation, especially in countries at the most advanced stage of economic development. The second paper frames climate change as an asymmetrical social dilemma and tests whether four distinct citizenship identities are associated with the odds an individual considers global warming a very serious problem. This study finds that identifying as world citizens and autonomous individuals increases the odds an individual judges global warming very serious, while identifying as national citizens or local community members has no relationship with evaluations of global warming. The third paper examines the impact of numerous measures of security/vulnerability on individual willingness to make environment-economy trade-offs. The data reveal that higher household incomes, residing in a country with higher per capita GDP, and higher rates of adult literacy are positively associated with prioritizing environmental protection over economic growth. However, residents of economically developing countries (or countries designated Non-Annex I by the Kyoto Protocol) are also much more likely to express willingness to donate personal income for the protection of the environment compared to residents of developed (Annex I) countries. The findings from these three studies have implications for sociological research on the relationship between economic inequality and environmental attitudes, the conditions under which international cooperation on climate is more or less likely, and the quest for climate justice.

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Howarth, Candice. "Perceived barriers to sustainable travel behaviour change and the role of information on climate change." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.533284.

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Göthberg, Rosalind. "Climate Justice and the Paris Agreement : Dimensions of Climate Justice in the Nationally Determined Contributions." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-411574.

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Climate change is a critical threat to all the countries of the world today, not least because of the severe human rights infringements it may well lead to. However, although climate change is a collective, global challenge, there are considerable inequalities regarding contribution to cause and burden of the effects. Those suffering the most from the effects of climate change tend to be least responsible for the emissions causing it. The theoretical concept of climate justice aims to address these injustices, between different countries as well as societal groups and generations. To contribute to the understanding of how this concept is present in the global climate debate today, this thesis examines a selection of the Paris Agreement parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from a perspective of climate justice. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework developed by Andrea Schapper, focusing on three dimensions of climate justice – international, intra-societal and intergenerational. Through this framework, a total of 36 NDCs are studied, the top and bottom three countries for each world region based on levels of cumulative CO2-emissions. The aim of the case selection has been to obtain a variation regarding development status, vulnerability to the effects of climate change, levels of greenhouse gas emissions and geographical location of the studied countries. The results of the study show that all the dimensions are present in at least some of the studied NDCs, but to a very different extent. Primarily, the parties discuss the issue of international justice. Intra-societal justice is touched upon quite frequently but very few bring up the matter of intergenerational justice. Moreover, all three dimensions are predominantly handled by countries classified as ”developing” (according to the UN statistics division). This implies that climate justice is a higher priority for the most vulnerable to and least responsible for climate change, which is problematic for many reasons. Above all, it indicates that rich, industrialized countries are reluctant to take responsibility for their current and historical emissions, as well as the effect those emissions have on others.

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Doughty-Grajales, Miguel. "Identifying Institutional Factors that are Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in Vietnam." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-210650.

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The process to successfully adapt to climate change for farmer communities’ in Vietnam faces a multitude of challenges. This thesis proposes that institutional barriers to implementing policy related to climate change adaptation occur in key sectors related to farmer’s livelihoods at the local level, which are important to facilitating the adaptation process for farmer communities. It analyses the current state of the climate change policy landscape, investigates water, agricultural and disaster risk management sectors in Vietnam in the literature, and examines more closely how governmental institutions at the local level facilitate these in a field study of Bo De commune. The institutional barriers to successful adaptation to climate change reported at the local level in the field study are similar to the types of barriers identified across the literature, related to communication, technology, leadership facilitated by institutions. The results confirm that institutional barriers are occurring at the local level that are impeding the implementation process of key policies; this limits the ability of the farmer community to adapt successfully to climate change.

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Azhoni, Adani. "Adapting water management in India to climate change : institutions, networks and barriers." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2017. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/13660.

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Climate change is experienced most through the medium of water. The ability of water institutions and the factors that enable or hinder them to purposefully adapt to the new and additional challenges brought by climate change require better understanding. Factors that influence their perception of climate change impacts and initiatives being taken for adaptation are shaped by various enabling factors and barriers through the interaction with both governmental and non-governmental institutions across administrative scales. Better understanding of these adaptation enablers and barriers is essential for devising adaptation strategies. This research aims to identify and expound the characteristics that enable or hinder institutions to adapt for water management, and hence, it evaluates the involvement of key governmental and non-governmental institutions in India and the inter-institutional networks between them. It surveyed webpages and online documents of sixty Union Government institutions and interviewed representatives from twenty-six governmental, non-governmental, research and academic institutions operating at the national level and another twenty-six institutions operating within the State of Himachal Pradesh in India to assess the characteristics that enable or hinder adaptation. While the online projection of institutional involvement and interaction among key Union Government institutions on climate change and water indicate a more centralized network pointing to Planning Commission and Ministry of Environment and Forest, the interview responses indicated a more distributed network with both Ministries of Water Resources and Environment and Forest recognized as key institutions thereby indicating a potential variation in perception of who is in-charge. Moreover, online documents show institutions that are involved in water have less mention of climate change compared to Union Government ministries involved in less climate-sensitive sectors indicating that impacts of climate change on water are potentially ignored. While it is evident that research and consulting institutions engaging with both national and state level institutions play a key role in enabling adaptation, various barriers pertaining to data and information accessibility, inadequacy of resources and implementation gaps exist particularly due to inter-institutional network fragmentations. Although barriers identified in this study bear resemblance to barriers identified by other researchers in other contexts, this research shows similar barriers can emerge from different underlying causes and are highly interconnected; thereby indicating the need for addressing adaptation barriers collectively as a wider governance issue. Since many of the adaptation barriers emerge from wider governance challenges and are related to larger developmental issues, the findings have important policy implications. Among the various issues that the government needs to address is improving the inter-institutional networks between water institutions so that information dissemination, sharing of learning experiences and data accessibility is improved and prescriptive legislations are seen to be inadequate in this regard. Restructuring the way officials in government water institutions are recruited and deployed is suggested as a potential solution for improving the inter-institutional networks. The research elucidates that inter-institutional networks and transboundary institutions are two pillars that supports adaptation and also bridges the gap between adaptive capacity and adaptation manifestation that enable water institutions to cross the chasm of adaptation barriers. Thus the thesis presents an important analysis of key characteristics that enable or hinder water management institutions to adapt to climate change which have been so far under acknowledged by other studies through the analysis of the state of climate change adaptation in India. Therefore, this study provides valuable insights for developing countries, particularly, facing similar challenges of adapting water management for climate change.

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Mathez, Myriel Julie. "Climate Justice for Tuvalu : Awarding Compensation for Loss and Damages caused by Anthropogenic Climate Change." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Malmö högskola, Institutionen för globala politiska studier (GPS), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-42656.

