How are colonialism and eurocentrism undermining the response to the planetary emergency?
Knowledge for Sustainability Talks
Date: 13 October 2023, 14-16 CET, Online via Webex
The South is at the forefront of suffering the consequences of climate change and environmental destruction while only having a very limited historic contribution to its causes and continuing to contribute very little to the unfolding disaster today. The EU often presents itself as a global sustainability leader. Some uncomfortable issues not sufficiently on Northern radar screens may deserve a conversation as they could be undermining the global response to the planetary emergency. 0ur economic practices, our climate policies, and - more widely - our framings and narratives are impacted by multiple colonialities. Do our Euro-centric perspectives prevent us from seeing a bigger picture of the planetary emergency?
Minority and majority world are two new concepts increasingly used. The minority world stands for the smaller and wealthy part of humanity, in what has been called the developed world, the majority world stands for the biggest part of humanity around the globe, previously often called the ‘Third’ World. There are pockets of the minority world in the Global South, and pockets of the majority world in the Global North. Decolonization is important to avoid that perspectives, worldviews, research agendas of the minority world are imposed on the majority world, and to avoid that the green transition of the minority world comes at the expense of and with “neo-colonial plunder” (Hickel) of the majority world.
In this Knowledge for Sustainability talk organised by DG RTD and EUStaff4Climate, with the help of Active Seniors in the research area, Vidya Shah presents how learning and leadership can unpack systems of oppression, including coloniality and cognitive imperialism. Yamina Saheb looks at sufficiency from a global perspective. Andrew Fanning shares key insights on national responsibility for ecological breakdown and present compensation models for atmospheric appropriation. The live talks are complemented by video contributions of Vanessa Nakate, Farhana Sultana and Jason Hickel on a Global South perspective towards COP 28, on climate coloniality and economic aspects of post-colonialism. This topic is relevant and timely to several ongoing multi-lateral discussions on debt relief, loss and damages, the revision of the global financial framework, or the wider conversation about climate justice.
The Knowledge for Sustainability talks invite colleagues from EU Institutions, bodies and agencies to take a broader, long-term perspective, beyond the immediate policy-making calendar. They aim to offer disruptive and uncomfortable wisdom to make EU narratives and policies more robust.
How could staff of the EU Institutions become aware of filters and biases, resulting from our embeddedness in post-colonial practices and Eurocentric worldviews with the aim to develop relevant responses to the planetary emergency? Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions to the speakers and engage in participatory reflection.
- Recording (public link)
How are colonialism and eurocentrism undermining the response to the planetary emergency ? - Streaming Service of the European Commission (europa.eu)
- Presentations (internal link)
DG R&I Knowledge Talks (europa.eu)
- EU Learn (internal link):
AGENDA
Introduction:
- Thomas ARNOLD, Active Senior Green Transition, EUStaff4Climate
Speakers:
- Vidya SHAH, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education, York University, Ontario: Unpacking systems of oppression through learning and leadership: colonialism, coloniality, cognitive imperialism, Welcome to The UnLeading Project - UnLeading (yorku.ca), Systems of Oppression - UnLeading (yorku.ca), Colonialism, Coloniality and Settler Colonialism - UnLeading (yorku.ca)
- Video contribution by Vanessa NAKATE, UNICEF Good Will Ambassador, Climate Activist: Global South perspective towards COP28 Vanessa Nakate | UNICEF, UNICEF appoints climate activist Vanessa Nakate as Goodwill Ambassador, A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis by Vanessa Nakate | Goodreads, (79) Towards COP28 with Vanessa Nakate and Wopke Hoekstra - YouTube
- Yamina SAHEB, Senior Energy Policy Analyst at OpenExp, Researcher and Lecturer at Institut d’Etudes Politiques Paris, Lead Author IPCC AR6: Sufficiency for whom? A global perspective, Summary for Policymakers (SPM) - Climate Change 2022 - Mitigation of Climate Change (cambridge.org), Demand-side solutions to climate change mitigation consistent with high levels of well-being | Nature Climate Change, Beyond Efficiency and Renewable: Sufficiency Matters to Limit Global Warming by the End of the Century to 1.5°C | OpenEXP
- Video contribution Farhana SULTANA, Professor at Geography and the Environment Department of Syracuse University NY, Research Director Environmental Conflict and Collaboration: Decolonizing climate coloniality: a majority world perspective on biophysical limits to growth, The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality - ScienceDirect, Water Politics: Governance, Justice and the Right to Water – Dr. Farhana Sultana, Critical climate justice (farhanasultana.com), Lecture: Plenary 4 – Understanding the biophysical limits to growth to build an economy that respects planetary boundaries - Beyond Growth 2023 Conference (beyond-growth-2023.eu)
- Andrew FANNING, Research & Data Analysis Lead at Doughnut Economics Action Lab Oxford; Visiting Research Fellow at Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, National responsibility for ecological breakdown and compensation for atmospheric appropriation, National responsibility for ecological breakdown: a fair-shares assessment of resource use, 1970–2017 - The Lancet Planetary Health, Compensation for atmospheric appropriation | Nature Sustainability, The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations | Nature Sustainability
- Video contribution Jason HICKEL, Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona; Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics; ERC Synergy Grant Post-Growth Deal: The Economics of post-colonialism in the planetary emergency, Quantifying national responsibility for climate breakdown: an equality-based attribution approach for carbon dioxide emissions in excess of the planetary boundary - The Lancet Planetary Health, National responsibility for ecological breakdown: a fair-shares assessment of resource use, 1970–2017 - ScienceDirect, Existing climate mitigation scenarios perpetuate colonial inequalities - ScienceDirect, Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015 - ScienceDirect, Is green growth happening? An empirical analysis of achieved versus Paris-compliant CO2–GDP decoupling in high-income countries - The Lancet Planetary Health, Lecture: Opening plenary – Limits to Growth: where do we stand and where do we go from here? - Beyond Growth 2023 Conference (beyond-growth-2023.eu)
Q&A, Participants sharing their feelings, participatory discussion
- Moderation: Obhi CHATTERJEE, DG HR; Anna SMEDEBY, EPSO, EUStaff4Climate; Alexandre VACHER, REA, EUStaff4Climate
Closure:
- Laurent BONTOUX, Senior Foresight Expert, JRC
Technical lead:
- Jerome SPAANS, DG RTD
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