a) Description
This course will focus on the intersection between climate justice and climate change law and policy. It will be framed around an understanding of justice linked to equity, both within countries and among countries. The main axis for understanding climate justice at the international level is differentiation or the idea that equity requires the global North to do more than the global South in addressing climate change. At the national level, inequality calls for ensuring that the most marginalised and poorest citizens are not made to bear the brunt of policies aimed at addressing climate change. This course will frame these issues by emphasising the global South-global North dimensions of the international climate change regime and by focusing on India as one particularly important example for understanding climate justice at the national level.
On completion of the course, students will be able to:
Identify the predominant issues and challenges presented by the international climate change regime.
Articulate climate change law and policy and frame it within the context of climate justice, its implications and significance.
Evaluate the distinct climate change challenges faced by India and the broader global South within the overarching international narrative.
Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges prevalent in the field of climate justice and climate change law.
b) Indicative syllabus (subject to change)
· Climate justice
· International climate change regime and the global South
· Principles of the international climate change regime
· National responses Carbon markets, equity and forests loss and damage and disaster risk management
· Just transition Human rights, displacement and migration
· Climate Change-related Litigation
c) Assessment (subject to change)
Assessment comprises two different elements:
A 1,000-word Policy brief, worth 30 % of the mark.
A 2,500-word essay worth 70% of the mark.
d) General Reference Books Related to the Course
Deepa Badrinayarana, ‘Climate Change Law and Policy in India’, in Cinnamon Carlarne, Kevin Gray & Richard Tarasofsky eds, The Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law 688-99 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Navroz K Dubash ed., India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Stellina Jolly & Nafees Ahmad, Climate Refugees in South Asia – Protection Under International Legal Standards and State Practices in South Asia (Springer, 2019).
Prakash Kashwan ed., Climate Justice in India (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
Cinnamon Carlarne, Kevin Gray & Richard Tarasofsky eds, The Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law 588-605 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Shibani Ghosh, ‘Climate Litigation in India’, in Francesco Sindico and Makane Moïse Mbengue (eds), Comparative Climate Change Litigation: Beyond the Usual Suspects 347 (Springer 2021).