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This thesis aims to enable the compensation for sustained Loss and Damage on Tuvalu through a principle conforming to the requirements of Climate Justice. By applying the method of conceptual framework analysis, the various concepts which form the larger frameworks of Climate Justice and Loss and Damage are identified and narrowed down to parameters. By applying the parameters of Loss and Damage, the facts of Tuvalu’s case are collected. The theory of Climate Justice is applied in the analysis to determine the requirements for compensation for Tuvalu and a concept, with which the duty to compensate can be fairly allocated. The thesis finds that the Polluter Pays Principle in connection to the Ability to Pay- and the Beneficiary Pays- Principle is best suited, since it considers both Tuvalu’s and the compensators side and thus fulfils the requirements of Climate Justice.

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Campbell, Katharine M. "New Territories of Equality: Conceptualizations of Climate Justice in International Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1366731277.

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Irlam, James Hamilton. "Barriers to cycling mobility in Masiphumelele, Cape Town: a best-worst scaling approach." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20833.

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Non-motorised transport (NMT) such as cycling and walking has multiple social, economic, environmental, climate and public health benefits and is integral to the agenda of sustainable development. There is considerable potential for more cycling mobility in South Africa, especially in low-income communities (LICs). Barriers to cycling mobility were investigated in Masiphumelele, a LIC in Cape Town, in order to inform recommendations for promoting cycling as a mode of transport in this community and beyond. A mixed methods design of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. A focus group discussion (FGD) with local bicycle shop customers informed the design of a cross-sectional cluster sampling questionnaire and a Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) stated choice survey of 100 household residents. The BWS survey used 10 choice sets of 4statements each to rank the relative importance to study participants of 20 potential barriers to cycling mobility on their average Best-Worse (B-W) scores.

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Dowiatt, Matthew. "Urban Adaptation Planning in Response to Climate Change Risk." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1598284306542077.

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Sundqvist, Max. "Climate justice : three roads towards a sustainable future." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-140296.

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In this I will explore the ethical challenge of global climate change by analysing three accounts of how responsibility for climate change should be distributed. I explore why it is valuable to view climate change as part of a bigger ethical problem of resources, distribution and global justice. Furthermore, I will argue that a road towards change by a cosmo political theory of justice is the most reasonable option. The theme of my argumentation is that the challenge of global climate change should be understood as a problem between human beings, not between states, or via schemes for distribution or rigid systematic solutions. Many theories of justice fail to do so with challenging and potentially dangerous consequences.
I den här uppsatsen så kommer jag utforska klimatförändringar som etisk utmaning. Jag undersöker varför det är värdefullt att se klimatförändringar som en del av ett större problem som handlar om resurser, distribuering och global rättvisa. Jag kommer undersöka tre möjliga vägar till en lösning på klimatförändringar som etiskt problem och hävda att en kosmopolitisk rättviseteori är det rimligaste alternativet. Klimatförändringens utmaning måste förstås som ett problem människor emellan och inte stater emellan genom planer för distribuering av resurser eller någon annan mer eller mindre regid systematisk lösning. Många rättviseteorier lyckas mindre väl med detta med utmanande och potentiellt farliga konsekvenser som resultat.

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Kurtz, Reed Michael. "Climate Change and the Ecology of the Political: Crisis, Hegemony, and the Struggle for Climate Justice." The Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1566180060639625.

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Bennett, Christopher D. "For the sake of future generations : intergenerational justice and climate change mitigation." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2017. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/103409/.

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[Introductory paragraph] The present generation must confront a challenge. The challenge is to determine what it must do for the sake of future generations. This challenge is quite puzzling because the present generation, like its predecessors, will pass on to future generations a complex mix of goods, inventions, institutions and opportunities containing a range of benefits and burdens. In this thesis, I focus on one key intergenerational problem – anthropogenic climate change – considering some of the questions of intergenerational justice that it raises. While it has not always been the case, climate and climate change have recently taken on new significance as a process to which humans can, and in fact do, contribute. More specifically, while paleoclimatic data show substantial variation in the Earth’s climate (Masson- Delmotte, Schulz, Abe-Ouchi, Beer, Ganopolski, J.F. González Rouco, E. Jansen, et al., 2013: 385), an ever-growing mass of evidence shows that human activity – particularly the sustained emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) – is beginning to change the global climate, with much greater changes still to come (IPCC, 2013b: 4, 19ff). This produces what is known as anthropogenic climate change, “a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer”, and that results from human activities (IPCC, 2013a: 1448, 1450).

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Dietzel, Alix. "Global justice and climate change : bridging the gap between theory and practice." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10453/.

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Climate change is one of the most significant problems facing humanity today. As scientific evidence continues to accumulate, it is becoming increasingly apparent that climate change requires an urgent global response. Without such a response, rising sea levels, severe weather patterns, and the spread of deadly diseases threaten the lives of both present and future generations. And yet, action on climate change has been characterized by lack of progress and break downs in communication. It is widely assumed that the global response to climate change has so far been inadequate. Alarmed by this lack of progress, the thesis aims to explore exactly why we should consider current global climate change action as inadequate, and what normative principles must underwrite a more just global response to climate change. More specifically, the thesis will conduct a global justice based assessment of multilateral and networked climate change governance. This normative assessment of current practice is not only urgently needed in order to clarify the inadequacies of the climate change response, but also serves the purpose of bridging the gap between political theorists who concern themselves with the ethical dimensions of climate change, and scholars who focus on climate change governance practice. The thesis aims to illustrate that climate justice theorists can provide normative insights into current practice, which can inform the field of climate change governance and ultimately contribute to assessing how the response to climate change can become more just. In this way, the thesis provides a starting point for a discussion between two fields, which have traditionally been concerned with complementary, yet separate, research agendas. The thesis demonstrates that the bridging of these two fields can underwrite future thinking about a more just global response to climate change.

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Söderström, Ellen. "Men, masculinities and climate change : A study of climate change impacts in cases from Greenland, Australia Peru and South Africa." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-44709.

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‘Climate change is not gender neutral’ is a statement that has gained more recognition within the climate change debate over the last decade. This has resulted in a new field of research called gender and climate change. The mainstream gender and climate change debate has earlier almost exclusively focused on women’s vulnerability. A brief reading of the literature clearly shows that men are rarely observed in this context. The objective of this thesis is to broaden the understanding of the relation between gender and climate change by bringing men into the discussion. I have selected four cases/countries where existing research on men’s gendered experiences of climate change are mentioned. These take place in Greenland, Australia, Peru and South Africa. The result show five common findings between the cases: gendered responsibilities, changing traditional gender roles, psychological impacts, alcohol consumption and violence against women. The concept hegemonic masculinities is utilized as a framework used to understand why men are negatively affected by climate change. Masculine norms of attitudes and behavior identified in the multiple case studies are invulnerability and unwillingness to seek help. The analysis show that in times of climate variability can masculine norms be damaging for both men and women. A second analytical framework, the gender transformative approach brings the analysis to critically reflect upon masculinities and climate change as functions of power. From this perspective this thesis concludes that the gender and climate change discourse needs to move beyond a focus on women’s vulnerabilities, which divide the world into two classes: women as victims and men as perpetrators. This approach rather urge for a focus on the structures of power and domination within laws, behaviors and institutions that generates injustices.

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Chappel, Angela. "Barriers and enablers to the adoption of practices to improve crop production and reduce vulnerability to climate risks in the semi-arid Omusati Region,Namibia." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29455.

