Equity for Earth

Equity is a fundamental concept in the discussion about climate change which allows industrial economies to acknowledge their awareness of the inequitable impacts of climate change on different regions or communities purely based on the systemic and historic oppression of minorities (Mattoo 2012).

With such awareness, equitable information, policies and actions towards climate change can be adopted in order to allow the same future for all countries in the world based on fair and equal mitigation and adaptation (Mattoo 2012).


The IPCC represents the international body of climate policy advisory as commanded by its mission "to provide scientific assessments on […] potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options." (IPCC)

For this reason, the question of equity is an essential one in evaluating the accomplishment of its purpose.

Okereke creates a framework to evaluate equity in the IPCC in a more systematic way. The conclusion is that with the implementation of procedural fairness the IPCC would be able to create a more structured scheme of formal rules to assess the fair treatment of authors and countries in their reporting. Moreover, with an increased representation of developing countries, they would be as well able to battle the intrinsic personal bias which has been predominantly in favour of industrial economies (Okereke 2017).


Klinsky further argues on the necessity of equity as a deciding variable in the climate policy discussion (Klinsky 2017).

In this paper it is argued that equity and social policies are interconnected and interdependent factors which cannot be considered in silos. By removing justice from the discourse on climate policies, the results might be unexpected trade-offs to more vulnerable communities or generally speaking undermining overall the human aspect of the actions (Klinsky 2017).

In order for human wellbeing to be at the core of climate policies aiming at incentivising adaptive capacity at different scales, equity, fairness and justice are variables which must be considered (Klinsky 2017).


What I notice from the scholarship on climate change and equity is that there is a great volume of research arguing for one or the opposite view to justify the extent in which equity should be a variable of influence. At the same time, research is lacking when it comes to creating a nexus framework investigated by experts in both fields with the aim of developing valid literature on the practicality of equity into international or national organizations and summits.

Moreover, what I believe is missing overall in the discussion of effective climate policy drafting is a departure from the conventional national perspective to move more towards a globalized Earth perspective. The implication would be that the starting point would not be based on national interests or inequalities, yet better on achieving Earth justice by transcending the arguments of North-South, industrialized or developing, more or less vulnerable […] and creating a more nature centric approach.

With the understanding that this would be extremely difficult to implement from a political point of view, I believe as well it would be the most effective resolution if we're aiming at a fast recovery.


References:

A Mattoo, A Subramanian, (2012), Equity in Climate Change: an analytical review, World Development 40(6)

Okereke, C., (2017), A six-component model for assessing procedural fairness in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climatic Change 145(3-4) 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, https://www.ipcc.ch/#:~:text=The%20IPCC%20was%20created%20to,of%20knowledge%20on%20climate%20change. Accessed on: 22 January 2023

Klinsky, S., et al., (2017), Why equity is fundamental in climate change policy research, Global Environmental Change 44


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