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Kishan Khoday

United Nations Development Programme, UNDP Global Policy Network, Regional Team Leader - Nature, Climate and Energy

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Kishan has been with the United Nations for over 20 years, having led local cooperation on sustainable development through assignments with UN offices in China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

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Papers by Kishan Khoday

Rethinking Nature, Crisis and Complexity after the Pandemic

UNDP Development Future Series, 2021

The COVID-19 crisis is evolving into a long-term development emergency, the scale of which is unp... more The COVID-19 crisis is evolving into a long-term development emergency, the scale of which is unprecedented in modern times. Among the root causes of the crisis is humanity’s breaching of the planet’s ecological boundaries. COVID-19 is likely a zoonotic disease, a disease passed from animals to humans. As pressures on natural ecosystems and wildlife intensify, channels of viral outbreak have accelerated in recent years, as also seen in outbreaks of other zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, SARS and MERS in recent years. More than ever, the ability to prevent outbreaks depends on our ability to maintain healthy ecosystems and avoid the blurring of ecological boundaries.

One of the oldest life forms on Earth, viruses have been a key component of the world’s ecosystems for hundreds of millions of years and have played an important role in the evolution of the planet’s ecosystems. They constitute one of the most abundant life forms on the planet, with this vast unseen component of the world’s ecosystems – the virosphere – influencing climatic and geochemical cycles and having co-evolved with other species, including humanity. Far from a ‘black swan’ event, today’s COVID-19 outbreak had been long predicted. The global pandemic is a clear warning sign of the implications of breaching planetary boundaries, with more than 75% of new diseases in recent decades being zoonotic spread between animals and humans. But as devastating as the current crisis has been and continues to be, such outbreaks are likely to continue and even escalate on the road to 2030 and beyond, unless development pathways and our relationship with nature are remade.

Accelerating a Green Transition

Regional Human Development Report, 2022

The vulnerability to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic across the MENA region and their severi... more The vulnerability to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic across the MENA region and their severity are deeply connected to the region's status as the most water-scarce, food import dependent part of the world, experiencing faster-rising temperatures than the world average because of climate change. In the years leading up to the pandemic, these trends worsened unprecedented acceleration of climate impacts, protracted cycles of drought, more rapid loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and escalating levels of food, energy and water insecurity. Left unchecked, these trends will continue to accelerate, reshaping development prospects and posing serious challenges to a resilient recovery from the pandemic. Mainstreaming green solutions into socioeconomic recovery measures in the region is a top priority.

Rethinking Human Development In an Era of Planetary Transformation

Global Human Development Report , 2020

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreeme... more The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction together set the vision for a new balance between people and planet, in stark contrast to the heavy social orientation and human-centric nature of past development policy. This background paper for the 2020 global Human Development Report reflects on what this entails for the future of human development policy and practice, with a view to making the human development paradigm fit-for-purpose in an era of planetary transformation.

Climate change and ecological fragility call into question the assumption that human progress will make the future look better than the past. Recent years have witnessed record carbon emissions, accelerating levels of biological extinction, and the growing frequency of disasters and outbreaks of disease. As ecological and social fabrics are destabilized, so are basic principles of human development theory such as capability, agency and freedom. What happens to the concept of human agency when humanity has revealed itself as an agent of planetary change? How can the concept of ‘development as freedom’ evolve into ‘sustainable development as freedom’ as ecological change causes mass disruption, and as sensibilities about freedom and rights transform? How can development pathways shift from linear to systems approaches to better grasp the complexities of planetary transformation?

Ecological change is destabilizing the status quo of development theory, exposing deep contradictions in policy and practice. The 2030 Agenda reflects an aspiration to bring together the social and natural foundations of development policy. Achieving this goal will require more than scaled-up finance and green technology. Transformational change will demand adaptation of the concept of human development itself.

