Outline

Contemporary public discussion and world events have been defined by a strong sense of insecurity. Scholars have discussed an ongoing global ‘polycrisis’ and recent years have seen the highest number of armed conflicts for decades, including high profile wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Under President Donald Trump, the United States has upended many longstanding assumptions about geopolitics. President Trump has substantially reorientated the United States’ approach to climate change and the environment, dismantling domestic policies in this area and withdrawing from international commitments.

Tensions over immigration are increasingly prominent in many political systems and discourses around the world, and climate change and environmental challenges are contributing to flows of migration. Meanwhile, many nations are securitising activism and criminalising the right to peaceful protest over the ecological crisis.

In this context, the PSA Environment Group is organising a one-day workshop on global (in)security, geopolitics and the environment. This will include exploring the following set of indicative questions:

-Is there still a meaningful role for multilateral climate change (and broader environmental) negotiations?

-In what ways are broader geopolitical shifts impacting national governments’ approaches to environmental policy?

-How are disputes over access to natural resources impacting the transition to renewable energy? Who bears the socio-ecological costs of ‘green’ transitions?

-To what extent is climate change exacerbating political tensions over migration? And how is climate changed used in these debates?

-How are environmental movements responding to the mounting criminalisation of protest activities?

Venue

Room AG_3/4, Ellen Wilkinson Building (University of Manchester).

Programme

09:30-10:00 - Coffee & Registration

10:00-11.00 - Welcome & Opening Provocations by Mat Paterson (University of Manchester - Keynote Speaker) - Insecurity for Whom?

Chair: Charlotte Weatherill (Open University)

11.00-11.15 - Break

11.15-12.30 - Whither multilateral climate cooperation and governance amidst socio-ecological precariousness?

Chair: Gaurav Gharde (University of Manchester)

Speakers:

Yixiao Zhang (University of Manchester) - ‘What explains the changes in China and the US’s climate strategy since the Paris Agreement (2015-2025)?’

Yeqi Jin (University of Manchester) - ‘The role of international bureaucrats in interpreting the idea of climate change in times of institutional and geopolitical instability’

Ruth Townend (CAST) - ‘Climate multilateralism in an Age of Trump and Turmoil’

Caroline Kuzemko (University of Warwick) - ‘The Geopolitics of Energy and Climate Change’

12.30-13.30 - Lunch

13.30-14.45 - Contested Borders and Binaries in Environmental Politics: Nationalism, Immigration and Populism

Chair: Mitya Pearson (University of Warwick)

Speakers:

Dakila Yee, Leandro Piga, Geralyn Merimilla, Sigmund Fletcher Tarrayo, and Nicole Curato (University of Canberra, Australia) - ‘Embedded Eco-authoritarianism: Practices of everyday authoritarianism in climate change-induced resettlement in the Philippines’

Paul Tobin & James Jackson (University of Manchester) - ‘Multi-level climate governance: Anti-Net-Zero populism in four global north cities’

Morgane Dirion (Cardiff University) - ‘Welsh green nationalism and eco-governance’

Yeonsu Lee (University of Leeds) - ‘Beyond Technocracy: Historical Grievances, Trust, and Identity in the Fukushima Water Release Dispute in South Korea-Japan Relations’

14.45-15.00 - Break

15.00-16.15 - Critical Minerals and the Geopolitics of Just (Green) Transitions

Chair: Heather Alberro (University of Manchester)

Speakers:

Soumya Ranjan Gahir (Ravenshaw University, India) - ‘Decarbonisation Without Decolonisation: Climate Imperialism and the Green Geopolitics of Extractivism in the Indo-Pacific’

Gavin Harper (University of Birmingham) - ‘Engaging with the Critical Minerals Challenge’

Wafa Rasheeq (Jamia Millia Islamia, India) - ‘Theorizing Environmental In(security): Beyond Binary Frameworks in Climate Governance’

Franco Galdini (University of Birmingham) – ‘Capital’s surplus populations: Extractivism and the limits to ‘green’ industrial policy in Uzbekistan’s clean energy “addition”’

16:15-16:30 - Closing Remarks

16:30 - Drinks

This is a hybrid event. Please register on this page if you would like to attend either in-person or virtually.

Original source for banner photo: https://thebulletin.org/2018/07/approving-the-climate-security-agenda/ (photo credit in original source: 'Illustration courtesy bwats2 and AIRS').

Workshop: Environmental Politics in an Age of Insecurity