EMPOWERING MARGINS: FROM CLIMATE CHANGE POLITICS AND TECHNOLOGIES OF AGGREGATE STATES TO PLACE BASED HUMAN CONTRIBUTIONS

As conventional mitigation efforts seem insufficient to achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement, the use of alternative pathways seems inevitable. This paper argues for an empowerment of the conceptual and spatial margins of climate change. This means pluralizing ontologies of climate change, securing and developing existing low-emission practices and recognizing and promoting place-based adaptation strategies. Placing the human and cultural contributions and resilience strategies of the low-emitting half of humanity at the conceptual center of climate action provides an essential and necessary complement to established climate change policies and promises to secure and promote biocultural diversity and low-emitting ways of life.Keywords: Climate change ontology. Mitigation politics, Carbon inequality; Human and cultural contributions; Conceptual and spatial margins