23 November 2016
Mapping Climate Justice by Julia M. Puaschunder
Mapping Climate Justice
On a warming earth how to ad-just climate change benefits and burdens?
by Julia M. Puaschunder
Never before in history have environmental concerns, in the wake of economic growth, heralded governance predicaments such as we face today. Climate change has presented societal, international and inter-generational harmony as a challenge for modern economies and contemporary democracies.
In today's climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, high and low income households, developed and underdeveloped countries and overlapping generations are affected differently.
Based on insights from the current endeavor to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation around the globe in the aftermath of the COP21 Paris agreement, the newly-launched Mapping Climate Justice Project proposes a 3-dimensional climate justice approach in order to find universally fair climate strategies.
Mapping Climate Justice will elucidate international climate regimes around the world. An interactive graphic solution will plot different countries’ climate mitigation and adaptation strategies based on geographical, socio-economic, political, and technological capacity factors.
The prospective insights gained are aimed at redesigning governance structures and institutional arrangements to distribute the benefits and burdens of climate change equally within society, between countries and over time in a fair and just way.
Relating international climate approaches to each other is key to recommend real-world relevant global governance policies. Unraveling complex interdependencies of climate negotiation cartels is aimed at protecting vulnerable communities from variegated climate change risks but also open ways for all to enjoy the benefits of a warming earth.
During a summer that was filled with beautiful moments in the historic Schloss Laxenburg, the IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program granted fascinating intellectual stimulation and the most excellent academic exchange that prepared for the project. As IIASA is consistently being ranked as one of the leading institutions in the world to study climate change, it was the best place for developing a holistic systems analysis approach on climate stability, which will be pursued throughout the project. Proudly joining the Alpbach Laxenburg Group meeting granted invaluable exposure to international leaders and global governance experts to meaningfully reflect on the pursuit and the implementation of 3-dimensional justice balance.
While the science of economics, governance and law offer precision, the project will also give stage to cutting-edge artistic interpretations. Behavioral design communication strategies will innovatively ‘wink’ a broad array of contemporary stakeholders. Visualizations inspiring empathy through metaphors and wit target at beckoning the many we need to care for sharing the eternal gift of a favorable climate with posterity.
Source: NASA Climate Time Machine Global Temperature
About
Julia M. Puaschunder was a 2016 YSSP participant in the IIASA Advanced Systems Analysis Program. She is also the Founder and Principal Investigator of the Mapping Climate Justice Project.
She graduated from the University of Vienna (2003 Master of Philosophy/ Psychology, 2010 Doctor of Natural Sciences), Vienna University of Economics and Business (2006 Doctor of Social and Economic Sciences, 2007 Master of Business Administration), and the Maxwell School (2008 Master of Public Administration). She currently studies Law and Economics at the University of Vienna and The New School Department of Economics.
Julia launched and administered research projects on four continents. She was invited to present her research at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Oxford and Cambridge as well as The Academic Council on the United Nations System. As a current Prize Fellow in the Inter-University Consortium of New York, she supports the Economics of Climate Change Project Speaker Series hosted at The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. At The New School, her research investigates western world intergenerational equity constraints in the domains of environmental sustainability, over-indebtedness, and demographic aging.
Julia M. Puaschunder at United Nations Headquarter New York, New York.
