Building Theories to Understand the Underlying Mechanisms of Injustice in

Urban Climate Governance

Sara Hughes National Center for Atmospheric Research

Workshop on Policy Process Research University of Colorado Denver

February 15, 2012

Road Map I. Urban climate planning

a) Status and trends b) Justice in processes and plans

II. Explaining injustice in urban governance a) Four approaches b) Lessons learned and gaps remaining

III. Institutions and justice in urban climate planning in Delhi and Mexico City

Road Map I. Urban climate planning

a) Status and trends b) Justice in processes and plans

II. Explaining injustice in urban governance a) Four approaches b) Lessons learned and gaps remaining

III. Institutions and justice in urban climate planning in Delhi and Mexico City

Road Map I. Urban climate planning

a) Status and trends b) Justice in processes and plans

II. Explaining injustice in urban governance a) Four approaches b) Lessons learned and gaps remaining

III. Institutions and justice in urban climate planning in Delhi and Mexico City

“A significant change (such as a change having important economic, environmental and social effects) in the mean values of a meteorological element (in particular temperature or amount of precipitation) in the course of a certain period of time, where the means are taken over periods of the order of a decade or longer.” National Snow and Ice Data Center, CU Boulder

Climate Change

Key Anthropogenic Drivers: • Increase in CO2 levels from fossil fuel

consumption • Atmospheric aerosols and ozone

depletion • Deforestation

Climate Change

Status and Trends

An Increasingly Urban World

Status and Trends

Cities are Sources of CO2 Emissions

Status and Trends

Cities are Sites of Impacts

Expanded Urban Heat Islands Uncertainty in Water Supplies

Status and Trends

Cities are Sources of Innovation and Policy Action

The tools and processes cities use to manage their carbon emissions and adapt

to the possible consequences of climate change

Urban Climate Planning

Mitigation: • Green buildings • Energy efficient

transportation • Energy and water

conservation • Open and green

space preservation

Adaptation: • Economic and

development planning

• Reduced exposure to hazards

• New decision making processes

Status and Trends

Examples of urban climate planning actions:

Cities in developing/industrializing countries are increasingly developing climate plans

Status and Trends

Mexico City Pact: 208 cities representing 250 million people 197 cities (95%) from developing/industrializing countries

Status and Trends

• Vulnerabilities are particularly acute – Extreme events – Exacerbating existing problems of poverty

and environmental stress • Critical that urban climate governance

generates local and equitably distributed benefits

Status and Trends

Status and Trends

Sea Level Rise Rio de Janeiro

Source: Reuters, 2009 Source: Andrea Ferraz Young, 2011

Flooding Mexico City

• Vulnerabilities are particularly acute – Extreme events – Exacerbating existing problems of poverty

and environmental stress • Critical that urban climate governance

generates local and equitably distributed benefits

Status and Trends

Source: Dr. Peter Kim Streatfield, ICDDR,B

• Vulnerabilities are particularly acute – Extreme events – Exacerbating existing problems of poverty

and environmental stress • Critical that urban climate governance

generates local and equitably distributed benefits

Status and Trends

• Vulnerabilities are particularly acute – Extreme events – Exacerbating existing problems of poverty

and environmental stress • Critical that urban climate governance

generates local and equitably distributed benefits

• Major gap in urban climate governance research is the implications for equity and justice (Bulkeley 2010)

Status and Trends

Justice in Processes and Plans

Justice in Processes and Plans

John Rawls: Justice as Fairness

• Terms of allocating benefits and burdens are such that a reasonable person would accept them and expect others to do the same

• Difference principle: Social and economic inequalities are just only if they work to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society

Justice in Processes and Plans

Amartya Sen: Enhancing Justice and Removing Injustice

• Just institutions vs. Just “comprehensive outcomes”

• Comparative principles for evaluating the advancement or retreat of justice and choosing between alternatives

• Enhancing Freedoms

What is justice in urban governance?

Justice in Processes and Plans

Fainstein:

Democracy Diversity

Equity

Agyeman:

Equal protection and meaningful involvement of all people in decision

making and implementation and the equitable distribution of

benefits.

What is justice in urban climate planning?

Justice in Processes and Plans

1. Representation of Disadvantaged Groups in Planning (Process) 2. Priority Setting and Framing that Recognizes the Needs of Disadvantaged Groups (Outcomes) 3. Benefits and Their Distribution Enhance Freedoms and Capabilities of Disadvantaged Groups (Outcomes)

Why would people be left out?

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Why would people be left out?

