Nisar Chattha’s dissertation defence.
Abstract
The significant range of climate change impacts and capacities to address climate change demands that responses be diverse and indigenized through a democratic process. In the case of climate geoengineering (CGE), the predominant views have come from scholars from the global North who have explored CGE research based on their perspectives and developed states’ political and economic contexts. As the discussion surrounding CGE moves from the periphery to the center of climate policy debates, there is a need for more scholars from the global South to come forward and apply perspectives and theoretical lenses informed by the conditions experienced in the global South to the debates on CGE research and governance. Framing CGE as a set of climate responses that address the needs and values of the global South may serve to increase the salience of these debates for developing countries. To this end, this dissertation develops a theoretical framework for examining CGE based on the capabilities approach of Amartya Sen and then applies this framework to two case studies addressing the relationships between CGE and the development context in South- Asia.
In the theoretical chapter, I argue that it is important to reframe CGE in a way that is more likely to align with the broader development aspirations of the global South. Reframing CGE as a development is a difficult task because development is a contested term with multiple meanings. Therefore, I consider Sen’s idea of “development as freedom” and explore CGE through Amartya Sen’s capability framework to analyze whether CGE can be of potential use for protecting and advancing human capabilities threatened due to climate change. The theory of capabilities offers a promising framework that can provide an ethical foundation for analyzing the interface of developing countries with CGE research and governance. The capability approach is rooted in the reality of the global South. The justice-oriented capability framework emphasizes human autonomy, which looks at practical capabilities to attain individual and collective ends.
The first case study examines the link between carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and development under China’s transnational development initiative, namely the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Pakistan. BRI is seen as a crucial enterprise for economic development by policymakers of many developing countries. However, simultaneously, BRI can compromise the emission reduction goals of host countries, which they committed to under the Paris Agreement. Pakistan is one of the most significant participants of the BRI, with numerous coal-fired energy projects sponsored by China under the BRI. Pakistan also has ambitious emission reduction goals demonstrated through its Nationally
Determined Contributions (NDCs) and an internationally celebrated afforestation and reforestation project like the Billion Tree Tsunami (BTS). This case study examines whether CDR initiatives can be integrated into modern development structures like the BRI and the associated governance challenges. The key findings point to the limited degree that the BRI structure has engaged with CDR, notwithstanding the acknowledgment of the need to “green” the BRI. CDR holds potential as a source of just climate development, but the top-down structure of the BRI limits the democratic values that lie at the center of Sen’s approach to development (as freedom).
In the second case study, I analyze the case of targeted geoengineering for protecting and preserving the rapidly melting glaciers in the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindukush (HKHK) in South Asia. These rapidly melting glaciers can cause floods and food insecurity in the region and reduce the capabilities of the people to pursue development. The imperative of glacier preservation is recognized by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution in designating 2025 as the International Year of Glacier Preservation. In South Asia, the mountain ranges of HKHK present a case for glacier preservation because of the extreme importance of these glaciers for the water, food, and energy security of the region’s people, making glacier preservation a key development issue. This chapter examines whether targeted geoengineering can protect development under threat due to climate-induced disasters in the HKHK region. The idea of targeted geoengineering has been primarily explored in the context of arctic intervention to preserve and protect the polar ice, but the urgency of glacier preservation in South Asia underlines the importance of examining new climate responses. The case study applies the capabilities framework to consider the normative and governance dimensions of glacier preservation. This case study is more exploratory, given the high degree of uncertainty surrounding approaches to glacier preservation. The chapter seeks to identify a set of governance principles consistent with the capabilities approach that may guide the complex cooperation and governance challenges that regional glacier preservation would entail.
The conclusion revisits the merits of framing CGE as an emerging element of development discourses.
Supervisor: Dr. Neil Craik (SEED and BSIA)
Committee: Dr. Juan Moreno Cruz (SEED), Dr. Simon Dalby (BSIA), and Dr. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (Adjunct ENV)
Internal/external: Dr. Juan Moreno Cruz
External: Dr. Simon Nicholson
There are limited spaces available to attend the defence. Email c3subramaniam@uwaterloo.ca if you would like to attend.
