RESOURCE EXTRACTION, CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RIGHT TO LIVE WELL
Description
Natural resource extraction has returned with a vengeance: as a model of development, as illicit activity, and as survival strategy. Combined investment in extractive industry, large scale infrastructure and the expansion of the agricultural frontier are often put forward as essential for the generation of government revenue, energy provision, and employment. Yet, this emphasis on resource extraction raises serious challenges for climate change, biodiversity and community rights, not least through its impacts on land cover change and water resources.
Can these challenges be addressed in ways that combine – at least to some extent – extractivism with the right to live well? This keynote lecture will aim to shed light on potentially fruitful responses at the interface of social mobilization and policy innovation within large-scale bureaucracies, without underestimating the constraints to change.