POLICY, LEGAL, AND ACTION FRAMEWORKS FOR A NEW SOCIO-ECONOMIC PARADIGM FOR THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERTY

Abstract

This article examines some of the international and European Union (EU) political, legal, and policy assumptions for a new sustainable socio-economic paradigm to overcome, with a just transition, the tension between the effects of climate change and the ultimate eradication of poverty. The aim is to show that a sustainable rethinking of the economy must be linked to a just transition based on a more holistic approach to addressing the many variables that converge on the negative impact of climate change on the perpetuation of poverty. To this end, the concept of multidimensional poverty, i.e., going beyond income deprivation, is used to weigh both the impact of climate change on poverty and the adequacy of the Paris Agreement (mitigation, adaptation, and resilience) to address the challenges of the climate change/poverty nexus. Using a deductive approach, it concludes that just transition policies must respond to a more integrated and interactive approach to international legal norms, in particular those related to human rights, which converge to oblige states to eradicate poverty caused by climate change.