New geopolitics of climate change: the roles of United States and China

• Grant number: 11/11247-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Wagner Costa Ribeiro
• Grantee: Helena Margarido Moreira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 12/19395-2 - Domestic factors and their influency on global climate politics, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Climate change is a topic that can be placed on the area of the environment international regulation and that demands international cooperation. However, international negotiations on the fight against climate change haven't been directed towards an efficient solution. Since the signature of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in 1992, inequalities on the North-South Debate, legitimated by the common but differentiated responsibilities principle and that opposes developed and developing countries, in the terms used by the documents, have been indicated as the main reason for the inefficacy in the treatment of the problem. Nowadays, we face a new configuration of the climate change geopolitics, especially after Copenhagen Conference (2009) which do not reaffirm the North-South debate, but that places countries in groups with similar interests, in terms of greenhouse gases emissions spatialization and vulnerability to climate change. The objective of this research is to analyze United States and China's positions, the greatest world-wide emitters, and how these positions shape the new geopolitics of climate change. We intend, through the reading and analysis of documents and decisions taken by the Conferences of the Parties and national plans and proposals, to evaluate how domestic political and economic constraints determine the positions that these countries assume on the negotiations of the subsystem of the international environmental order relating to climate change, and how this impact on the negotiation of a new climate change international agreement. The period to be evaluated is the one that comprehends the negotiations of post Kyoto dialogues (2005 to 2012). For this, we will use theories and concepts of Political Geography (territory and sovereignty), of Political Ecology (ecopolitics, "ecologismo dos pobres" and environmental justice) and International Relations (interdependence theory and environmental international order). Climate change negotiations embrace several dimensions (environmental, economic, political, scientific and social) simultaneously, which grant to the subject an interdisciplinary character. Such approach will combine national/international dimensions, placing this research between Political Geography and International Relations.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

MOREIRA, Helena Margarido. Formation of the new political geography of climate change: the role of the United States and China. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.