Link between green crisis initiatives and social justice to be explored

The project "Transnational Governance and the Politics of Transformative Change at the Climate-Biodiversity Frontier" focuses on how non-state actors, through so-called transnational governance initiatives (TGIs), are attempting to simultaneously address climate change, global biodiversity loss and social justice. 

This comes against the backdrop of a growing realisation that climate change and biodiversity loss are interlinked and must be addressed simultaneously through ‘transformative change’. 

Mapping transnational initiatives

The project, which is funded with DKK 3.2 million from Independent Research Fund Denmark, maps which types of transnational initiatives are emerging with such a broad scope, and how the work is being framed and enacted. At the centre is the development of a new and open database that will enable scholarship to catch up with the rapidly unfolding developments in the global arena. 

"We want to illuminate how fundamental political questions are being addressed in relation to linking climate change, biodiversity loss and social justice goals," says project manager Michele Betsill and elaborates: 

"Whose rights and interests should be protected? How should burdens and benefits be distributed? And how do you trade-off the different goals, and who should do it," she asks. 

The project also involves Harriet Bulkeley, Durham University, Stacy VanDeveer, University of Massachusetts Boston, and a PhD student. 

Read about all the faculty's DFF grants here.