Evolving climate change governance in Myanmar: limitations and opportunities in a political crisis

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2021

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Simpson, A.
South, A.

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Marquardt, J.
Delina, L.L.
Smits, M.

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Book chapter

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Source details - Title: Governing Climate Change in Southeast Asia: Critical Perspectives, 2021 / Marquardt, J., Delina, L.L., Smits, M. (ed./s), Ch.7, pp.112-132

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Climate change has resulted in severe impacts in Myanmar, including flooding and drought. Nevertheless, poor coordination and capacity across all levels and areas of government have resulted in a fragmented and inadequate response. This incoherence has been exacerbated by an ongoing political and human rights crisis following a military coup in February 2021, which has severely derailed the country’s attempts to deal with climate change. Until the coup, the Myanmar Climate Change Alliance, supported by the United Nations, had been the key coordinating body in the country since 2013 and had assisted in the development of an emerging Myanmar Climate Change Strategy and Master Plan. Various civil society organizations, centered in Yangon or ethnic areas and focused on renewable energy transitions and climate resilience, had made significant contributions to climate ‘activist environmental governance’. Furthermore, non-state armed groups, Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs),have played important roles in climate change adaptation and governance policy development and activities, including in relation to community-based forestry conservation. This chapter analyses the drivers and impediments in national and sub-national climate change governance in Myanmar, and examines the prospects for progress in this area in the uncertain but tragic context of the military coup.

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Copyright 2022 The Authors Access Condition Notes: Accepted manuscript available after 1 July 2023

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