The politics of the climate emergency are inextricably entwined with public and private investment at a planetary scale. There can never be adequate climate policy in one country alone; and there can certainly never be climate justice in one country alone. So how can one link domestic and global climate politics in 2021? More precisely, policymakers, social movement, researchers, and others in the United States currently face a Big Question: 

How should US-based Green New Dealers—and other advocates of ambitious climate justice action—understand, respond to, and engage with climate politics in other parts of the world? 

This panel, “Global Climate Justice Against Neo-Colonialism: New Concepts and Priorities for Just Cooperation,” considers our Big Question in the broad context of climate politics across the regions of the planetary economy. The panel is also part of a broader series, called Democratizing Global Green Investment: Aligning Domestic and International Policies around Green New Deal Principles, which will also feature discussions focused on Latin American and Chinese climate politics.

The overall context is changing rapidly. This year, we’ve entered a new age of climate geopolitics. The United States is once again committed to massive green investment and some measure of low-carbon ambition. President Biden has outlined four ambitious targets for the United States: carbon neutrality by 2050, a 50% cut in emissions by 2030, a carbon-neutral electric grid by 2035, and 40% of climate investments benefiting disadvantaged communities. As a result of all these measures, the world’s three great economic blocs—the United States, China, and the European Union—which together comprise nearly two thirds of the global economy, are now all committed to carbon neutrality—by 2050 for the US and EU, 2060 for China. And all are committed to prioritizing massive amounts of green investment.

So the age of global climate politics has arrived. But will these economic blocs invest enough to reach their targets? Will they invest in ways that promote equity? And how will great power competition shape these dynamics? In the US and around the world, advocates of a Green New Deal, or climate justice more broadly, cannot afford to focus only on domestic climate politics—or only on interstate climate politics, as if the dynamics within countries were wholly separate from global politics. It is all interconnected.

In this panel, researchers engaged in both US and global climate politics will take up these questions, in the context of all the political changes of this year, and of the aftermath of the April 22-23 climate summit hosted by the United States. Join us.