Locating Nature

Locating Nature

Rarely has the world seen the intensity and severity of change being experienced today in the Mid... more Rarely has the world seen the intensity and severity of change being experienced today in the Middle East. Among the record 60 million forcibly displaced people today around the world (the first time this level has been reached since World War II), more than 20 million are now suffering as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and forced migrants in the Middle East. This includes approximately eight million IDPs in Syria and four million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan, two million IDPs in Iraq, and large and growing numbers in Yemen. The level of forced displacement is higher than ever before, re-shaping the nature of development challenges in the region, including challenges of energy security

Green economy pathways in the Arab Gulf: global perspectives and opportunities

Routledge, Jul 30, 2015

The Arab Gulf Green Economy in a Global Context

Chapter 19 Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Main Messages Progress toward achievi... more Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Main Messages Progress toward achieving the 2015 targets of the Millennium Development Goals will need to be accelerated dramatically (high certainty). In particular, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, parts of South and Southeast Asia, and some regions in Latin America, are currently off track with respect to meeting the goals. Knowledge and information about ecosystems and ecosystem services are vital for developing ways to achieve target 9 on environmental sustainability (high certainty). The MA provides information about the ways in which ecosystems and the services they provide to local, regional, and global communities affect human well-being. The evidence synthesized by the MA underlines that ecosystem services can only be sustained in the long term if the integrity and completeness of ecosystems are maintained or restored. This information and the tools for improved management of ecosystems need to be integrated more systematically into development strategies such as poverty and hunger reduction strategies. The MDGs and their 15 targets form a set of highly interdependent objectives that can only be met through integrated strategies instead of isolated interventions or ''silver bullets.'' Greater collective gains are possible through simultaneous rather than sequential interventions (high certainty). This integrated and synchronous approach requires a focus on improved management of ecosystems and their services. This is a particularly important prerequisite for achieving the targets relating to poverty, hunger, gender equality, water, and sanitation and health. Countries that are not on track to achieving the 2015 targets are experiencing rapid environmental degradation and loss of ecosystem services that can be slowed or reversed through improved ecosystem management. In many places, the sustainability and continuity of particularly agroecosystems is threatened by structural shortage of measures to maintain their services and productivity. By restoring those functions, there is more room for other less productive systems, but that requires clear choices at the local, regional, national, and international level. Particular emphasis needs to be placed on the sustainable intensification of existing cultivated ecosystems to satisfy growing demand for food and other ecosystem services (high certainty). Maintaining the present cultivated land in lieu of expanding into new areas will be possible when intensification and modernization of present agroecosystems is promoted with higher productivity per hectare, per person hour, and per kilogram input As a result of this intensification counter intuitively total use of inputs such as fertilizers or pesticides is decreased in absolute terms and per unit of product. Thus environmental side effects decrease. Moreover the higher productivity per ha spares space for nature and untouched ecosystems, thus safeguarding as much as possible biodiversity. Thus the protection of fragile and vulnerable ecosystems such as wetlands, mangroves, and upland areas that provide many ecosystem services is facilitated. Intensification of production systems such as agroecosystems (plant and animal) and aquaculture needs to be carried out by the most socially and economically appropriate ecological techniques such that ecosystem degradation is prevented. Various ecosystems are threatened by mismanagement, overuse, or insufficient care for continuity. That holds for many aquaecosystems (overfishing, etc.), rain fed agroecosystems by inadequate insufficient maintenance of soil fertility, and most importantly expansion of cultivated area, logging of tropical rainforest, and cultivating former coastal ecosystems such as mangrove ecosystems. The use of ecotechnological advanced production techniques requires a good understanding of the basic processes (chemical, physical, physiological, ecological) that determine agroecosystem behavior. Modified ecosystem management as part of a strategy to achieve the 2015 targets has to consider that several drivers affect environmental change. Therefore, policies, institutions and reorientation acting at local, regional, and global scales need to address several drivers at the same time (medium certainty). To achieve the 2015 targets, particular attention needs to be placed on improving ecosystem management and the capacity for policy-making at the national and local level as well as addressing global challenges including long-term climate change and the depletion of international fisheries. The complexity of human-nature interactions makes it difficult, though not impossible, to formulate quantitative targets using the best available science synthesized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (medium certainty). In the face of this uncertainty, communities, countries, regions, and the international system need to agree on and set well defined local, national, and regional quantified goals for preserving, managing, and utilizing ecosystems. The findings of the MA may provide guidance for developing targets and for designing strategies to achieve them. Available monitoring systems for ecosystems and the services they provide are inadequate in many parts of the developing world (high certainty). Monitoring and documenting progress toward achieving the 2015 targets may require strengthening monitoring systems for soil fertility, hydrological flows, biodiversity, climate, and so forth. Documenting progress will provide invaluable information for analysis, research, and the development of technology and mitigation strategies.

