Climate Justice in the UNFCCC?: African Agency in the Loss and Damage Negotiations

More than a purely ecological issue, the climate crisis is strongly rooted in colonial histories and linked to questions of global social justice. One way in which this notion of climate justice has come to be articulated in the international environmental regime is through the negotiations on, and institutionalisation of, “loss and damage” under the UNFCCC. The African Group of Negotiators – representing a continent which is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts – has been an important actor in these negotiations, although its particular role has not substantively been studied. An important question is the extent to which the AGN manages to express agency within an international framework which exists against the backdrop of unequal global power relations – especially considering the relationship between this global order and the origins of anthropogenic climate change, and the already devastating impacts experienced. Using insights from structuration, complexity and...Show moreMore than a purely ecological issue, the climate crisis is strongly rooted in colonial histories and linked to questions of global social justice. One way in which this notion of climate justice has come to be articulated in the international environmental regime is through the negotiations on, and institutionalisation of, “loss and damage” under the UNFCCC. The African Group of Negotiators – representing a continent which is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts – has been an important actor in these negotiations, although its particular role has not substantively been studied. An important question is the extent to which the AGN manages to express agency within an international framework which exists against the backdrop of unequal global power relations – especially considering the relationship between this global order and the origins of anthropogenic climate change, and the already devastating impacts experienced. Using insights from structuration, complexity and frame theory, this research finds that while on one hand, the behaviour of the AGN reflects and in some ways reproduces status quo power relations, there is also potential for transformation – particularly through the use of strong, justice-based ideational arguments.Show less

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Climate Justice in the UNFCCC? African Agency in the Loss and Damage Negotiations