Poverty, Inequality and Climate Change
SEMINAR: The IDEP Monthly Development Seminar is a public knowledge-sharing and discussion forum where key global and regional development questions that carry implications for economy, politics, governance, culture and society in Africa are freely debated.
Climate change has become a major issue of national, regional and global policy focus. There is a broad consensus that unless significant changes in development thinking and practice are implemented, the world is likely to suffer catastrophic, irreversible damage to the environment that would carry many adverse consequences for nations and peoples.
In this seminar, organized by the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), CROP Scientific Director St. Clair critiques the dominant discourses on climate change, inequality and poverty for their lack of reflexivity. She argues that the most effective way to promote sustainable responses to climate change is the immediate eradication of severe poverty, combined with the development of solid welfare systems for social protections and the minimization of inequalities. This calls for radical changes in the theory and practice of development, including a shift away from the growing focus on market-based solutions to climate change. It also demands a greater attention to the concept of responsibility.