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Namibia is almost entirely semi-arid or arid. With evaporation rates being higher than precipitation rates, farming conditions are extremely adverse. This is exacerbated by the impacts of climate change, namely increased temperature, decreased rainfall and higher rainfall variability, all of which are projected to worsen in the future. More than half of the population is reliant on rain-fed subsistence agriculture for their source of food but these challenging conditions mean that there is widespread food insecurity across the subsistence farming community in Namibia. This leads to a state of vulnerability and dependence on government support in the form of social grants, food aid and remittances from family members in urban areas. The locus for this study is three villages: Omaenene, Okathitukeengombe and Oshihau, in the north-central Omusati region of Namibia. This research investigated local perceptions of climate change vulnerability, farming practices used in other regions that could reduce this vulnerability and finally barriers and enablers to the uptake of new farming practices. These objectives were answered through the use of a systematic literature review and interviews with the local community. Findings revealed that the local population is already experiencing a hotter and drier climate, which has decreased their yield output. Many farmers are concerned about future climatic changes while some are comforted by support from the government or God. In both of these cases, the farmers are vulnerable because they are not currently adapting or planning to adapt to climate change. Although a majority of the farmers claimed that they are willing to try new farming practices, they are inhibited by: limited access to new information, mistrust of new farming practices as well as insufficient labour and resources. Three adaptive farming practices – planting pits, bunds and composting – aimed predominantly at water harvesting, soil conservation and increasing soil quality were selected by the researcher, from a systematic literature review, as appropriate for the village sites. Some of the social and institutional enablers that could be enhanced to promote the uptake of these practices are: i) support from local authorities and possibly enlisting the help of religious and traditional leaders (including building trust within these networks), ii) enhancing information access predominantly through the radio, iii) explaining the severity of climate change and the value of adaptation practices, iv) establishing self-help labour groups and v) the creation of demonstrations sites. In the face of irreversible climate change, this research aims to contribute to empowering local people to adapt their farming practices to the harmful experienced and predicted impacts of climate change and climate variability.

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Kassam, Zain. "Barriers and Enablers of Water Conservation in Formal Residential Households in Cape Town, South Africa." Master's thesis, Faculty of Science, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33827.

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In recent years, climate change has caused great changes in weather patterns such as extreme changes in rainfall leading to prolonged drought. Rapid urbanization has led to more than half of the world's population living in urban centres, and the growing urban population must share increasing scarcity of water, exacerbated by climate change. Thus, climate change and urbanization has contributed to the emergence of more water-stressed cities. This thesis is concerned with water conservation as a method of adaptation to an urban water crisis. It looks into the water crisis in the City of Cape Town that took place during 2015-2017. The severe water crisis has been attributed to prolonged drought, rapid population growth, reliance on six-rain-fed dams to provide 95% of the city's water supply, and excessively high water use by formal residential households. The City of Cape Town took various measures to manage both the demand and the supply of water in order to alleviate the stress caused by the water scarcity. From January 2016, a public education campaign was paired with progressively increased water restrictions. However, despite the growing water restrictions and the worsening of the water crisis, Capetonians did not reduce water consumption enough. Against this background, this thesis aims at gaining a nuanced understanding of the barriers and enablers to water conservation amongst residents in formal residential households in the City of Cape Town. The study focuses on formal residential households because the residents use 65% of the total municipal water supply. Data collection was carried out primarily in the Southern and Northern suburbs and consisted of in-depth interviews with 44 respondents using a semi-structured interview guide about daily water conservation as well as perceptions of the water crisis and of their role in mitigating the water crisis. The data analysis involved development of a coding system and identification of three categories of water savers amongst the highest, the lowest, and the median levels of water conversation within the data set, referred to as respective the ‘avid', the ‘low' and the ‘moderate' water savers. The key findings are that the main barrier of water conservation for the ‘low water savers' is lack of willingness to inconvenience one-self in relation to water conservation. Other important barriers to water conservation for the ‘low water savers' included lack of information regarding the on-going water crisis, perceptions of the water crisis as non-urgent, limited trust in water governance institutions, and interest in maximising own benefit from the common water resource. The dominant enabler amongst the ‘avid water savers' is the pro-environment identity they possess, combined with a high self-efficacy to make a difference to the water crisis through their actions. The study showed that this dominant enabling factor works as a catalyst to enhance other enabling factors, especially seeking information and engaging in conversations about water conservation within their social networks. Barriers such as the discomfort of taking short showers, standing inside a bucket during a shower and collecting greywater for re-use are seen as necessary actions that align with their identity and altruistic outlook towards the environment. Interestingly, ‘the moderate water savers' held similar proenvironment identity but were constrained, mostly by institutional barriers, to reduce their water use. Thus, the overall argument is that there is not one barrier or one enabler to water conservation. Rather, the main argument is that an overriding enabling factor for increased water conservation in daily life is a pro-environment identity combined with a high sense of self-efficacy. Finally, this study has shown that the factor of Personal Characteristics, serves as the main enabler and as the main barrier to water conservation because Personal Characteristics have a ripple effect on how factors such as Information, Social, Technical, Financial or Institutional factors affect a respondent's water conservation.

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Häckner, Lina. "Climate Change and Agriculture in Babati : Awareness Strategies Constrains." Thesis, Södertörn University College, School of Life Sciences, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-2685.

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Climate change caused by green house gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, is today’s most debated environmental issue. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, with the legally binding Kyoto protocol, is the emission regulatory framework. Tanzania has ratified both the conventions supporting carbon reductions.

Tanzania has a very varied climate with two rainfall regimes dominating the country, bimodal and unimodal. Scientific literature predicts a 2,2-4°C average increase in temperature for Tanzania, all studies also predict a higher increase in the cooler period and lower in the warm period. Rainfall predictions are less certain but in general a 10 % average increase is expected but the distribution uneven, both between rain periods and geographically. Tanzanian reports estimate a 5-45 % increase in rainfall in bimodal regions and a 5-15 % decrease in unimodal regions. The distribution of increase in bimodal regions will be uneven, with an increase in the long rain period and a decrease in the short rain period.

Agriculture is indisputably the most important source of income in Tanzania standing for 80% of employment and 50% of GNP. Climate change will therefore inevitably affect the economy and livelihood of people. Developing countries are also more vulnerable due to lower adaptation capacity. Effects on Tanzania are predicted to be both positive and negative. Maize production, the major staple, is predicted an average 33% decline while cash crops like coffee and cotton are predicted to increase. To be able to adapt there first has to be a perception of need to adapt, adaption strategies then have to be developed and barriers worked through. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the level of awareness, strategies and barriers existing for adaption to climate change on national, regional and local level, Tanzania nationally and Babati regionally and locally. The research questions are; How do people perceive climate change? What are the strategies for adapting to climate change? What are the barriers for adaption to climate change? At national level policy framework and strategies were used to answer the research questions. At regional and local level a field study was conducted in Babati to answer the research questions at these levels.