551 Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Main Messages

19.2 Goal-by-goal and Target Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 1... more 19.2 Goal-by-goal and Target Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 19.2.1 MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Target 1 19.2.2 MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Target 2 19.2.3 MDG 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education, Target 3 19.2.4 MDG 3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, Target 4 19.2.5 MDG 4: Reduce Child Mortality, Target 5 19.2.6 MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health, Target 6 19.2.7 MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases, Targets 7 and 8 19.2.8 MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, Target 9 19.2.9 MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, Target 10 19.2.10 MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, Target 11 19.2.11 MDG 8: A Global Partnership for Development, Targets 12–15

Green Equity: Environmental Justice for more Inclusive Growth

This June sees world leaders and civil society convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Devel... more This June sees world leaders and civil society convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). It will focus on reviewing progress in achieving the goals of the original 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the 1992 Rio Earth Summit). A main issue at the heart of the sustainable development paradigm, and the Rio+20 Summit, will be the extent to which the world has been able to find synergies between dual challenges of poverty reduction and ecological protection. As we look back over the past twenty years, an important trend has been the rise of rights-based approaches and a transnational environmental justice movement in which citizens confront both the State and the international community on the impacts of growth on social and ecological well-being. The escalating development challenges, defined by the nexus between poverty and ecological degradation, are also conditioned by the lack of accountability and rule of law surrounding natural resource us...

Unequal protection: Climate change and the acceleration of global inequality

China and The World: South-South Cooperation for Inclusive Green Growth

World leaders convened for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012, ma... more World leaders convened for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012, marking 20 years since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and at a time of rapidly increasing pressures on the planet?s ecosystems and impacts on the poor and vulnerable members of society. Rio+20 focused on two closely related solutions to the world?s challenges ? new institutional frameworks for sustainable development, and the drive to a green economy defined as an economy ?that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities? (UNEP, 2012). (...)

Tipping Points in International Law, 2021

State of Energy in the Arab Region

Water Security in a New World, 2016

The Arab Region is going through one of the most intense periods of transformation in its history... more The Arab Region is going through one of the most intense periods of transformation in its history, with a convergence of political, security, economic, social, and environmental drivers of change. More than any other region, energy has defined the nature of development in the Arab world for decades, and it has again arisen as a key factor in the region’s emerging agenda for change. Of particular importance in today’s development debates is the role of energy in crafting a more sustainable and equitable model of development, with the nexus to poverty reduction, food and water security, and social vulnerability gaining strong attention.

Globalization and inclusive governance in China and India: foreign investment, land rights, and legal empowerment of the poor

Securing Greater Social Accountability in Natural Resource Management

The world is experiencing a historic convergence of increasing demand for natural resources from ... more The world is experiencing a historic convergence of increasing demand for natural resources from emerging economies, prices at record levels across various commodity groups, a downward trend in resource supply, serious trends of ecological instability, and the rise of inequality between those who develop and profit from such resources and the communities that host them. As the world convenes in

Constitutionalism and the Environment: The Evolution of Environmental Governance in China’s Socialist Market Economy

Environmental Governance and Sustainability

Development from Below: Social Accountability in Natural Resource Management

The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth disseminates the findings of its work in pro... more The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth disseminates the findings of its work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. The papers are signed by the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions that they express are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the United Nations Development Programme or the Government of Brazil.

