A Whole New World?
Environmental
Governance
Governance
includes both government and civil society, its the informal and formal
regulation of activity and implementation of programs
Environmental crisis
is not a technological one, it is a political crisis of governance,
institutions and the limits of modern identity
International
Environmental Governance Successes include: Montreal Protocol on CFCs and the
Convention on Trade of Endangered Species
Shows that with will
(and US leadership) things can change
Climate
Change is a tough negotiation
Do you stop luxury
emissions of Northern consumers and methane emissions from subsistence plot in
the same way?
North got rich off of
CO2 emissions; South says why not us?
U.S. then said that if everyone doesnt play the same, we wont do
anything
Buying carbon credits
might see First World owning and controlling most Third World forests; allows
massive Russia and Canada to pollute at high per capita rates
Should gas flared off
by Shell oil in Nigeria be paid for by Nigeria, Shell or consumers in countries
that use the gas?
Kyoto
Protocol
Stage
set by UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, hashed out at Rio Earth
Summit, 1992
Was non-binding, but structured so
protocols could be introduced that would be binding
Kyoto,
in 1997 set the stage for
Reduce emissions of
CO2 & greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading
Divided world into
Annex I (who had to reduce emissions and do an annual greenhouse gas emissions)
and Non-Annex I (who didnt have to reduce emissions, but can have development aid
from Annex I countries to reduce emissions in exchange for Annex I countries
not reducing their own)
China and India were
Non-Annex I
Goal is to get Annex
I to 5% below 1990 levels
Germany and UK there,
b/c of deindustrialization
Australia (coal),
U.S. (coal, cars) hold out
Recently,
US and China made a limited agreement on US reducing emissions by 25% of 2005
levels by 2025; China reaching peak emissions in 2030
It is good both of
the biggest emmiters are setting goals ahead of
global talks in Paris next year (which hopefully go better than the last
attempt in Copenhagen).
There
is the potential that if things dont change, our planet could be a vastly
different environmentally, which will change it socially and economically as
well.
Big remappings due to globalziation
i.e. what has changed
Reconfiguration
of capitalism with new division of labor, enhanced role for finance, and new possibilities of
control through communication and computing technology innovations
Promotion
of markets as allocation systems in an era of deregulation
Challenge
to state sovereignty
Constructions
of new civil societies
New
transnational environmental politics
Centuries
old faith in automatic social progress being
Ability to connect across space.
Making
Changes
We
are conditioned to think in terms of the nation state, but now a lot of power
to change also in the hands of cities, supranational organizations, transnational corporations.
What
thwarts local decision making, is lack of
Autonomy
in deciding how to use time or talent
Control
over resource base
Systems
of production that meet the needs of everyone without killing the environment
Maintain
a demographic balance (neither too many new people (migrate in or out) nor too
many leaving)
Again,
just so you know, globalization has not eliminated all scales below the global
(or just left global and local), instead it has formed new connections across
multiple scales
This
is where a potential lies, in networking to other localities, into regions,
through global institutions
Making Changes (cont.)
Can individuals still
make a difference?
Yes,
the gender equality movements are good example things have changed radically
in the last 50 years not just in formal rights, but in wide social acceptance
of changing gender roles which involve all of us
We
are seeing the same things right now with GLBT equality (around marriage,
acceptance in media, access to benefits), only the
changes have come in the span of a decade.
People
at the local level everywhere at least know their interests, and are often able
to draw from tradition and modernity equally, and if the equitable and
sustainable support structures are in place, they will make the best decision
Use
whatever little power we have to help others, even if it is your power as a
consumer
People
in your generation want to live in walk-able cities and public transportation;
because of that, cities are actually changing for the better.
No,
it is not systemic change, but a bunch of a little actions
can add up to a lot.