The study showed that Tanzania nationally has declared their conviction in climate change and state that the issue has to be addressed. Agriculture is identified as one of the most vulnerable areas however climate change is not mainstreamed into agricultural and environmental policy framework. In Babati district no policy was found on climate change and official perception varied. Concerns were related to timing and amount of rainfall, the results were the same for farmers. Global climate change was also known for both studied groups and existed as a parallel truth with the local reason for changes. A number of adaption strategies are also identified nationally, both used and potential, where small scale irrigation is the primary adaptive step. Switching to draught resistant crops is also prioritized in the North eastern region. In Babati adaption strategies were promoted, even though there was not a general policy or perception, by officials to switch to short-term crops and planting of trees. Switching cops was also the most commonly used strategy by farmers along with traditional diversification. Nationally a large number of barriers are also identified including, lack of funding, poverty, HIV, lack of infrastructure and analytic capacity. Officials in Babati also mentioned the lack of money, deforestation, lack of clouds, education, irrigation and seeds. The farmers in Babati were not so clear about what they needed to adapt, irrigation, livestock backup, diversification and switching crops were mentioned, not differing much from used strategies.

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Selato, Janet Chatanga. "Credibility and scale as barriers to uptake and use of seasonal climate forecasts in Bobirwa Sub-District, Botswana." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27526.

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Seasonal climate forecasts (SCF) can play a crucial role in reducing vulnerability to climate variability, particularly for rural populations reliant on agriculture for their livelihood. The use of disseminated SCF by farmers in decision-making could reduce losses and maximise benefits in agriculture. Despite the potential usefulness of SCF, incorporating them into farming decisions is a complex process that navigates through several barriers which constrain their effective use. The first two barriers, namely credibility (trust on SCF) and scale (relevance of SCF in geographical space and time), originate from the limitations of SCF associated with the form in which they are produced. In this study, credibility and scale are investigated as limitations of SCF, which potentially bar the uptake and use of SCF in Bobirwa sub-district. The second group of barriers are beyond the SCF themselves but limit their effective use and emanate from biophysical, socio-cultural and economic factors. This study examines whether credibility and scale are barriers to the use of SCF in Bobirwa farmers' decision-making, investigates how SCF are used in decision-making, and seeks to find out how the barriers are overcome. To make these investigations, qualitative data was collected from subsistence agro-pastoral farmers in eight villages in Bobirwa sub-district of Botswana using semi-structured interviews. Data was collected considering gender to allow for gendered analysis. Themes related to the main study questions were identified from the data and analysed for the number of people who mentioned the themes. It was found that all 47 farmers interviewed coincidentally had access to SCF and the majority used SCF in their decision-making, while only a handful of farmers were non-users of SCF. The results show that scale (both temporal and spatial) is a barrier for users of SCF, whereas credibility is a major constraint for non-users of SCF in Bobirwa. To cope with the barriers, farmers mainly use local knowledge to complement SCF. Additionally, farmers apply advice from Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and use economic information in their decisions to deal with the barriers. Despite the barriers, some farmers indicated that using SCF was beneficial in increasing harvests, providing warnings and minimising losses of crops and livestock. However, disadvantages of using SCF were also highlighted, including lost crops, seeds and harvest, and missed opportunities to plant because of lack of temporal and geographical detail in the forecasts. The barrier of credibility has contributed to a few non-users resorting to using traditional planting, possibly making them vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability. A gendered analysis shows that almost equal proportions of both males and females use SCF. Moreover, women use SCF for crop farming while men use it for livestock management, which is aligned to traditional roles in Botswana. It is also revealed that, unlike women who only use local knowledge and MoA advice to overcome SCF limitations, a few men also use economic ventures, which could make men less vulnerable than women farmers. Strong networks between scientists and farmers can reduce the perceived credibility barrier, and innovative ways of reducing the scale barrier can be devised. Therefore, recommendations from the study include continuous engagement with farmers to understand their decisionmaking context in order to tailor the information to their local context as much as science permits. Government programmes should be designed to integrate SCF to build farmers' resilience to climate variabilities. The impacts on livestock farming, which is dominated by men, need to be given as much prominence in SCF information as arable farming. Forecasters should continue to improve credibility and scale without compromising either factor to avoid chances of contributing to the vulnerability of farmers particularly women, who mostly rely on SCF for crop production.

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Arthur, Katie (Katie Louise). "Frontlines of crisis, forefront of change : climate justice as an intervention into (neo)colonial climate action narratives and practices." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111292.

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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2017.
"June 2017." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 104-115).
Indigenous peoples, Small Island States, the Global South, women, youth, and the global poor, all face disproportionate impacts from climate change, a fact captured in the adage "the least responsible are most vulnerable." Recognising the Global North as the instigators and benefactors of a carbon economy built on the continuing oppression and exploitation of black and brown communities, in this thesis I highlight the on-going colonial violence involved in both extractive industry and the mainstream climate action movements of the Global North. I look at the stories we tell about climate change and how they legitimize a colonial structuring of power: from mainstream media coverage of the London Climate March in 2015 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) newsroom editorials. I investigate how communities and grassroots organisations are using radical media strategies to articulate climate justice as a transformative decolonial intervention from the frontlines of Standing Rock to the financial district of London. I follow the argument of activist groups including The Wretched of the Earth, the UK Tar Sands Network, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and the Indigenous Environmental Network; that climate action will be unfair and ineffective until it recognises the intersecting systems of power which created and maintain the inequalities of the colonial carbon economy. I argue that radical media strategies, on the streets and on the airwaves, are central to the articulation of climate justice and the contestation of hegemonic meanings of climate action that legitimise colonial violence.
by Katie Arthur.
S.M.

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Jeswani, Harish Kumar. "Corporate strategies on climate change in Pakistan and the UK." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2007. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/844255/.

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The growing consensus among scientists and governments on the need for immediate action to avoid the dangerous impacts of climate change has resulted in many industries starting to prepare for a carbon-constrained world, in order to analyse the effectiveness of industry response, this research has developed a theoretical framework to categorise corporate strategies on climate change in developing and industrialized countries. The framework classifies the corporate response into four sets of strategies based on their operational and management activities. The empirical data was collected from 180 companies trough a questionnaire survey in Pakistan and the UK. Twenty-four interviews with representatives from industries and other stakeholder groups were also conducted to triangulate and complement the survey results. An analysis of the empirical data indicates that corporate responses towards climate change can be characterized in four categories: indifferent, beginner, emerging and active which validates the theoretical framework. The research found that business responses to this international challenge depend on national policies, economic, social, and technological related factors. However, the strength and content of these factors varies between industrialized and developing countries, where corporate environmentalism is a relatively new phenomenon. For Pakistan, the findings suggest that, in the absence of regulatory and societal pressure, the only effective incentive for organizations is cost-savings tlirough energy efficiency projects. However, their response is shaped by the prevalence of obstacles and a lack of external pressure that prevent a different picture to emerge. The situation is different for the UK. Due to regulatory pressure, UK firms are actively involved in GHG management activities. However, climate policies concerning industries for instance, EU ETS, do not provide sufficient incentives to companies to change from 'business as usual' because of its short-term outlook, uncertainty, complexity and the generous allocation of allowances, hence very low carbon price.

