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Paper short abstract:

Humanity faces a myriad of social and environmental risks which threaten global development. Drawing on empirical research from countries in the Global South, we synthesise a set of principles to promote more equitable forms of responses to address the climate and biodiversity crises.

Paper long abstract:

The imperative to take action on and respond to global crises becomes ever more pressing as carbon emissions continue to rise and biodiversity losses show no sign of abating. Humanity is at a crossroad, incremental responses to this myriad of challenges appear increasingly inadequate and the demand for transformative action is growing. Yet these calls for action are superimposed onto a canvas of global injustice that not only created the climate and biodiversity crises but also risks reproducing the same structural conditions and outcomes that have resulted in the hugely inequitable global patterns of development that we see today. At the simplest of levels, those who are least responsible for causing the problems we see around us are being expected to bear the highest of costs. Given these circumstances, we present eight vignettes from research undertaken in low- and middle- income countries that explore how climate, energy, and biodiversity interact with multiple dimensions of poverty and inequality. Through these vignettes focusing on issues including adaptation, conservation, resource extraction, just transition, and social innovation, we synthesise a set of principles that we hope will support more equitable responses to the climate and biodiversity crises. Such knowledge is essential as the demand for action grows ever more urgent and the calls for increasingly radical and transformational responses become ever louder. Ultimately, efforts to realise a more sustainable future will only succeed if they are considered to be fair and legitimate and address some of the fundamental social injustices that we see today.