How social movements contribute to staying within the global carbon budget : evidence from a qualitative meta-analysis of case studies
Thiri, May Aye (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Villamayor Tomás, Sergio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Scheidel, Arnim (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Demaria, Federico (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)

Date:	2022
Abstract:	Despite renewed efforts to combat climate change, it remains uncertain how economies will achieve emission reduction by 2050. Among different decarbonisation strategies, knowledge about the potential role and contributions of social movements to curbing carbon emissions has been limited. This study aims to shed light on the diverse contributions of social movements to staying within the global carbon budget, as well as on the specific outcomes and strategies employed in protests against hydrocarbon activities. For this purpose, we conduct a systematic literature review of 57 empirical cases of social movements contesting fossil fuel projects in 29 countries. Based on an exploratory approach, we identify a series of different movement strategies and a range of qualitative contributions that support staying within the carbon budget. These include raising awareness of risks and strategies, enhancing corporate responsibility, being informed about policy changes, laws and regulations, fostering just energy transitions, energy democracy, divestment, alternative market solutions, and forcing the postponement or cancellation of targeted hydrocarbon activities. While the institutional means are widely used and seem to support policy change and regulation, these strategies are not used to deliver awareness or postponement outcomes. Similarly, while movements tend to rely on civil disobedience to stop hydrocarbon projects in the short term, they rely on multiple strategies to cancel them in the longer term. Our study also indicates significant knowledge gaps in the literature, particularly, cases in Africa and Central Asia, women's participation in these movements, in addition to more quantitative assessments of the actual emissions reduced by social movements.
Grants:	European Commission 695446 European Commission 947713 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEX2019-0940-M Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/BP-00023
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Note:	The project that gave rise to these results received the support of a fellowship from the 'La Caixa' Foundation (ID 100010434).
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Social movements ; Environmental justice ; Climate change mitigation ; Carbon emissions ; Carbon budget ; Meta-analysis
Published in:	Ecological economics, Vol. 195 (May 2022) , art. 107356, ISSN 0921-8009

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107356

22 p, 1.1 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles