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9. Juni 2022
Future Scientists webinar organised by Scientists4Future NL
Joyeeta Gupta (UvA): Climate Change, Planetary Boundaries and the Need for an Environmentally Just Approach
There are four interrelated justice issues with respect to climate change. First, at what level should climate change be stabilized and is action commensurate with that level? Second, how has fossil fuel resource use been distributed between countries? Third, how are fossil fuel assets being distributed? And finally, how are adaptation costs being distributed? This presentation focuses on the (a) challenges in setting a planetary boundary for climate change and the way in which responsibilities for achieving this boundary were defined; (b) the challenges with respect to resource use, and (c) emerging challenges on stranded assets; and (d) the challenges with adaptation. It then argues that while governments have sought to address the problem of climate change using cost-effective, technological and efficient market based approaches, without an equitable approach, it is unlikely that the climate change problem will be addressed.
Joyeeta Gupta is professor of environment and development in the global south at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the University of Amsterdam and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. She is the Principal Investigator on the ERC Advanced grant project: CLIFF: Climate Change and Fossil Fuels. Gupta is also the Faculty Professor on Sustainability (2019-2024) and leads the programme group on Governance and Inclusive Development. She is co-chair of the Earth Commission (2019-2022) set up by Future Earth, the Global Commons Alliance and supported by the Global Challenges Foundation, together with Johan Rockström and Dahe Qin. Gupta was co-chair of UNEP's Global Environment Outlook-6, was member of the Advisory Council on International Affairs of the Netherlands Government, and is on the Supervisory Boards of KIT and SNV.