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Diko, Stephen K. "Barriers to Urban Greenspace Planning in the Kumasi Metropolis: Implications and Hints for Climate Change Interventions in Ghana’s Urban Areas." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1563527687449757.

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Ferrigno, Meg. "Perspectives from the Roof of the World| Tibetan Nomadic Perspectives on Climate Change." Thesis, Prescott College, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3708200.

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This dissertation is a collection of stories and experiences from the Tibetan nomads sur-rounding the DzaChu (Mekong River) of Kham, in Qinghai Province. The DzaChu is a sacred area that is threatened by climate change. The author uses mindful inquiry as the basis of this ethnographic study. Long term participatory observation and over thirty fo-cus groups within the DzaChu Watershed point to the thesis: Climate Change is one of the greatest threats to the Tibetan nomadic culture and to Asia’s magnificent Mekong River. It is the aim of this dissertation to demonstrate the impact of climate change on the Tibetan nomads and the critical need for respectful global relations with this precious wa-ter source that provides life to millions of humans throughout Asia. Readers are encour-aged to click on the hyperlinks to the photo narrative on Instagram @thepurelandproject and follow the accompanying website www.purelandperspectives.org. The Pureland Pro-ject organization is a part of the action research component of this work, which will move forward from this research to try to implement some of the ideas expressed by the partic-ipants, such as protecting the region as a UNESCO cultural or ecological heritage site.

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Gicheru, Mercy Njeri. "Barriers and enablers to uptake and implementation of system of rice intensification: a case study of Mwea irrigation scheme in Kenya." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23716.

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It already seems preposterous to be able to sufficiently meet global food demand of the expected nine billion people by 2050 while at the same time maintain our emissions levels below 2ᵒC by the end of the century. This is more so for a continent such as Africa where much of this population is expected to arise from considering the fact that the continent is ranked to have the highest proportion of food insecure population. In order to overcome this challenge, we will need a total revolution of our agricultural production systems to systems that not only focus on increasing food production but also build our resilience to climate change. An example of one such practice is System of Rice Intensification (SRI) which is acclaimed to increase rice production while at the same time reducing the pressure on scarce water resources, minimizing agricultural greenhouse gases emissions and improving the farmers' households' adaptive capacity to climate change impacts by increasing their income. However, despite the success attributed to SRI, its uptake across Sub Saharan Africa is arguably low. This is puzzling considering the high proportion of food insecurity in the region and the region's susceptibility to damage from increased severity and frequency of climate extreme events such as droughts and floods due to its geographical positioning and the limited adaptive capacity of its people. In this work, the researcher sought to understand the barriers and enablers to the adoption of the System of Rice intensification in Mwea irrigation scheme (MIS) in Kenya. The findings show that most barriers to the uptake of SRI in MIS occur during the dissemination of SRI. Further critical barriers to the uptake of SRI in MIS were identified as follows: lack of formal SRI training, high costs of rice production, failure to involve key stakeholder institutions such as SACCOs while marketing SRI and farmer's age. Moreover, the study also depicted that most barriers to SRI adoption were intertwined, thus focusing on a single barrier would be myopic. Furthermore, enablers to the uptake of SRI in MIS are tied to the benefits of SRI pre-empted by lead farmers. This correlation implies that the benefits of SRI are key motivators for SRI adoption. Other enablers include training. However, informal training on SRI through social networks which play a crucial role at disseminating climate adaptation activities amongst small scale farmers, is marked with a lot of inconsistencies which makes it a barrier for SRI uptake. In this regard, we advise that SRI trainers clearly highlight the activities involved in SRI and their resultant benefits during initial SRI information dissemination.

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Bey, Eugenia S. "Cultivating Social-ecological Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation Through Green Infrastructure in Long Beach, California." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10839820.

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The geographic variability and uneven distribution of climate-related impacts in urban environments pose serious challenges to achieving social-ecological resilience and environmental justice. There are no generalizable solutions for the anticipated climate challenges facing urban environments, which vary from increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events to flooding, heat waves, droughts, and worsening air quality. Densely populated coastal urban areas, like Long Beach, California, are further exposed to sea level rise, coastal erosion, and saltwater intrusion. In response, ecosystem-based adaptation plans have gained traction in the scientific literature and policy circles as viable, multi-beneficial strategies to build urban resilience to withstand anticipated climate threats. Green infrastructure (GI) offers flexible, place-based solutions and as such, has surged in popularity as an urban planning strategy, reflecting the focus of planners and policy-makers to design and implement location-specific interventions. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this empirical case study analyzes the spatial distribution and projected intensity of climate-related impacts in Long Beach, California. Integrating geospatial data, surveys, and key informant interviews, this study explores citizen perception of climate risk and desirability of GI solutions to increase adaptive capacity across two high risk communities with unevenly distributed biophysical and social vulnerabilities.

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Klinsky, Sonja. "Many faces, many frames : exploring the dimensions of justice and climate change policy decision-making." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27282.

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Climate change presents profound justice dilemmas because of its asymmetrical costs and benefits. This is complicated by the tendency of both climate change and justice to change their appearance across contexts. This dissertation explores how arguments about justice are used in debates about how climate policy should be designed. Part A focuses on how arguments about justice have been used in debates about ideal architectures for international climate policy. A framework for analysing international climate policy proposals is developed using literature from both the philosophy and policy analysis communities. This analysis identifies three archetypal approaches to climate change policy at this level, each of which has potential justice implications. Part B explores public perceptions of justice in mitigation and adaptation climate policy contexts. This section creates and applies a methodology to explore the arguments about justice considered relevant by lay public participants in a series of climate policy decision dilemmas. Among other results, this part highlights the importance of framing in considerations of justice in climate policy. Finally, Part C explores climate policy dilemmas currently faced by policy insiders at the sub-national level, and cross-examines the views policy-insiders and the public think each other have on these issues. This part of the thesis identifies a range of specific justice dilemmas at the sub-national level. It also suggests that mis-communication between policy insiders and the public may limit the range of climate policies considered politically feasible. Four lessons emerge from this dissertation. First, justice is pragmatically important when developing climate policy. Second, there has been a systemic lack of integration across academic, policy and public communities on questions of justice and climate policy. Third, climate change and justice have multiple faces. How climate change policy decisions are framed will shape the arguments stakeholders are likely to consider relevant. Finally, methodologically a mixed methods approach may be of use in other similarly ambiguous research contexts. Overall, explicit recognition of the importance and complexity of justice in climate policy decision-making may help us design more effective and desirable climate policies.

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Shooya, Omagano Ndapewa. "Barriers and enablers to water access and community wellbeing in the Onesi constituency of Namibia: the case of Okalonga B and Onandjandja villages." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27527.

