About Environment and Climate Politics
Environment and climate politics questions are global, and so is our membership. They include questions of climate, but also of land, air, water, and biosphere. The group aims to build community amongst those interested in environmental politics, establishing BISA as a hub for this research in the UK.
Within climate politics, there are the themes of: mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, just transition, climate coloniality, and climate justice. However, this group is also committed to highlighting research that is concerned with environmental degradation beyond climate, reflecting the stress that all of our systems of life are under. Thematically, then, we are also interested in: political ecology, planetary justice, degrowth, water stress, land use struggles, and air pollution. This is particularly important as some proposed solutions to climate change are also further exacerbating these other environmental issues. Additionally, we envisage that researchers of non-human life will be included within our ranks, as questions of animal welfare, and more than-human rights are also areas of increasing interest. Finally, we would like to be involved in ongoing discussions about the environmental impacts of research itself, in particular academic flying, and the sustainability of current conferencing norms.
The group is active throughout the year including at the BISA virtual and in-person conferences.
The original Environment Working Group was founded by Professor John Vogler in 1991, in the lead-up to the 1992 Earth Summit. The group was closed due to inactivity, but reformed as a new entity by its current conveners.