Climate change has caused substantial loss and damage in terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and open ocean marine ecosystems, with low- and middle-income countries the worst affected.
This was one of the key findings of world-renowned economist Professor Jayati Ghosh (pictured above) when she delivered the third annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture, hosted by The Institute of African Alternatives (IFAA) and the Institute for Social Development (ISD) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on 23 November.
Titled Climate Imperialism: How Can the Rest of the World Respond?, Prof Ghosh’s address highlighted that core and elite countries globally produce and consume based on an imperialist mode of living. This means that they continue to generate global carbon emissions with rising ecological footprints. Then they employ “unequal, deceptive and debilitating” tactics in the international negotiations that address climate change.
Some losses from global warming are already irreversible and others are approaching a crisis point, explained Prof Ghosh, who has taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, for 35 years.
Despite some adaptation measures, there are large gaps across countries, regions, areas, and categories of people. These show increasing evidence of mal-adaptation that adds to and worsens inequality. Examples include fire suppression in naturally fire-adapted ecosystems; seawalls and hard defences against flooding; or more air-conditioning in warmer contexts which adds to the greenhouse gas emissions.
Prof Ghosh, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the United States since 2021, suggested that countries choose a different development pattern by improving the level of energy efficiency of the economy, and changing patterns of investment and consumption towards activities that require less energy and use less carbonating substances.
She spoke about how global finance and fiscal strategies of major countries increase carbon emissions while failing to make available the required finance for effective mitigation strategies. Poor countries’ debt service obligations were huge; nearly double the amount of all social spending (such as health, education and social protection).
Prof Ghosh cautioned against the “Ponzi borrowing” that occurred when countries borrowed more to pay interest on existing debts. It is not only the most debt-stressed countries that were servicing external debt at great cost to the domestic population.
Prof Ghosh concluded by describing mitigation strategies for developing countries and the changes required in international economic architecture. She said border carbon taxes were not a solution.
“They are a device for trade protectionism if principles of compensation and sharing of revenues are not clear and just. A global tax-and-dividend policy requires trust and international cooperation, neither of which currently exists,” she said.
She said there was a need to control the carbon emissions of the very rich through regulations and taxation, and this applied to the rich in all countries, including in Africa. But she ended on a note of optimism – noting a revival of progressive multilateralism and co-operation across debt-stressed countries.
The Ben Turok Memorial Lecture is aimed at remembering and honouring the life and times of Ben Turok, the South African anti-apartheid activist, politician, and economics professor who died at the age of 92 in December 2019.
This was one of the key findings of world-renowned economist Professor Jayati Ghosh (pictured above) when she delivered the third annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture, hosted by The Institute of African Alternatives (IFAA) and the Institute for Social Development (ISD) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on 23 November.
Titled Climate Imperialism: How Can the Rest of the World Respond?, Prof Ghosh’s address highlighted that core and elite countries globally produce and consume based on an imperialist mode of living. This means that they continue to generate global carbon emissions with rising ecological footprints. Then they employ “unequal, deceptive and debilitating” tactics in the international negotiations that address climate change.
Some losses from global warming are already irreversible and others are approaching a crisis point, explained Prof Ghosh, who has taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, for 35 years.
Despite some adaptation measures, there are large gaps across countries, regions, areas, and categories of people. These show increasing evidence of mal-adaptation that adds to and worsens inequality. Examples include fire suppression in naturally fire-adapted ecosystems; seawalls and hard defences against flooding; or more air-conditioning in warmer contexts which adds to the greenhouse gas emissions.
Prof Ghosh, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the United States since 2021, suggested that countries choose a different development pattern by improving the level of energy efficiency of the economy, and changing patterns of investment and consumption towards activities that require less energy and use less carbonating substances.
She spoke about how global finance and fiscal strategies of major countries increase carbon emissions while failing to make available the required finance for effective mitigation strategies. Poor countries’ debt service obligations were huge; nearly double the amount of all social spending (such as health, education and social protection).
Prof Ghosh cautioned against the “Ponzi borrowing” that occurred when countries borrowed more to pay interest on existing debts. It is not only the most debt-stressed countries that were servicing external debt at great cost to the domestic population.
Prof Ghosh concluded by describing mitigation strategies for developing countries and the changes required in international economic architecture. She said border carbon taxes were not a solution.
“They are a device for trade protectionism if principles of compensation and sharing of revenues are not clear and just. A global tax-and-dividend policy requires trust and international cooperation, neither of which currently exists,” she said.
She said there was a need to control the carbon emissions of the very rich through regulations and taxation, and this applied to the rich in all countries, including in Africa. But she ended on a note of optimism – noting a revival of progressive multilateralism and co-operation across debt-stressed countries.
The Ben Turok Memorial Lecture is aimed at remembering and honouring the life and times of Ben Turok, the South African anti-apartheid activist, politician, and economics professor who died at the age of 92 in December 2019.