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The scarcity of water and especially the lack of safe drinking water have been accepted as amongst the most serious challenges facing the twenty-first century. The lack of access to water is a global problem that faces between 460 million to more than 1 billion people as a result of an increasing demand for water as well as a diminishing supply of water resources. The lack of access to potable water poses a great constraint on the societal and individual well-being for the inhabitants of the semi-arid regions of southern Africa and the key area needed to improve the sustainable development of water resources and services has been identified as water governance. The aim of this research is, therefore, to understand how access to potable water affects the well-being of communities living in the Cuvelai-Etosha basin in Namibia and to understand how these communities participate in water governance. The Okalonga B and Onandjandja villages were used as case studies.The objectives of this study are to examine how water is accessed and determine what the barriers are in accessing potable water, to examine how the well-being of the communities in the two villages is affected by water access and to explore how communities are engaged in water governance. The overall methodology of the study was based on a qualitative approach to case study research. Interviews were conducted at the household level, the constituency and regional levels using semi-structured interview guides. The study found that the communities of Okalonga B and Onandjandja access water through hand-dug wells, private and communal taps, Etaka dam and Oshana, and boreholes. A total of 6 barriers to accessing potable water were identified. These included distance to communal taps, amount of water one can carry, administration of water infrastructure, maintenance of water infrastructure, ability to pay the set water fees and specific times allocated for collecting water. The barriers to accessing potable water negatively affect the well-being of communities. Communities felt that they would have better economic opportunities if they had access to potable water which would in turn improve their well-being and livelihood opportunities. Furthermore, the study found that community participation in water governance was poor.

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Jacobson, Lisa. "Transforming air travel behavior in the face of climate change : Incentives and barriers in a Swedish setting." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-157489.

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Air travel accounts for a major share of individual greenhouse gas emissions in high-income countries. Technical development alone will not be sufficient to meet international climate goals if air travel continues to increase as predicted. Behavioral change is thus essential. Earlier research has shown that the gap between environmental attitudes and behavior is large when it comes to air travel; few reduce flying because of climate concerns. However, some people do, and there is a rising debate about individual responsibility and travel habits. This study, based on semi-structured interviews with Swedish residents who quit, reduce or continue flying, describes how such behavioral change comes about. Important incentives and barriers for this process are highlighted. A framework of societal transformation is applied to show where these incentives and barriers are located – in personal and political spheres. This thesis suggests that internalized knowledge about the impacts of global warming is crucial to spark the process of reducing air travel. This awareness evokes negative emotions, often anxiety, guilt or frustration, which may lead to a personal tipping point where a decision to reduce flying is made. For many, such behavioral change is counteracted by both personal values and societal structures promoting air travel. Also individuals with a strong personal drive to reduce flying may feel trapped in social and professional practices, and even counteracted and ridiculed by society. The study shows a lack of incentives from societal levels, pointing to the need for political action aiming to create economic incentives and more attractive alternatives to air travel, as well as deepened climate knowledge and change of social norms. The findings are valuable for policy makers who want to contribute to a transformation towards a more sustainable travel system.

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Spash, Clive L., and Clemens Gattringer. "The Economics and Ethics of Human Induced Climate Change." WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, 2016. http://epub.wu.ac.at/5073/1/sre%2Ddisc%2D2016_02.pdf.

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Human induced climate change poses a series of ethical challenges to the current political economy, although it has often be regarded by economists as only an ethical issue for those concerned about future generations. The central debate in economics has then concerned the rate at which future costs and benefits should be discounted. Indeed the full range of ethical aspects of climate change are rarely even discussed. Despite recent high profile and lengthy academic papers on the topic the ethical remains at best superficial within climate change economics. Recognising the necessary role of ethical judgment poses a problem for economists who conduct exercises in cost-benefit analysis and deductive climate modelling under the presumption of an objectivity that excludes values. Priority is frequently given to orthodox economic methodology, but that this entails a consequentialist utilitarian philosophy is forgotten while the terms of the debate and understanding is simultaneously restricted. We set out to raise the relevance of a broader range of ethical issues including: intergenerational ethics as the basis for the discount rate, interregional distribution of harm, equity and justice issues concerning the allocation of carbon budgets, incommensurability in the context of compensation, and the relationship of climate ethics to economic growth. We argue that the pervasiveness of strong uncertainty in climate science, incommensurability of values and nonutilitarian ethics are inherent features of the climate policy debate. That mainstream economics is ill-equipped to address these issues relegates it to the category of misplaced concreteness and its policy prescriptions are then highly misleading misrepresentations of what constitutes ethical action. (authors' abstract)
Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

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Pravin, Avni. "Environmental Justice and Flood Adaptation: A Spatial Analysis of Flood Mitigation Projects in Harris County, Texas." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/24540.

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Although literature on flood risk and environmental justice investigates the link between race and ethnicity and vulnerability to floods, few studies examine the distribution of flood mitigation amenities. This study analyzes census tract proximity to flood mitigation projects (FMPs) completed between 2012 and 2016 in Harris County, Texas to determine if a) project location is biased towards economic growth and the urban core; b) areas most impacted by previous floods are prioritized for drainage assistance; and c) if low-income and Latinx populations are being neglected. A spatial error regression analysis indicates that FMPs are significantly proximate to the urban core, net of other factors. Results also indicate no significant relationship between census tract-level Latinx composition, income status, and proximity to FMPs. Finally, built environment characteristics and locations of previous flooding had no significant effect on where projects were placed.

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Adua, Lazarus. "The Salience of Stratification, Lifestyle and Residential Energy Efficiency Improvement in the Climate Change Discourse and Policy: Implications for Environmental Justice." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243888108.

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Walker, Haley. "The Powerful and the Vulnerable: Differing Paths to Sustainable Development in a Time of Climate Crisis." Thesis, Boston College, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108799.

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Thesis advisor: Hiroshi Nakazato
Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the common desire of states has been for constant economic growth. While this aspiration has promoted the flourishing of some societies it has been a detriment to others. With intensified inequality across the globe, the powerful have both inadvertently and knowingly exploited the vulnerable— including people, animals and the planet. Now, that inequality and environmental degradation persist in the collective crisis of climate change. Moving forward, it is critical for nations to acknowledge both their culpability for destruction and their capacity for action amidst this crisis. With differing historical responsibilities, states may have proportionately accountable solutions. This thesis provides both an ethical and a practical framework for addressing both local and global challenges that come with climate change as well as how to mitigate the injustices that are borne of it in thoughtful, multi-faceted and integrated approaches to sustainable development
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Departmental Honors
Discipline: International Studies

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McGuire, Laura. "Psychological barriers to climate change : an exploration of implicit and explicit attitudes to sustainability and their behavioural implications." Thesis, Edge Hill University, 2017. http://repository.edgehill.ac.uk/9941/.

