Confronting Climate Coloniality

Farhana Sultana, PhD, is Professor of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University, USA and Visiting Faculty Fellow at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Independent University, Bangladesh. She is an interdisciplinary feminist political ecologist researching the entanglements of climate justice, water governance, international development, and anti-colonial politics.

“Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice, edited by Farhana Sultana, is essential reading for finding just decolonising pathways for addressing climate colonialism. The contributions take us to the roots of climate change beginning with colonialism , addressing the continued colonisations in new forms of racism, capitalist patriarchy, and new forms of climate imperialism and enclosures of the commons. They also show the path of solidarity, community and care which are paths of decolonising power & knowledge.”Vandana Shiva, Founder, Navdanya, India, and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award“Confronting Climate Coloniality is an invaluable tool for educators, students and organizers seeking a deeper understanding of the myriad ways that ecological crises intersect with imperialism and racial capitalism. A vital contribution to the literature of climate justice.”Naomi Klein, co-director of University of British Columbia’s Centre For Climate Justice"Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice is an indispensable addition to the fast-growing literature on the many and varied connections between colonialism and the current planetary crisis."Amitav Ghosh, author of The Nutmeg’s Curse and The Great Derangement"Here is a book of the moment, boldly confronting coloniality of climate as an existential problem and deploying decoloniality as a necessity for its mitigation."Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Chair in Epistemologies of the Global South, University of Bayreuth, Germany“There is enormous injustice in climate change. Those who have contributed the least will suffer the most. Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice collects many courageous examples of powerful resistance to such injustice coming from the majorities of the world, BIPOC populations fighting the coloniality of power and the coloniality of knowledge. It is an optimistic book in these times of despondency.”Joan Martínez-Alier, Emeritus Professor, ICTA-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, and recipient of the Balzan prize 2020 and Holberg prize 2023“This powerful collection of essays challenges mainstream narratives on climate change and makes an urgent case for radical climate justice. Drawing together material from various global locations, Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice will be necessary reading for all those interested in equitable solutions to the looming climate catastrophe that acknowledge the historic role of colonialism in the present unequal distribution of its costs.”Gurminder K Bhambra, co-author of Colonialism and Modern Social Theory

• List of FiguresList of ContributorsPreface1. Urgency, Complexities, and Strategies to Confront Climate Coloniality and Decolonize Pathways for Climate Justice Farhana SultanaPART I: CONFRONTING AND DECOLONIZING CLIMATE GOVERNANCE2. The Coloniality of Climate Apartheid: Excising Colonial Legacies in Climate Development and GovernanceJoshua Long3. The De/Coloniality of Global Climate Governance and Indigenous Politics within the UNFCCCJamie Haverkamp4. State Power and Capital in the Climate Crisis: A Theory of Fossil ImperialismBernardo Jurema and Elias KönigPART II: CONFRONTING AND DECOLONIZING CLIMATE FRAMINGS AND POLICIES 5. The Politics of “Heaviness” in Climate EmergencyDiren Valayden6. Buying the Dead, Burying the Poor: Climate Change and Pastoral Drought Coping Strategies in East AfricaBilal Butt7. Towards an African Epistemic Site for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate ActionAby L. Sène8. AlterNatives to Blue Carbon Coloniality: An ʻŌiwi Perspective on Redirecting Funding to Indigenous StewardshipAndrew Kalani CarlsonPART III: CONFRONTING AND DECOLONIZING CLIMATE RESPONSES AND PRAXIS9. Performative Environmentalism and the Everyday Legitimization of Climate ColonialityManisha Anantharaman10. Fuera SpaceX: Resisting Climate Coloniality via Terra Nullius within Contested Boca Chica State Park Danielle Zoe Rivera and Eliza Breder11. Antiblackness in Flood Risk in Hull: The Afterlife of ColonialismMichael Lomotey12. Crises, Coloniality, and Energy Transformations in Puerto RicoLaura Kuhl, Marla Perez-Lugo, Carlos Arriaga Serrano, Cecilio Ortiz-Garcia, Ryan Ellis, and Jennie C. Stephens13. AfterwordMimi ShellerIndex