Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth

Abstract Background The urgency to pursue sustainable consumption or use energy in a manner that does not negatively impact the environment has become an important theme in recent times. As a major fluctuation in the atmosphere, climate change will be one of the major challenges faced by youth. As a...

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Autor principal:	Bright Nkrumah
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	BMC 2021
Materias:	Climate litigation Rights South Africa Ubuntu Youth Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade HD9502-9502.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a6d0fa3b8f17445fa748ce026f1ddf38
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a6d0fa3b8f17445fa748ce026f1ddf382021-11-28T12:05:17ZCourting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth10.1186/s13705-021-00320-62192-0567https://doaj.org/article/a6d0fa3b8f17445fa748ce026f1ddf382021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-021-00320-6https://doaj.org/toc/2192-0567Abstract Background The urgency to pursue sustainable consumption or use energy in a manner that does not negatively impact the environment has become an important theme in recent times. As a major fluctuation in the atmosphere, climate change will be one of the major challenges faced by youth. As a result, there have been a growing number of young South Africans advocating for environmental justice. Surprisingly, their effort has not yielded the expected result as the country continues to emit a high amount of greenhouse gases. The notion of youth may be construed as those between the ages of 15 and 24. The age bracket suggests that the adult lives of this population will be shaped by environmental crises such as famines, vector-borne diseases, and hikes in commodity prices which may impinge on their basic rights to life, health, and property. This development triggers an ancient discourse, what role can youth play towards decarbonization? In other words, which effective avenue could be used by young people for capping emissions? Methods An analysis of South Africa’s energy policy documents relevant to sustainability was conducted through the application of desktop research. We use (inter)national instruments and jurisprudence to understand how a state structure, like the judiciary, could nudge the executive to cap rising green gas emissions. South Africa is used as a case study because of its over-reliance on coal for electricity, and how young people could use the existing legal framework to cap rising emissions. Drawing from existing literature, the paper interrogates the lack of activism around climate litigation and under what conditions this pattern could be reversed in South Africa. Results The paper found that while litigation has an important role to play in mitigating climate change, it ought to be complemented with other forms of advocacy. Conclusions The study concludes that given the government’s perceived slow steps towards shifting from coal to renewables, youth (who will bear the brunt of high emissions) ought to use both courtrooms and advocacy to trigger political action.Bright NkrumahBMCarticleClimate litigationRightsSouth AfricaUbuntuYouthRenewable energy sourcesTJ807-830Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel tradeHD9502-9502.5ENEnergy, Sustainability and Society, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Climate litigation Rights South Africa Ubuntu Youth Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade HD9502-9502.5
spellingShingle	Climate litigation Rights South Africa Ubuntu Youth Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Energy industries. Energy policy. Fuel trade HD9502-9502.5 Bright Nkrumah Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth
description	Abstract Background The urgency to pursue sustainable consumption or use energy in a manner that does not negatively impact the environment has become an important theme in recent times. As a major fluctuation in the atmosphere, climate change will be one of the major challenges faced by youth. As a result, there have been a growing number of young South Africans advocating for environmental justice. Surprisingly, their effort has not yielded the expected result as the country continues to emit a high amount of greenhouse gases. The notion of youth may be construed as those between the ages of 15 and 24. The age bracket suggests that the adult lives of this population will be shaped by environmental crises such as famines, vector-borne diseases, and hikes in commodity prices which may impinge on their basic rights to life, health, and property. This development triggers an ancient discourse, what role can youth play towards decarbonization? In other words, which effective avenue could be used by young people for capping emissions? Methods An analysis of South Africa’s energy policy documents relevant to sustainability was conducted through the application of desktop research. We use (inter)national instruments and jurisprudence to understand how a state structure, like the judiciary, could nudge the executive to cap rising green gas emissions. South Africa is used as a case study because of its over-reliance on coal for electricity, and how young people could use the existing legal framework to cap rising emissions. Drawing from existing literature, the paper interrogates the lack of activism around climate litigation and under what conditions this pattern could be reversed in South Africa. Results The paper found that while litigation has an important role to play in mitigating climate change, it ought to be complemented with other forms of advocacy. Conclusions The study concludes that given the government’s perceived slow steps towards shifting from coal to renewables, youth (who will bear the brunt of high emissions) ought to use both courtrooms and advocacy to trigger political action.
format	article
author	Bright Nkrumah
author_facet	Bright Nkrumah
author_sort	Bright Nkrumah
title	Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth
title_short	Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth
title_full	Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth
title_fullStr	Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth
title_full_unstemmed	Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth
title_sort	courting emissions: climate adjudication and south africa’s youth
publisher	BMC
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/a6d0fa3b8f17445fa748ce026f1ddf38
work_keys_str_mv	AT brightnkrumah courtingemissionsclimateadjudicationandsouthafricasyouth
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Courting emissions: climate adjudication and South Africa’s youth

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