Asia-Pacific ClimateScapes: exploring opportunities, challenges and trade-offs toward just transitions for decarbonisation
Explored just transitions to decarbonisation for the Asia-Pacific using a multi-landscape approach to consider the intersecting social, political, and economic challenges towards decarbonisation.
Background
This project brought together 3 existing collaborations exploring just transitions to decarbonisation for the Asia-Pacific. Using a multi-landscape approach to consider the intersecting social, political, and economic challenges towards decarbonisation for 3 domains of environmental governance, these included: 1) Riverscapes, 2) Forestscapes, and 3) Oceanscapes. We understood decarbonisation as both the technical and political fixes for mitigating climate change. Using textual analysis, interviews, and participatory action research we explored the role of young people in envisioning and
charting a future for living in coastal zones, major river deltas, and tropical forests in times of rapid environmental change. We examined contested discourses surrounding just transitions to decarbonisation through a regional political ecology.
Dala was part of a team working on Forestscapes.
The Dala team members were:
- Tari Lestari
- Wendy Bullan
- Rodd Myers
The project was led by the University of Northumbria by Dr Pete Howson and partnered with The Research Trust of the Victoria University of Wellington, Can Tho University, and the Australian National University. The research was funded by the British Academy.
Approach
We addressed the following questions:
1. How did young people understand ‘just transitions’, i.e., what trade-offs were they facing, what were the sacrifices they were willing to make, and what did they expect from policymakers to ensure sustainable futures?
2. How did young people engage with environmental change and how did they understand and frame the threats arising to their livelihoods?
3. How did young people take action for climate adaptation and mitigation?
Approximately 20 semi-structured interviews took place with key informants on forestscapes and regional policy-makers, researchers and practitioners.
Data was coded for themes using discourse analysis to inform project outputs.