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This thesis tackles an issue of global importance, namely why we, as consumers, are not doing more to change our behaviour in the face of the threat posed by climate change. The scientific evidence for climate change is clear and unambiguous, yet there is serious concern about the public’s willingness to adapt their behaviour and lifestyles to ameliorate its effects. This is puzzling in the light of the existing literature on self-report attitudes to sustainability, conducted by a variety of governmental and other agencies, which suggests that the public are ready for behaviour change. This interdisciplinary thesis explores the relationship between self-report measures of attitude, and measures of implicit attitude (not based on self-reports), and a number of aspects of consumer behaviour. These include visual attention to carbon labels in an experimental setting, consumer choice between products with various labels, including carbon labels, in a simulated shopping task, and choice between different aspects of lifestyle varying in carbon footprint. The studies found that self-reported attitudes were good predictors of self-reported behaviour, but not actual behaviour. Implicit attitudes to carbon footprint were a better predictor of visual attention to carbon labels, and the choice of low carbon items in a simulated shopping task, especially under time pressure. The thesis also considered whether we could change explicit/implicit attitudes to carbon footprint and generate more sustainable lifestyle choices, using film content with a primary focus on emotion, information or both. It showed that it is possible to influence both carbon attitudes and behaviour; however, these effects are short-lived. The thesis argues that in the future we will need to design interventions aimed at changing both the explicit and implicit attitudes of younger children to produce the type of behavioural change that we need to combat global warming in any sort of meaningful way.

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Daniels, Christa. "Landscape Visualization: Influence on Engagement for Climate Resilience." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1519208099464983.

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Flinn, Stephen Wayne. "Disjointed Cosmopolitanism: Climate Change and Lived Experience in Portland, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1435.

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Climate change has emerged as one of the most significant issues facing the world. This research endeavored to uncover and describe the lived experience of Portland, Oregon residents in relation to the substantive issue of climate change. The specific purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the ways that Portland residents conceive of and communicate about climate change. Utilizing semi-structured phenomenological interviews, particular attention was paid to the culture of Portland residents, their lived experience and how the issue of climate change manifests itself in their everyday experiences. In addition, this particular phenomenological inquiry incorporated elements of auto ethnography by positioning the researcher`s experiences, imagination and intellect at the center of the research endeavor. Multiple themes emerged from the in-depth, descriptive interviews that helped to reveal the structure or essence of the participant`s experience(s). A single meta-theme was identified and informed by contemporary theories such as Cosmopolitanism and the Environmental Justice Paradigm.

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Salifu, Abdul-Moomin Ansong. "Relocation Based on Slow-Onset Climate-Induced Environmental Change in Keta, Ghana." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3120.

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Coastal indigenous communities in Keta, Ghana, are experiencing resettlement as a result of slow-onset, climate-induced flooding and erosion. Previous researchers have documented the risk of relocation from rapid-onset events, but little is known about the effectiveness of policies developed in response to slow-onset changes. This phenomenological study investigated the ongoing lived experiences of adult household members in Keta who were relocated by the government. Jun's critical theory provided a constructionist interpretive framework to determine whether Ghana's national policy on climate change resettlement adequately meets Rawls's criteria for distributive social justice. Policy documents and transcriptions of interviews with a purposeful sample of 17 family members were thematically coded and categorized into essence descriptions. Results revealed aligned perceptions of an absence of justice or fairness in the allocation of resources to households relocated by the government. Negative experiences characterized all families' resettlement processes. The government's commitment to ensuring basic community welfare was perceived to be poor. Findings highlight the need for social justice to be the primary policy consideration for future allocation of benefits to resettled households. To avoid reaching a tipping point at which prompt governmental intervention will be either compelled or impossible, quantitative studies are needed to guide policymakers in considering the real costs of relocation and the cumulative effects on families and communities. This study provides evidence for public consideration of the severe consequences of injustice in relocation and the need to prevent human rights abuse in the formulation of social, economic, and cultural policies associated with climate-induced resettlement.

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Mitchell, Bruce Coffyn. "A Landscape of Thermal Inequity: Social Vulnerability to Urban Heat in U.S. Cities." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6906.

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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.

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Roettinger, Julia. "A critical assessment of the link between climate change and violent conflict in the context of sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Darfur." Master's thesis, Faculty of Humanities, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30529.

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Up until the beginning of this century climate change was mostly seen as an environmental issue, although, the issue of violent conflict has been linked to natural resources before. However, in the last decade the focus has increasingly shifted to connecting climate change with, in particular, human security. In contrast to previous debates, contemporary discussions put emphasis on the impacts that climate change has on human lives. Yet, it is not uncontroversial to what extent environmental degradation as well as carbon dioxide emission based economies play and have played an accelerating role. But even if 'climate change sceptics’ or 'climate change deniers’ question the credibility of climate change the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) present a solid base for the international climate debate which is accepted and supported by the majority of academic experts. Nonetheless, there is significant ambiguity about what the negative consequences of climate change could pose on peaceful human co-existence. In 2007, specifically, it was brought to public attention that the effects of a warming climate, such as more intense storms, floods and droughts have severe impacts on the human-wellbeing, especially in more vulnerable areas of the globe. Experts even claimed that, in many parts of the world, climate change would cause dramatic impacts in the form of violent conflicts due to the decrease of drinking water, fertile soil as well as food. Entire states might be weakened and societies could collapse which might lead to severe consequences for conflict resolution institutions and mechanisms, human security as well as migration. However, findings regarding the impacts of climate change on violent conflict are highly controversial and sometimes even contradictory. One reason for that could be that the physical effects of climate change are limited to date. Furthermore, as studies from the 1990s on the consequences of environmental change have shown, it is difficult to disconnect the environmental factor from other societal and political influences that lead to conflict. This thesis explores the politically charged issue as well as academically controversial link between climate change, as one of the environmental changes, and violent conflict by providing a conceptual assessment of the two different bodies of literature, namely the literature on violent conflict and the climate change literature, before examining available literature on the connection of the two phenomena. Finally, the case study of Darfur is analysed with regards to the often misused term climate war in order to conclude that violent conflicts are caused by multiple factors which should not be oversimplified and therefore cannot be traced back to purely environmental reasons. Therefore, the central research questions addressed in this thesis are: what do scholars say about the connection between climate change and violent conflict? Can climate change and its repercussions be seen as a threat multiplier in unstable and therefore vulnerable societies? And can the Darfur conflict be described as one of the first climate wars?

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Friman, Mathias. "Historical Responsibility : The Concept’s History in Climate Change Negotiations and its Problem-solving Potential." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Water and Environmental Studies, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-7140.

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The thesis primarily tracks the history of historical responsibility in negotiations to and under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The concept aims at attributing individual country burdens in mitigating climate change based on the relative levels of past emissions. A hermeneutic approach and discursive theory has been applied to the empirical material consisting of documents form UNFCCC’s main bodies. Even though the concept was part of the discursive struggle over the content of the UNFCCC, it has been more central in the struggle to operationalise the Convention’s principles on equity. Historical responsibility has been most elaborated in a proposal by Brazil to the 1997 pre-Kyoto negotiations. This proposal combined a biophysical approach (preferred by the North) with that of a political economic approach (preferred by the South). However, the proposal was soon pushed of the central agenda and discussions on the topic turned technical and centred on scientific uncertainties. The biophysical framing excluded equity. At the same time as the proposal was marginalised within UNFCCC as a whole, it was central in discussions on comprehensive approaches to historical responsibility. Any that wanted to discuss comprehensive approaches were referred to this forum wherein talks on equity were excluded from the rules of discussion. This echoes a world system of a periphery, the global South, dependent upon core countries, the global North. The last mentioned have the capacity to set the agenda. The argument for marginalising the Brazilian proposal has been compared to the accepted Kyoto protocol with the result that the official arguments for marginalisation do not hold. The thesis also investigates historical responsibility’s problem solving potential as a concept that could create much needed dialogue across the North/South divide.

