Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Spatial Justice and Climate Change:
Multiscale Impacts and Local Development
in Durban, South Africa
Isabelle Anguelovski and Debra Roberts
In recent years, the phrase “think globally, act locally” has become
something of an environmental cliché. It nevertheless serves to highlight
the fundamental truth that without some level of local action and on-
the-ground understanding of impacts, global environmental challenges
cannot be dealt with in an equitable and sustainable way. Among all of
the prevailing global environmental challenges, climate change is
undoubtedly the most signifi cant. It threatens our future development
and, in some people's minds, puts at risk the continued existence of our
own species and the global ecosystems on which we depend. Further-
more, addressing the issue of “dangerous climate change” is becoming
sociopolitically explosive as the glacial progress of negotiations around
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) increasingly contrasts with the immediate and severe conse-
quences of climate change in specifi c locales.
During the COP-15 negotiations in December 2009, core disagree-
ments between Northern and Southern countries on the relative levels of
responsibility for climatic changes, the increased vulnerability of certain
regions, and the development of impact mitigation strategies amplifi ed
feelings among Southern nations that they were being once again mar-
ginalized in the global political arena and that inequities between coun-
tries were being further reinforced. Today, many scientists, academics,
and NGOs maintain that a profound unfairness exists between the coun-
tries that contribute the most to climate change through the production
and consumption of fossil fuels and those most at risk from its effects
(for instance IPCC 2007a; Parks and Roberts 2006; Oxfam 2007). Many
nations facing rising oceans, increased droughts, or extreme disasters are
those least responsible for the problem and with the lowest levels of
resources available to cope with the resultant challenges (Huq et al.
2007; Parks and Roberts 2006; Adger et al. 2006). The vulnerability of
