Panels

The USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean Mission presents Finance for Climate Justice: Caribbean Spotlight. The purpose of the session is to discuss international climate financial flows from the prism of climate justice; examining how particular features perpetuate and exacerbate inequalities between countries with a special focus on the Caribbean. The discussion will also explore how to marshal the resources and build the systems needed to address climate change impacts in the locations where they will be felt most acutely, and particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups.

Moderated by Elizabeth Riley
Executive Director, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency

The world population is increasing, possibly reaching 9.7 billion people by 2050. Most of the population growth is estimated to happen in tropical or subtropical regions, like Africa and Asia. Researchers and food producers state that there is the need to produce more food, without increasing the pressure on land usage. Livestock production in these areas in particular has been limited by several factors, including high temperatures, diseases, and feed problems. Gene Editing has been proposed as the solution to tackle these issues. The advantages of Gene Editing are the speed to which certain traits can be achieved compared to conventional breeding and the possibility to produce novel genetic combinations that could not have happened through conventional breeding. On the other hand, this might create a productivity gap between commercial breeders using gene editing and farmers using more traditional breeding methods, potentially altering the configuration of the industry. In fact, gene editing could trigger a potential technological transformation of the commercial breeding sector more generally. There are also animal welfare concerns and societal fears over using gene editing. In addition, the impact on the food systems also has potential food justice implications that need to be considered in addition to the other issues surrounding this new technology. In this concurrent session, the speakers will discuss the application of this technology in livestock, expanding on the risks and benefits, contributing to the broader debate of this topic.

 

Moderated by Ilaria Cimadori
PhD Student, Yale School of the Environment

The climate crisis is the largest threat that humanity faces. Climate change combined with high vulnerability increases frequency, intensity and duration of disasters and food insecurity ultimately threatening livelihoods and increases risk of instability, violence, and displacement. These effects will not be borne equally or fairly between and within countries - in fact, they disproportionately affect social groups that have historically been marginalized and underrepresented in climate change policy and discourse. Drawing on case studies and their extensive experience in the field, panelists will explore the role of humanitarian assistance in responding to and addressing the climate risks in a way that is equitable and inclusive. How can we design fair, just, and effective adaptation, disaster management, risk reduction and community resilience strategies? How do we prevent maladaptation, and ensure the equitable distribution of benefits and burdens of climate risk reduction and adaptation actions? What practices, policies, or organizational changes are needed to center climate justice in humanitarian assistance?

Moderated by Kevin Brown
Deputy Director, Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, USAID

The transition to clean energy in the Global South will require a range of instruments that support flexible and rapid implementation to meet ambitious climate targets. While a “just” energy transition has become a key goal of donors and national commitments, it is not always clear what international distributive justice and climate justice outcomes will be prioritized in the transition. Further, the guidance for identifying the actions required to achieve a just transition is often unclear. This panel with practitioners from emerging economies will explore questions that are critical for ensuring a just energy transition, such as: 1) Who benefits from the transition to clean energy? 2) How can these benefits be dovetailed with other justice considerations like climate adaptation and basic needs? 3) What models are available for making sure clean energy investments meet the needs of local stakeholders?

 

Moderated by Narasimha Rao
Associate Professor of Energy Systems, Yale School of the Environment

This session focuses on hydrologist Dr. Tommy Rock’s (Diné) research and work with artist Fazal Sheikh (born 1965). Dr. Rock is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University. He currently studies water, soil, and dust quality and the transmission of toxic substances, with a focus on methane emissions. Sheikh, who has spent his career photographing individuals and communities displaced by conflict and environmental change, worked closely with Dr. Rock to record the destruction caused by resource extraction in Southern Utah, particularly through methane contamination and investigating ways to visualize and quantify levels of carcinogens within a given plume of methane. The results of this ongoing research are currently on view in a new exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery, Fazal Sheikh: Exposures, which includes two projects: Exposure about the American Southwest, and Erasures about displacement of Bedouin people in the Negev in Southern Israel. The session will explore the expansive landscapes, the ongoing but often invisible effects of environmental racism, and necessary resilience of Indigenous peoples seen in the series Exposures, and through Dr. Rock and Sheikh’s collaboration.

 

The Caribbean’s heritage spans approximately 5000 years and represents one of humanities’ greatest context for human-environment relationship highlighted through forced encounter and migration. 

Cultural heritage is impacted by the changing climate, impacts climate change, and how we respond to this change. The societies created remain with us and have multiple narratives and vocalities for us to learn from. To learn, we must focus on the role of culture as an agent of social change and a crucial actor in building future resilience. Yet, the priority accorded to the inclusion of cultural heritage in broader climate change adaptation discussions or planning remains extremely limited.

Emerging research indicates that a future of sustainability and resilience in relation to natural disasters and climate change depends on an awareness, understanding and utilization of traditional - local and indigenous – knowledge, particularly in how we prepare, mitigate, and adapt to natural hazards and the changing climate. Heritage guides sustainable adaptation through an understanding of how communities interacted with their environment in the past or long-term historical relationship with their environment, understanding present vulnerability to guide our adaptation strategies as islands described as being at the forefront of climate stressors. Likewise, contemporaneous communities are the agents to safeguard, monitor and enable resilience utilizing past ideation as the platform for change. 

Through specific examples from the Caribbean, this presentation discusses the important place for heritage in the development of strategies or its place as an agent for social change. This is highlighted through the value of studying the past through archaeology, an understanding of the use of traditional knowledge systems through time and the importance of developing and implementing citizen science initiatives to safeguard that past.

Moderated by Clinton White
Regional Representative, USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the climate change field, attracting attention, engagement, and investment from governments, civil society, and private sector actors alike. As the name implies, nature-based solutions are fundamentally related to ecosystems, and thus involve and impact Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) that manage, use, and rely on those ecosystems. This breakout session will discuss the rapidly growing interest in NbS for climate change and the justice considerations that come along with NbS, particularly for the tenure rights and sovereignty of IPLCs. The discussion will focus on the importance of Indigenous rights considerations for practitioners and decision-makers developing and investing in NbS for climate.

 

This session will explore why equitable access to transportation is needed to achieve development goals while also playing a critical role in combating the unfolding crisis of climate change. Solutions must consider how people really travel, and how goods are delivered. Just and inclusive cities promise broader distribution of resources enabling a broader participation in the economy. Inclusive transportation planning is critical to achieving equitable access to increasingly low carbon modes of transportation. However, the barriers of political will and direction must be overcome, including transport services that do not include those that would benefit from it most, low awareness of the justice implications of accessible transport, and the lack of funds and financing for sustainable, accessible transportation. This session will describe mechanisms that could be applied internationally at the regional or municipal level to ensure clean transportation for all.

 

Moderated by Jill Capotosto
U.S. Department of Energy