The Mythic Environment

Locating Nature

Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law

by Karin Mickelson, Kishan Khoday, and Vanessa Lamb

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2014

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between international law and the natural environ... more ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between international law and the natural environment. We contend that international environmental law and general international law are structured in ways that systemically reinforce ecological harm. Through exploring the cultural milieu from which international environmental law emerged, we argue it produced an impoverished understanding of nature that is incapable of responding adequately to ecological crises. We maintain that environmental issues should not be confined to a disciplinary specialization because humanity&#39;s relationship with nature has been central to making international law. Foundational concepts such as sovereignty, development, property, economy, human rights, and so on, have evolved through understanding nature in ways that are unsuited to perceiving or observing ecological limits. International law primarily sees nature as a resource for wealth generation to enable societies to continually develop, and environmental degradation is treated as an economic externality to be managed by special regimes. Through tracing the co-evolution of these assumptions about nature alongside seminal disciplinary concepts, it becomes evident that such understandings are central to shaping international law and that the discipline helps universalize and normalize them. By comprehending more broadly the relationship between nature and international law, it is possible to see beyond law&#39;s potential to correct environmental harm and identify the disciplinary role in driving ecological degradation. Venturing beyond the purview of international environmental lawyers, this article considers the role of all international lawyers in augmenting and mitigating ecological crises. It concludes that disciplinary solutions to environmental problems require radical departures from existing disciplinary tenets, necessitating new formulations that encapsulate rich and diverse understandings of nature.

Rethinking Nature, Crisis and Complexity after the Pandemic

UNDP Development Future Series, 2021

The COVID-19 crisis is evolving into a long-term development emergency, the scale of which is unp... more The COVID-19 crisis is evolving into a long-term development emergency, the scale of which is unprecedented in modern times. Among the root causes of the crisis is humanity’s breaching of the planet’s ecological boundaries. COVID-19 is likely a zoonotic disease, a disease passed from animals to humans. As pressures on natural ecosystems and wildlife intensify, channels of viral outbreak have accelerated in recent years, as also seen in outbreaks of other zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, SARS and MERS in recent years. More than ever, the ability to prevent outbreaks depends on our ability to maintain healthy ecosystems and avoid the blurring of ecological boundaries.

One of the oldest life forms on Earth, viruses have been a key component of the world’s ecosystems for hundreds of millions of years and have played an important role in the evolution of the planet’s ecosystems. They constitute one of the most abundant life forms on the planet, with this vast unseen component of the world’s ecosystems – the virosphere – influencing climatic and geochemical cycles and having co-evolved with other species, including humanity. Far from a ‘black swan’ event, today’s COVID-19 outbreak had been long predicted. The global pandemic is a clear warning sign of the implications of breaching planetary boundaries, with more than 75% of new diseases in recent decades being zoonotic spread between animals and humans. But as devastating as the current crisis has been and continues to be, such outbreaks are likely to continue and even escalate on the road to 2030 and beyond, unless development pathways and our relationship with nature are remade.

Accelerating a Green Transition

Regional Human Development Report, 2022

The vulnerability to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic across the MENA region and their severi... more The vulnerability to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic across the MENA region and their severity are deeply connected to the region's status as the most water-scarce, food import dependent part of the world, experiencing faster-rising temperatures than the world average because of climate change. In the years leading up to the pandemic, these trends worsened unprecedented acceleration of climate impacts, protracted cycles of drought, more rapid loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and escalating levels of food, energy and water insecurity. Left unchecked, these trends will continue to accelerate, reshaping development prospects and posing serious challenges to a resilient recovery from the pandemic. Mainstreaming green solutions into socioeconomic recovery measures in the region is a top priority.

Rethinking Human Development In an Era of Planetary Transformation

Global Human Development Report , 2020

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreeme... more The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction together set the vision for a new balance between people and planet, in stark contrast to the heavy social orientation and human-centric nature of past development policy. This background paper for the 2020 global Human Development Report reflects on what this entails for the future of human development policy and practice, with a view to making the human development paradigm fit-for-purpose in an era of planetary transformation.

