Editorial: Is There a New Climate Politics?

Abstract

Addressing climate change globally requires significant transformations of production and consumption systems. The language around climate action has shifted tangibly over the last five years to reflect this. Indeed, thousands of local governments, national governments, universities and scientists have declared a climate emergency. Some commentators argue that the emergency framing conveys a new and more appropriate level of urgency needed to respond to climate challenges; to create a social tipping point in the fight against climate change. Others are concerned to move on from such emergency rhetoric to urgent action. Beyond emergency declarations, new spaces of, and places for, engagement with climate change are emerging. The public square, the exhibition hall, the law courts, and the investors’ forum are just some of the arenas where climate change politics are now being negotiated. Emergent governing mechanisms are being utilised, from citizens’ assemblies to ecocide lawsuits. New social movements from Extinction Rebellion to Fridays For Future demonstrate heightened concern and willingness to undertake civil disobedience and protest against climate inaction. Yet questions remain which are addressed in this thematic issue: Are these discourses and spaces of engagement manifestations of a radical new climate politics? And if these are new climate politics, do they mark a shift of gear in current discourses with the potential to effect transformative climate action and support a just transition to a decarbonised world?

Understanding the motivations and implications of climate emergency declarations in cities: The case of Italy

“…The findings of this study show that the majority of cities (82 cities, i. e. is 91.1% of the 90 CEDs analysed) refer to the Fridays for Future movement [70], confirming the findings of existing studies (e.g. Davies et al [37]), and 77 (85.6%) to the IPCC 2018 Special Report [20] as key motivations for declaring a CED. In addition to that, 15 (16.7%) cities mention in the CED rationale the Sustainable Development Goals [18], 7 (7.8%) an online petition containing the request of citizens and campaigners to the Italian government, regions and municipalities to "declare a state of climate emergency" [71].…”

“…One commonality among the studies conducted so far concerns the main motivations for cities to declare a climate emergency, which seem to stem mainly from civil society pressure [32] and in particular from protests against climate inaction by social movements such as Fridays For Future [37].…”

Tuneable Permeability to H2, CO2, He, and Ar in Graphene Oxide−PDDA Self‐Assembled Multilayers, Yielding Good Selectivity at High Flux

“…It was not possible to translate this atomic loading in weight loading because XPS cannot estimate hydrogen atoms or water molecules contained in GO and PDDA, which also contribute to the total weight. However, we could estimate the coverage of PDDA on the GO nanosheets, in molecules per nm 2 . For this, we combined the measurements of N and C peaks with the known stoichiometry of PDDA.…”

“…Climate change is a clear and present danger which spurs governments of the world to intervene with concrete solutions. [1,2] The reckless exploitation of resources combined with anthropogenic atmospheric emissions are seriously altering delicate equilibria that allow our life on this planet. [3] It is well-known that the emission of green-house gases is provoking the global warming at an energy-vector price.…”

Emergent rural–urban relations in Covid‐19 disturbances: Multi‐locality affecting sustainability of rural change

“…The established mobility restrictions caused difficulties in combining work and family connections simultaneously. The way the issues of inequalities concerning multi‐local living and second homes were negotiated during the crisis indicate the ways how the sustainability issues become linked with an emergency as the ‘temporary suspension of activities and even rights that are often taken for granted’ (Davies et al., 2021).…”