Uppsatsen söker främst följa konceptet ”historisk skuld” i klimatförhandlingarna som ledde till, och som senare fördes under, FNs ramkonvention om klimatförändringar (FCCC). Historisk skuld tillskriver länder eller regioner ett ansvar för klimatförändringar som baseras på dess historiska utsläppsnivåer av växthusgaser. Ansvarsberäkningarna ligger sedan till grund för bördefördelning. Empirin, beståendes av dokument från FCCCs organ, har analyserats genom hermeneutik och diskursteori. Historisk skuld fanns med i den diskursiva kampen över FCCC men blev centralt först i kampen över hur FCCCs rättviseprinciper skulle operationaliseras. Som mest genomarbetat har konceptet varit i det så kallade brasilianska förslaget vilket lades fram inför Kyotoförhandlingarna. Förslaget kombinerade en naturvetenskaplig gestaltning, som föredras av länder i nord, med en politisk ekonomisk dito, vilken föredras av syd. Det exkluderades emellertid fort från den beslutsfattande agendan och hänvisades till rådgivande organ där frågan teknifierades med fokus på vetenskapliga osäkerheter. Den naturvetenskapliga gestaltningen exkluderade samtal om rättvisa. Samtidigt som förslaget marginaliserades inom FCCC som helhet så blev det centralt i detaljerade diskussioner om historisk skuld. Om någon ville diskutera operationaliserade varianter av historisk skuld inom FN så hänvisade de till detta forum, ett forum där samtal om rättvisa exkluderats genom de tysta regler som styr diskussionen. Detta speglar ett världssystem där en periferi, det global syd, är beroende av centrala länder, det globala nord. De sistnämnda har kapaciteten att styra dagordningen. Argumenten bakom marginaliseringen av det brasilianska förslaget har sedan jämförts med det accepterade Kyotoprotokollet. Det visar sig då att de officiella argumenten för marginalisering inte håller. Uppsatsen undersöker också konceptets potential till att initiera välbehövlig dialog mellan nord och syd.

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Spires, Meggan Hazel. "Barriers to and enablers of climate change adaptation in four South African municipalities, and implications for community based adaptation." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018913.

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The focus of this study is on understanding the multiple and interacting factors that hinder or enable municipal planned climate change adaptation, here called barriers and enablers respectively, and their implications for community based adaptation. To do this I developed a conceptual framework of barriers to and enablers of planned climate change adaptation, which informed a systematic literature review of barriers to planned community based adaptation in developing countries. In this framework barriers were grouped into resource, social and physical barriers. I then conducted empirical case study analysis using qualitative research methods in four South African municipalities to understand what barriers and enablers manifested in these contexts. In light of the reflexive nature of my methodology, my framework was adjusted based on my empirical findings, where contextual barriers were found to better represent the empirical results and subsumed physical barriers. I found my framework useful for analysis, but in the empirical cases, barriers and enablers overlaid and interacted so significantly that in reality it was often difficult to separate them. A key finding was that enablers tended to be more about the way things are done, as opposed to direct opposites of barriers. Comparison of barriers and enablers across the case studies revealed a number of key themes. Municipalities struggle to implement climate change adaptation and community based adaptation within contexts of significant social, economic and ecological challenges. These contextual barriers, when combined with certain cognitive barriers, lead to reactive responses. Existing municipal systems and structures make it difficult to enable climate change adaptation, which is inherently cross‐sectoral and messy, and especially community based adaptation that is bottom‐up and participatory. Lack of locally applicable knowledge, funding and human resources were found to be significant resource barriers, and were often underlain by social barriers relating to perceptions, norms, discourses and governance challenges. Enablers of engaged officials, operating within enabling organisational environments and drawing on partnerships and networks, were able to overcome or circumvent these barriers. When these enablers coincided with windows of opportunity that increased the prioritisation of climate change within the municipality, projects with ancillary benefits were often implemented. Analysis of the barriers and enablers identified in the literature and case studies, informed discussion on whether municipalities are able to implement community based adaptation as defined in the literature, as well as the development of recommendations for how municipal planned climate change adaptation and community based adaptation can be further understood and enabled in the future. These recommendations for practice and research include: (a) To acknowledge and understand the conceptual framings of municipal climate change work, as these framings inform the climate change agenda that is pursued, and hence what municipal climate change adaptation work is done and how it was done. (b) The need for further research into the social barriers that influence the vital enablers of engaged officials, enabling organisational environments, and partnerships and networks. (c) To learn from pilot community‐level interventions that have been implemented by municipalities, as well as from other disciplines and municipalities. (d) To develop top‐down/bottom‐up approaches to enable municipal planned climate change adaptation and community based adaptation, that benefits from high level support and guidance, as well as local level flexibility and learning‐by‐doing. (e) To develop viable mechanisms for municipalities to better engage with the communities they serve.

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Joshi, Nivedita. "Barriers to selling livestock in the face of drought in the Omusati Region of North Central Namibia." Master's thesis, Faculty of Science, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33821.

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Marginal communities living in semi-arid Namibia face significant challenges in sustaining rural livelihoods due to environmental degradation and poverty. Research has shown that livestock farming depends on rain-fed agriculture among other things, thus making communal farmers vulnerable to climate change in the future. Given this, it often makes sense for farmers to sell their livestock and explore alternative livelihood options. However, farmers in northcentral Namibia are reluctant to sell their livestock despite a noticeable temperature increase and rainfall decrease over the past forty years. This study analyses the barriers to selling livestock in the face of a drought in the Omusati region of north-central Namibia. The study was carried out in three villages namely Omahanene, Okathitukeengombe and Oshihau, in the north-central Omusati region of Namibia. Household livestock distribution, perceptions of climate change, barriers to the sale of livestock and alternative livelihood strategies from other semi-arid regions were explored among 30 households using semi-structured household interviews and a systematic literature review. Results from the study indicate that 80% of communal farmers predict future droughts in the region and able to recall climate change through frequent droughts, increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfall. Farmers claimed that these changes have affected their livestock numbers. However, several barriers including cultural beliefs, lack of financial security, access to information, lack of institutional support and lack of efficient markets hinder livestock sales. The study suggests that the imminent impact of climate change coupled with the reluctance to sell livestock will threaten food security in the future. The study argues that rural livelihood diversification strategies are critical to safeguarding sustainable livelihoods in the future, including those of communal livestock farmers specifically. Additionally, policy recommendations like access to credit through public and private funding, access to markets by providing transportation facilities, encouraging market participation by improving quality of grazing lands, increasing water availability, building veterinary facilities, employing extension officers and access to information through reliable channels can help build a sustainable future in the face of climate risks.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Barriers to climate change justice'

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