Africa's Agency in Global Climate Governance — Carl Death

This episode explores African agency in global climate governance, moving beyond narratives that portray African states solely as vulnerable recipients of climate policy.

Drawing on debates in International Relations, environmental politics, and African climate futures, Dr Carl Death examines how African actors negotiate, contest, and reimagine climate governance across local, continental, and global arenas.

Carl Death is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on environmental politics in Africa, with a particular interest in critical and postcolonial approaches.

Selected Publications

The Green Economy in South Africa: Global Discourses and Local PoliticsFour Discourses of the Green Economy in the Global SouthGreen States in Africa: Beyond the Usual SuspectsAfricanfuturist Socio‐Climatic Imaginaries and Nnedi Okorafor’s Wild NecropoliticsClimate Fiction, Climate Theory: Decolonising Imaginations of Global FuturesUnfamiliar Families and Disturbing Climate FuturesNarrating Transitions to Low Carbon Futures: The Role of Long-Term Strategies in Fossil Fuel Producing Emerging EconomiesAfrican Climate Futures

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:30 African agency in global climate governance: realities versus stereotypes

10:21 Writing climate transition differently: fiction as method

13:32 Universal models and African political economies

18:04 Pan-Africanism and coordination in climate governance

23:25 Key actors in Africa’s climate and energy transition