The Promise and Paradox of Climate Change Litigation - Incite at Columbia University

In the context of the global climate change crisis and the growing recognition of the need to identify and pursue alternative, more sustainable, socio-economic activities and ways of being, this project will examine ambitious litigation pursued by South African Indigenous groups to oppose mining and protect their way of life.

Supported by Incite, Jackie Dugard will explore the motivations for, and modes including litigation of, resistance against destructive economic activity; and the contours and ramifications of the assertion of any alternative socio-economic paradigms, particularly those (such as decolonial eco-feminism) with the potential to counteract climate change through their (re)generative, sustainable character. In addition, struck by the injustice that communities that benefited the least from the dominant economic development model (and are most vulnerable to climactic fluctuations) are now on the frontline of climate transition efforts, the project aims to explore the socio-legal implications of this paradox.

To carry out this work, Dugard will collaborate with Wilmien Wicomb and the community in Baleni Village and Steenberg’s Cove in South Africa.