Climate change and ecological fragility call into question the assumption that human progress will make the future look better than the past. Recent years have witnessed record carbon emissions, accelerating levels of biological extinction, and the growing frequency of disasters and outbreaks of disease. As ecological and social fabrics are destabilized, so are basic principles of human development theory such as capability, agency and freedom. What happens to the concept of human agency when humanity has revealed itself as an agent of planetary change? How can the concept of ‘development as freedom’ evolve into ‘sustainable development as freedom’ as ecological change causes mass disruption, and as sensibilities about freedom and rights transform? How can development pathways shift from linear to systems approaches to better grasp the complexities of planetary transformation?

Ecological change is destabilizing the status quo of development theory, exposing deep contradictions in policy and practice. The 2030 Agenda reflects an aspiration to bring together the social and natural foundations of development policy. Achieving this goal will require more than scaled-up finance and green technology. Transformational change will demand adaptation of the concept of human development itself.

Locating Nature

Locating Nature

Rarely has the world seen the intensity and severity of change being experienced today in the Mid... more Rarely has the world seen the intensity and severity of change being experienced today in the Middle East. Among the record 60 million forcibly displaced people today around the world (the first time this level has been reached since World War II), more than 20 million are now suffering as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and forced migrants in the Middle East. This includes approximately eight million IDPs in Syria and four million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan, two million IDPs in Iraq, and large and growing numbers in Yemen. The level of forced displacement is higher than ever before, re-shaping the nature of development challenges in the region, including challenges of energy security

Green economy pathways in the Arab Gulf: global perspectives and opportunities

Routledge, Jul 30, 2015

The Arab Gulf Green Economy in a Global Context

Chapter 19 Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Main Messages Progress toward achievi... more Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Main Messages Progress toward achieving the 2015 targets of the Millennium Development Goals will need to be accelerated dramatically (high certainty). In particular, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, parts of South and Southeast Asia, and some regions in Latin America, are currently off track with respect to meeting the goals. Knowledge and information about ecosystems and ecosystem services are vital for developing ways to achieve target 9 on environmental sustainability (high certainty). The MA provides information about the ways in which ecosystems and the services they provide to local, regional, and global communities affect human well-being. The evidence synthesized by the MA underlines that ecosystem services can only be sustained in the long term if the integrity and completeness of ecosystems are maintained or restored. This information and the tools for improved management of ecosystems need to be integrated more systematically into development strategies such as poverty and hunger reduction strategies. The MDGs and their 15 targets form a set of highly interdependent objectives that can only be met through integrated strategies instead of isolated interventions or ''silver bullets.'' Greater collective gains are possible through simultaneous rather than sequential interventions (high certainty). This integrated and synchronous approach requires a focus on improved management of ecosystems and their services. This is a particularly important prerequisite for achieving the targets relating to poverty, hunger, gender equality, water, and sanitation and health. Countries that are not on track to achieving the 2015 targets are experiencing rapid environmental degradation and loss of ecosystem services that can be slowed or reversed through improved ecosystem management. In many places, the sustainability and continuity of particularly agroecosystems is threatened by structural shortage of measures to maintain their services and productivity. By restoring those functions, there is more room for other less productive systems, but that requires clear choices at the local, regional, national, and international level. Particular emphasis needs to be placed on the sustainable intensification of existing cultivated ecosystems to satisfy growing demand for food and other ecosystem services (high certainty). Maintaining the present cultivated land in lieu of expanding into new areas will be possible when intensification and modernization of present agroecosystems is promoted with higher productivity per hectare, per person hour, and per kilogram input As a result of this intensification counter intuitively total use of inputs such as fertilizers or pesticides is decreased in absolute terms and per unit of product. Thus environmental side effects decrease. Moreover the higher productivity per ha spares space for nature and untouched ecosystems, thus safeguarding as much as possible biodiversity. Thus the protection of fragile and vulnerable ecosystems such as wetlands, mangroves, and upland areas that provide many ecosystem services is facilitated. Intensification of production systems such as agroecosystems (plant and animal) and aquaculture needs to be carried out by the most socially and economically appropriate ecological techniques such that ecosystem degradation is prevented. Various ecosystems are threatened by mismanagement, overuse, or insufficient care for continuity. That holds for many aquaecosystems (overfishing, etc.), rain fed agroecosystems by inadequate insufficient maintenance of soil fertility, and most importantly expansion of cultivated area, logging of tropical rainforest, and cultivating former coastal ecosystems such as mangrove ecosystems. The use of ecotechnological advanced production techniques requires a good understanding of the basic processes (chemical, physical, physiological, ecological) that determine agroecosystem behavior. Modified ecosystem management as part of a strategy to achieve the 2015 targets has to consider that several drivers affect environmental change. Therefore, policies, institutions and reorientation acting at local, regional, and global scales need to address several drivers at the same time (medium certainty). To achieve the 2015 targets, particular attention needs to be placed on improving ecosystem management and the capacity for policy-making at the national and local level as well as addressing global challenges including long-term climate change and the depletion of international fisheries. The complexity of human-nature interactions makes it difficult, though not impossible, to formulate quantitative targets using the best available science synthesized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (medium certainty). In the face of this uncertainty, communities, countries, regions, and the international system need to agree on and set well defined local, national, and regional quantified goals for preserving, managing, and utilizing ecosystems. The findings of the MA may provide guidance for developing targets and for designing strategies to achieve them. Available monitoring systems for ecosystems and the services they provide are inadequate in many parts of the developing world (high certainty). Monitoring and documenting progress toward achieving the 2015 targets may require strengthening monitoring systems for soil fertility, hydrological flows, biodiversity, climate, and so forth. Documenting progress will provide invaluable information for analysis, research, and the development of technology and mitigation strategies.

