Global Commons: Issues, Concerns and Strategies presents a comprehensive international perspective on the global commons - natural resource domains that are not subject to national jurisdictions and are accessible to all nations. These include the oceans, atmosphere and outer space, and specific locations such as Antarctica. Due to their critical importance in maintaining human lives and livelihoods, and their vulnerability to depletion, the collaborative preservation of the global commons is of great relevance to all human communities. Leading world powers, such as France, are increasingly adopting environmental policies as key to their functioning as democracies. After the Paris Climate Conference, there has been a spurt in cooperation between major nations, such as France and India, in the fight against climate change. This book provides exhaustive coverage of all the major facets of preservation of the global commons. It will, therefore, prove indispensable to all stakeholders in a new, just and sustainable world order.

This book explores the genesis of the concept of global commons against the backdrop of the global environmental problems of climate change, biodiversity conservation, desertification, and the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes. It highlights blockchains and cryptocurrencies, and their role in transforming global institutions. It delves on the advent of COVID-19 as a global common and the way the pandemic has been handled by the world community. The book also explores the way the current geopolitics of the world is contributing to the resolution of the conservation problem associated with global commons.

This book examines the multiple scales at which the inequities of climate change are borne out. Shangrila Joshi engages in a multi-scalar analysis of the myriad ways in which various resource commons – predominantly atmosphere and forests – are implicated in climate governance, with a consistent emphasis throughout on the justice implications for disenfranchised communities. The book starts with an analysis of North-South inequities in responsibility, vulnerability, and capability, as evidenced in global climate treaty negotiations from Rio to Paris. It then moves on to examine the ways in which structural inequalities are built into the conceptualization and operationalization of various neoliberal climate solutions such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted in Delhi, Kathmandu, and the Terai region of Nepal, participant observation at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15), and textual analysis of official documents, the book articulates a geography of climate justice, considering how ideas of injustice pertaining to colonialism, race, Indigeneity, caste, gender, and global inequality intersect with the politics of scale. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental justice, climate justice, climate policy, political ecology, and South Asian studies.

This book explores global environmental negotiations against the backdrop of complex political relations, the climate change conventions, and multilateral environmental assessments and their effect on special interest groups. It weaves in the story of India's emergent economy, its sustainable development, and the multifaceted nationhood, the diversity of its rural scene, and the challenges of seamlessness brought in by the power of its information technology. Viewing global environmental movements, the book discusses the pattern of global negotiations from the environmental summit capitals of the world—Rio, Kyoto, Cartagena, Bonn, Stockholm, Montreal, Geneva, Basel, and Copenhagen among others to graphically portray the plight of a postmodern world that grapples with the problems of climate, land degradation, chemical transfers, and biodiversity.

This book brings together diverse perspectives concerning uncertainty and climate change in India. Uncertainty is a key factor shaping climate and environmental policy at international, national and local levels. Climate change and events such as cyclones, floods, droughts and changing rainfall patterns create uncertainties that planners, resource managers and local populations are regularly confronted with. In this context, uncertainty has emerged as a "wicked problem" for scientists and policymakers, resulting in highly debated and disputed decision-making. The book focuses on India, one of the most climatically vulnerable countries in the world, where there are stark socio-economic inequalities in addition to diverse geographic and climatic settings. Based on empirical research, it covers case studies from coastal Mumbai to dryland Kutch and the Sundarbans delta in West Bengal. These localities offer ecological contrasts, rural–urban diversity, varied exposure to different climate events, and diverse state and official responses. The book unpacks the diverse discourses, practices and politics of uncertainty and demonstrates profound differences through which the "above", "middle" and "below" understand and experience climate change and uncertainty. It also makes a case for bringing together diverse knowledges and approaches to understand and embrace climate-related uncertainties in order to facilitate transformative change. Appealing to a broad professional and student audience, the book draws on wide-ranging theoretical and conceptual approaches from climate science, historical analysis, science, technology and society studies, development studies and environmental studies. By looking at the intersection between local and diverse understandings of climate change and uncertainty with politics, culture, history and ecology, the book argues for plural and socially just ways to tackle climate change in India and beyond. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003257585, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Global Climate Change presents both practical and theoretical aspects of global climate change from across geological periods. It addresses holistic issues related to climate change and its contribution in triggering the temperature increase with a multitude of impacts on natural processes. As a result, it helps to identify the gaps between policies that have been put in place and the continuously increasing emissions. The challenges presented include habitability, biodiversity, natural resources, and human health. It is organized into information on the past, present, and future of climate change to lead to a more complete understanding and therefore effective solutions.Placing an emphasis on recent climate change research, Global Climate Change helps to bring researchers and graduate students in climate science, environmental science, and sustainability up to date on the science of climate change so far and presents a baseline for how to move into the future effectively. - Addresses the variety of challenges associated with climate change, along with possible solutions - Includes suggestions for future research on climate change - Covers climate change holistically, including global and regional scales, ecosystems, agriculture, energy, and sustainability - Presents both practical and theoretical research, including coverage of climate change over various geological periods

Vast areas of valuable resources unfettered by legal rights have, for centuries, been the central target of human exploitation and appropriation. The global commons -- Antarctica, the high seas and deep seabed minerals, the atmosphere, and space -- have remained exceptions only because access has been difficult or impossible, and the technology for successful extraction has been lacking. Now, technology has caught up with desire, and management regimes are needed to guide human use of these important resource domains. In The Global Commons, Susan Buck considers the history of human interactions with each of the global commons areas and provides a concise yet thorough account of the evolution of management regimes for each area. She explains historical underpinnings of international law, examines the stakeholders involved, and discusses current policy and problems associated with it. Buck applies key analytical concepts drawn from institutional analysis and regime theory to examine how legal and political concerns have affected the evolution of management regimes for the global commons. She presents in-depth case studies of each of the four regimes, outlining the historical evolution of the commons -- development of interest in exploiting the resource domain; conflicts among nations over the use of the commons; and efforts to design institutions to control access to the domains and to regulate their use -- and concluding with a description of the management regime that eventually emerged from the informal and formal negotiations. The Global Commons provides a clear, useful introduction to the subject that will be of interest to general readers as well as to students in international relations and international environmental law, and in environmental law and policy generally.