Political Economy of

Urban Poverty

Institutional Capacities

Technocractic Governance

Thick Injustice

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Political Economy of Urban Poverty Lack of accountability to, and representation of, the poor

• Poor have few opportunities to participate in policy making processes and little influence on elections

• Often no government agency, department or ministry with responsibility, programs, or funds

• Social and economic policy perceive poverty differently and incompletely

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Banks, Nicola, Manoj Roy and David Hulme. 2011. Neglecting the urban poor in Bangladesh: research, policy and action in the context of climate change. Environment and Urbanization, 23:487, p. 487-502.

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Thick Injustice Deep, densely concentrated, and opaque injustices

• Historical roots and processes • Relationship between injustice and the structure of

local governance • Suburbanization and privatization

• Links between injustice and physical place (infrastructure, urban design, neighborhoods, etc.)

• Spatial mismatches

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Bramley, Glen and Sinead Power. 2009. Urban form and social sustainability: the role of density and housing type. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 36, p. 30-48.

Technocratic Governance Technical information in policy making marginalizes groups not using or encompassed by this information

• How information is produced • What information is used • Dominance of western-style scientific information,

especially in environmental policy • Epistemologies become institutionalized

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Eden, Sally and Sylvia Tunstall. 2006. Ecological versus social restoration? How urban river restoration challenges but also fails to challenge the science-policy nexus in the United Kingdom. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 24, p. 661-680.

Institutional Capacities Local governments have the authority but not the administrative, financial, or technical capacity

• Lack qualities of good governance: decentralization and autonomy, transparency and accountability, and responsiveness and flexibility

• Under-funded • Under-trained

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Explaining Injustice in Urban Governance

Centralized

Decentralized

Reactive Anticipatory

Centralized Anticipatory

Centralized Reactive

Decentralized Anticipatory

Decentralized Reactive

Gaps Remaining

Under what conditions are the different mechanisms of injustice most important?

• Certain types of urban governance problems?

• Different political and cultural contexts? • Certain institutional features of governance

mediate the relationship between the mechanisms and the outcomes?

Gaps Remaining

Under what conditions are the different mechanisms of injustice most important?

• Certain types of urban governance problems?

• Different political and cultural contexts? • Certain institutional features of governance

mediate the relationship between the mechanisms and the outcomes?

Gaps Remaining

Under what conditions are the different mechanisms of injustice most important?

• Certain types of urban governance problems?

• Different political and cultural contexts? • Certain institutional features of

governance mediate the relationship between the mechanisms and the outcomes?

Institutions and Justice

Urban Climate Planning

Institutions and Justice

Intergovernmental Organizations and International Negotiations

Urban Climate Planning

Institutions and Justice

Intergovernmental Organizations and International Negotiations

National Policies

State Policies

Urban Climate Planning

Public

Institutions and Justice

Intergovernmental Organizations and International Negotiations

National Policies

State Policies

Urban Climate Planning

Private

NGO

Public

Research Question: Do the institutional channels of urban

climate governance create differences in the equitable production urban climate plans?

1. Are there resulting differences in the equitable production and distribution of local environmental, economic, and social benefits?

Institutions and Justice

Institutions and Justice

Institutional Channels

Bottom-Up Top-Down

Institutions and Justice

Political Economy of

Urban Poverty

Institutional Capacities

Technocractic Governance

Thick Injustice

Participation and

Coalitions

Priority Setting and

Framing

Distribution of Benefits

Mechanisms of Injustice

Justice in Planning Outcomes

Institutions and Justice

Political Economy of

Urban Poverty

Institutional Capacities

Technocractic Governance

Thick Injustice

Mechanisms of Injustice

Participation and

Coalitions

Priority Setting and

Framing

Distribution of Benefits

Justice in Planning Outcomes

Institutions and Justice

Mechanism of Injustice

Importance in Bottom-Up

Importance in Top-Down

Technocratic Governance Institutional Capacities

Research Design: Evaluate climate planning in Delhi and

Mexico City

Institutions and Justice

Institutions and Justice

Institutions and Justice

Institutions and Justice

1. Identify the affected and disadvantaged populations in each city

2. Evaluate whether and how these communities are included in participation and coalition building, priority setting and framing, and the distribution of benefits

3. Why were communities included or not?

Climate Plans and Interviews

Livelihoods Approach Using Secondary Data

Interviews

Institutions and Justice Improved understanding: 1. Theory: mechanisms of injustice and

the intervening effect of institutions 2. Obstacles and opportunities for greater

justice in top down and bottom up systems of urban climate planning

3. Relationship between where and how

(climate) planning occurs and the benefits that are experienced.

Thank You

Thank You

Let’s Discuss