551 Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Main Messages

19.2 Goal-by-goal and Target Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 1... more 19.2 Goal-by-goal and Target Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 19.2.1 MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Target 1 19.2.2 MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Target 2 19.2.3 MDG 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education, Target 3 19.2.4 MDG 3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, Target 4 19.2.5 MDG 4: Reduce Child Mortality, Target 5 19.2.6 MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health, Target 6 19.2.7 MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases, Targets 7 and 8 19.2.8 MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, Target 9 19.2.9 MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, Target 10 19.2.10 MDG 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, Target 11 19.2.11 MDG 8: A Global Partnership for Development, Targets 12–15

Green Equity: Environmental Justice for more Inclusive Growth

This June sees world leaders and civil society convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Devel... more This June sees world leaders and civil society convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). It will focus on reviewing progress in achieving the goals of the original 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the 1992 Rio Earth Summit). A main issue at the heart of the sustainable development paradigm, and the Rio+20 Summit, will be the extent to which the world has been able to find synergies between dual challenges of poverty reduction and ecological protection. As we look back over the past twenty years, an important trend has been the rise of rights-based approaches and a transnational environmental justice movement in which citizens confront both the State and the international community on the impacts of growth on social and ecological well-being. The escalating development challenges, defined by the nexus between poverty and ecological degradation, are also conditioned by the lack of accountability and rule of law surrounding natural resource us...

Unequal protection: Climate change and the acceleration of global inequality

China and The World: South-South Cooperation for Inclusive Green Growth

World leaders convened for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012, ma... more World leaders convened for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012, marking 20 years since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and at a time of rapidly increasing pressures on the planet?s ecosystems and impacts on the poor and vulnerable members of society. Rio+20 focused on two closely related solutions to the world?s challenges ? new institutional frameworks for sustainable development, and the drive to a green economy defined as an economy ?that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities? (UNEP, 2012). (...)

