Eleanor Babcock
10/16/15
Climate Inequality and Development

Environmental injustice is a prevailing issue in today's society. Ethnic minorities in countries face major burdens from the impacts of environmental catastrophes such as destructive weather events or concentrated pollution. These ethnic minorities generally are not the populations which are placing those issues on themselves. It is the countries with high per capita emissions which make that choice to emit on behalf of others.

Our readings focused on two case studies on effects of climate change in areas where there are ethnic minorities. One chapter focused on issues regarding deforestation in Vietnam and the other one discussed the depleting water resource in Egypt. Both took focus on management of problems in the political sense. There was a call for decentralization of policy for fixing these problems. Both these case studies also looked at the relationships people have with the environment and how climate change policies put strain on the population. One of the main reasons that there is strain on the general public because of climate change policy is because the lack of education.

People suffering from climate change issues suffer many barriers from climate policy. As a delegation for the UNFCCC proposing policies to mitigate climate change we have to be aware of these barriers. In the context of the case study in Vietnam regarding deforestation limitations, the program policy called REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) ran into barriers when trying to place their program into effect. These barriers were issues with forest rights, people's responsibilities who live in the forests, and the definition of what classifies as problematic deforestation.

In order for policy makers to avoid running into limitations which hinder the application of climate change policy we must educate the public about the program benefits, and the climate change issues in certain areas. Education will not only make the public more aware but it will also improve our environmental injustice issues. By improving awareness of issues, limitations and benefits we can reduce negative effects on populations of ethnic minorities.