Carbon sink geopolitics

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2159762
AutoresVéra Ehrenstein (0000-0002-3415-3254, University of London)
Año2018
Volumen47
Número1
Páginas162-186
Fecha de publicación2018-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085147.2018.1445569
OpenAlexW2797596196
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas36

This paper explores an example of global politics in action by attending to the modalities and outcomes of United Nations negotiations on global warming. More precisely, the paper ethnographically traces how the capacity of tropical forests to act as carbon sinks is turned into a matter of global concern. The focus is on a negotiated policy called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and its anchoring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose territory contains the second largest area of rainforest after Brazil. The paper discusses the importance of the promissory in climate actions, the multivalence of what is at stake and the porosity and resilience of national demarcation. To do so, it identifies three moments and sites of geopolitical re-composition: the formulation of international consensus, the work of preparatory agents and the quest for metrological inclusiveness. These moments and sites point to the theatricality and semi-secrecy of United Nations negotiations, the mobilizing activities of expatriate consultants hired with overseas aid funding and the unstable evidential grounds on which emission reduction efforts are based. The paper suggests that, through this series of processes, the carbon stored by tropical forests becomes a matter of global exigency

Carbon stock · Climate change · Democracy · Economics · Geopolitics · Greenhouse gas · Kyoto Protocol · Negotiation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Mining and Resource Management · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance · Law