Tipping Points in International Law, 2021

State of Energy in the Arab Region

Water Security in a New World, 2016

The Arab Region is going through one of the most intense periods of transformation in its history... more The Arab Region is going through one of the most intense periods of transformation in its history, with a convergence of political, security, economic, social, and environmental drivers of change. More than any other region, energy has defined the nature of development in the Arab world for decades, and it has again arisen as a key factor in the region’s emerging agenda for change. Of particular importance in today’s development debates is the role of energy in crafting a more sustainable and equitable model of development, with the nexus to poverty reduction, food and water security, and social vulnerability gaining strong attention.

Globalization and inclusive governance in China and India: foreign investment, land rights, and legal empowerment of the poor

Securing Greater Social Accountability in Natural Resource Management

The world is experiencing a historic convergence of increasing demand for natural resources from ... more The world is experiencing a historic convergence of increasing demand for natural resources from emerging economies, prices at record levels across various commodity groups, a downward trend in resource supply, serious trends of ecological instability, and the rise of inequality between those who develop and profit from such resources and the communities that host them. As the world convenes in

Constitutionalism and the Environment: The Evolution of Environmental Governance in China’s Socialist Market Economy

Environmental Governance and Sustainability

Development from Below: Social Accountability in Natural Resource Management

The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth disseminates the findings of its work in pro... more The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth disseminates the findings of its work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. The papers are signed by the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions that they express are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the United Nations Development Programme or the Government of Brazil.

The Mythic Environment

Locating Nature

Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law

by Karin Mickelson, Kishan Khoday, and Vanessa Lamb

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2014

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between international law and the natural environ... more ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between international law and the natural environment. We contend that international environmental law and general international law are structured in ways that systemically reinforce ecological harm. Through exploring the cultural milieu from which international environmental law emerged, we argue it produced an impoverished understanding of nature that is incapable of responding adequately to ecological crises. We maintain that environmental issues should not be confined to a disciplinary specialization because humanity&#39;s relationship with nature has been central to making international law. Foundational concepts such as sovereignty, development, property, economy, human rights, and so on, have evolved through understanding nature in ways that are unsuited to perceiving or observing ecological limits. International law primarily sees nature as a resource for wealth generation to enable societies to continually develop, and environmental degradation is treated as an economic externality to be managed by special regimes. Through tracing the co-evolution of these assumptions about nature alongside seminal disciplinary concepts, it becomes evident that such understandings are central to shaping international law and that the discipline helps universalize and normalize them. By comprehending more broadly the relationship between nature and international law, it is possible to see beyond law&#39;s potential to correct environmental harm and identify the disciplinary role in driving ecological degradation. Venturing beyond the purview of international environmental lawyers, this article considers the role of all international lawyers in augmenting and mitigating ecological crises. It concludes that disciplinary solutions to environmental problems require radical departures from existing disciplinary tenets, necessitating new formulations that encapsulate rich and diverse understandings of nature.

Climate Change and International Law: Commitment and Critique

by Usha Natarajan and Kishan Khoday

Tipping Points in International Law: Commitment & Critique, edited by Jean d’Aspremont & John Haskell, 2021

We are witnessing environmental change unseen in millions of years: the sixth mass extinction of ... more We are witnessing environmental change unseen in millions of years: the sixth mass extinction of species, the changing climate, the dying oceans and dwindling forests, the spreading deserts, increasing toxicity of water, air and soil, and the complex interrelatedness between these phenomena. This chapter focuses particularly on climate change and its relationship with international law. Anthropogenic climate change is in many ways a problem ideally-suited to an international law solution. It is caused by fossil fuel-driven industrialization, which emits greenhouse gases and warms our atmosphere. Most emissions come from rich industrial and post-industrial states, but the impact is experienced everywhere. Caused by a small number of rich people, but impacting the poor masses, climate change raises global justice issues that can only be addressed through international cooperation. International climate law began in 1992, aiming to reduce emissions, adapt to any unpreventable change, and take into account fairness and global inequalities of power and wealth. Unfortunately, in the last three decades, the problem has exponentially worsened.

