Study highlights 6 tools for decolonizing climate research

Traditional practice in southern Uganda supports meetings where farmers can discuss and evaluate information from indigenous knowledge and government weather services to plan upcoming agricultural activities as climate change alters the timing of the rainy season. Photo: Carla Roncoli (used with permission)

Climate change is often seen as a scientific problem requiring technological solutions, but Indigenous activists and other leaders have long called for it to be viewed as a social crisis.Fossil fuel developments past and present are rooted in a long history in Europe and North America colonialism and mining – a legacy that cannot be resolved through technology or science alone. A growing number of academics and activists are calling for climate solutions to repair the continuing wounds of colonialism.

Research on climate solutions must be decolonized, according to an open access paper published in I wander in April. The paper builds on decades of work by Indigenous scholars and activists to recognize Western scientific methods and diverse bodies of knowledge. The paper shows that epistemic justice, or the authentic and comprehensive inclusion of different ways of knowing, is as important as social or political justice in climate solutions.

This paper proposes practices for governance of climate issues at local, national and international levels in order to achieve cognitive justice and genuine partnerships between local communities and top-down institutions in climate research and planning. “A lot of people have talked about recognition and respect, and holders of different knowledge systems have to recognize the intrinsic value of other knowledge systems and have to respect them,” he said. Ben Orloff, the paper’s co-lead author, an anthropologist at Columbia’s Climate Institute. “We went beyond that to say we need concrete mechanisms, and consultation is just one of them.”

The paper proposes six policy tools that, when used together, can aid climate research and planning for decolonization. These instruments are: Adequate consultation with indigenous peoples and local communities on climate governance and research; free, prior and informed consent to projects and activities affecting indigenous peoples and local communities; recognition of customary law, including rights to land and water traditional cultural rules of practice and territorial rights; intellectual property rights of Aboriginal communities; indigenous data sovereignty; protection and promotion of indigenous languages.

The document makes clear that these tools are not an easy solution to a long colonial history. Nor do the authors believe that incorporating these tools into climate research can guarantee power-sharing or full equality for Indigenous communities. But this paper argues that a shift in power relations between Indigenous peoples and Western science and government institutions is more likely to be achieved through the use and establishment of these tools.

The decolonization of climate research requires change – and it has always been a long and arduous process. But as study author Melissa Nelson, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability and a registered member of the Chippewa Indian Turtle Mountain Band, puts it, “Unless you have a long-term commitment and you’re giving, not just It’s a request.”

The authors point out that even the term “climate solution,” while useful in some contexts, can be problematic when considered from a colonial perspective. Preoccupation with solutions or outcomes can overlook the means to achieve them. In the context of Western colonialism, end-over-means thinking often comes at the expense of indigenous peoples. This is why the paper asserts that the decolonization of climate research is necessary – because in order to bring about just outcomes, the process of developing climate solutions must be more just.As Nelson puts it, “If we are going to talk about indigenous knowledge systems and local knowledge systems, we have[ve] Fighting epistemic hegemony, epistemic justice, and decolonization. Not just the decolonization of climate policy, but the real decolonization of the way we think about climate. We cannot discuss solutions until we discuss how to solve the problem. “

The ultimate goal is to change the power relations and processes of climate research. It’s a difficult and slow task, but a necessary one. “What climate change is really exposing is how little we know about our changing planet, how little we know about human resilience and human vulnerability. So by inviting transformative change and actually incorporating it into transformative climate research, I hope It will encourage more radical research, more radical partnerships, more risk-taking,” Nelson said.

The paper is the result of a working group led by Orlove and Passang Sherpa of the Department of Sociology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Authors include Indigenous and non-Indigenous and they collaborate across time zones.Orlof hopes the six instruments and other proposals for shifting power relations in climate research and governance will help inform the upcoming seventh cycle UN climate report.

In addition to Orlove, Sherpa and Nelson, other authors on the paper include Neil Dawson of the University of East Anglia, Ibidun Adelekan of the University of Ibadan, Wilfedo Alangui of the University of the Philippines Baguio and Rosario Carmona of the University of Bonn Integrated Disaster Risk Management Center, Deborah Coen of Yale University, Victoria Reyes-Garcia of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Jennifer Rubis of the Green Climate Fund;