Asia-Pacific ClimateScapes: exploring opportunities, challenges and trade-offs toward just transitions for decarbonisation

This project will bring together 3 existing collaborations to explore just transitions to decarbonisation for the Asia- Pacific. We propose a multi-landscape approach to consider the intersecting social, political, and economic challenges towards decarbonisation for 3 domains of environmental governance, these include: 1) Riverscapes, 2) Forestscapes, and 3) Oceanscapes. We understand decarbonisation as both the technical and political fixes for mitigating climate change. Using textual analysis, interviews, and participatory action research this project will explore the role of young people in envisioning and charting a future for living in coastal zones, major river deltas, and tropical forests in times of rapid environmental change. This project will examine contested discourses surrounding just transitions to decarbonisation through a regional political ecology. With partners from across research, policy, and practice, working on a combined portfolio of over 300 decarbonisation projects, this project will explore possibilities for pursuing progressive climate politics with costs and benefits more equitably distributed.

Dr Peter Howson, Northumbria University; Dr Rini Astuti, Australian National University; Dr Oliver Hesengerth, Northumbria University; Professor Sara Kindon, Victoria University of Wellington