This chapter argues that international climate law has not only been ineffective but has in some ways made things worse. Climate change demands more than the proliferation of new legal specializations and expertise. Rather, it fundamentally unravels the foundations of our discipline, revealing mistaken disciplinary assumptions about development, progress, and order. The implications of climate change transcend international law, challenging knowledge production in the social sciences more generally. Disciplines that are built on the assumption that natural systems are stable – such as law, economics, political science, and so on – no longer function when natural systems are destabilized. An adequate disciplinary response requires, first, understanding how international law contributed to this instability; and second, reshaping the fundamental building blocks of international law – concepts such as sovereignty, jurisdiction, territory, development, human rights, and so on – in a more sustainable vein. Climate change and the other types of environmental degradation multiplying today evidence that ecology gives birth to law, rather than the other way around. Revelatory of our longstanding disciplinary hubris, climate change is not only the product of our inability as lawyers to understand or govern nature, but it also shows us that it has always been the other way around: it is nature that creates and sustains us.

Introduction - Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law

by Usha Natarajan, Kishan Khoday, and Vanessa Lamb

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2014

Environmental harm is of increasing concern to peoples and states all over the world, whether in ... more Environmental harm is of increasing concern to peoples and states all over the world, whether in relation to ensuring access to healthy air, water, food, and sustainable livelihoods, or coping with the diversity of challenges posed by changing climates and ecologies. While international lawyers have focused on crafting solutions to environmental problems, less attention is paid to the disciplinary role in fostering harmful and unsustainable behavioral patterns. Environmental issues are usually relegated to the specialized field of international environmental law. This project explores instead the role of nature in the general discipline, arguing that the natural environment is a determinative factor in shaping international law, and that assumptions about nature lie at the heart of disciplinary concepts such as sovereignty, development, economy, property, and human rights.

Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law

by Usha Natarajan and Kishan Khoday

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2014

This article explores the relationship between international law and the natural environment. We ... more This article explores the relationship between international law and the natural environment. We contend that international environmental law and general international law are structured in ways that systemically reinforce ecological harm. Through exploring the cultural milieu from which international environmental law emerged, we argue it produced an impoverished understanding of nature that is incapable of responding adequately to ecological crises. We maintain that environmental issues should not be confined to a disciplinary specialization because humanity's relationship with nature has been central to making international law. Foundational concepts such as sovereignty, development, property, economy, human rights, and so on, have evolved through understanding nature in ways that are unsuited to perceiving or observing ecological limits. International law primarily sees nature as a resource for wealth generation to enable societies to continually develop, and environmental degradation is treated as an economic externality to be managed by special regimes. Through tracing the co-evolution of these assumptions about nature alongside seminal disciplinary concepts, it becomes evident that such understandings are central to shaping international law and that the discipline helps universalize and normalize them. By comprehending more broadly the relationship between nature and international law, it is possible to see beyond law's potential to correct environmental harm and identify the disciplinary role in driving ecological degradation. Venturing beyond the purview of international environmental lawyers, this article considers the role of all international lawyers in augmenting and mitigating ecological crises. It concludes that disciplinary solutions to environmental problems require radical departures from existing disciplinary tenets, necessitating new formulations that encapsulate rich and diverse understandings of nature.

Fairness and International Environmental Law from Below: Social Movements and Legal Transformation in India

by Usha Natarajan and Kishan Khoday

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2012

This article considers fairness in international environmental law (IEL) in light of the converge... more This article considers fairness in international environmental law (IEL) in light of the convergence of two contemporary phenomena: the rise of social movements and the increasing power of large developing countries. These two trends will be determinative for the future of IEL. They have brought issues of fairness, equity, and justice to the forefront of contemporary IEL debates. Despite inability to adequately address issues of fairness at the international level, as demonstrated by negotiating gridlock at international summits, IEL can evolve in more equitable directions through the influence of subaltern experiences. This article examines domestic law-reform efforts of Indian social movements, focusing particularly on Indigenous movements responding to extractive industries, with a view to determining international implications. The way states such as India address environment-related conflict, respond to demands for fairness, and evolve domestic understandings of inclusive and sustainable law and development will increasingly shape IEL.