“LONDON, Oct 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) -
Climate change poses "an existential challenge" for
democratic governments and could lead to more
authoritarian rule if eforts to curb global warming
founder, fuelling a surge in catastrophic impacts from
hunger to heatwaves, researchers warned on Tuesday.
Worsening disasters and the resulting societal upheaval
could "be used as an excuse for autocratic ... regimes to
curtail democratic freedoms, as experienced during the
COVID-19 pandemic," warned a report from the
nonproft International Institute for Democracy and
Electoral Assistance (IDEA).
But democracies could take steps now to shore up their
ability to deal with climate change, from lowering the
voting age and making it easier to fle class-action
lawsuits to tackling disinformation and setting a carbon
price, it noted.
"This is the time to be bold, and experiment and
rethink," said Kevin Casas-Zamora, the Costa Rican
secretary-general
of
International
IDEA,
a
Sweden-based intergovernmental organisation that
works to strengthen democratic institutions.
As threats from a heating planet grow, "we cannot
simply do business as usual with democracy", said the
politician and lawyer."
“Amongst the forms of participatory democracy which
can complement and enrich the work of representative
institutions, citizens’ assemblies are the best placed to
harness the collective wisdom and allow citizens to
reclaim the public space, providing the authorities with
useful information on people’s preferences and
indications on how to reconcile a multitude of
conficting interests.”
WHY POLITICIANS HAVE
FAILED TO TACKLE CLIMATE
CHANGE
Global warming is the defning threat facing the planet.
So why has so little been done to curb it?
DEMOCRACIES THAT FAIL TO ACT
ON CLIMATE CHANGE FACE
'EXISTENTIAL' THREAT
MORE PARTICIPATORY
DEMOCRACY TO TACKLE
CLIMATE CHANGE