Warming up the Climate Change Debate: A Critical Review on the North-South Debate and the Position of Forest- dependent Communities

Abstract

Climate change has attracted the attention of scientists, researchers, politicians, organizations and other people who dwell on the planet earth. Among other things, the controversy over what climate change constitutes and how it should be mitigated is one of important factors that have attracted the attention of different actors. This has produced an enormous debate. I consider this debate as valuable as it pushes people to search for a better understanding of climate change. It is the same posture, this paper was written. This paper briefly contributes to the debate with a particular focus on the North-South aspect of the debate in relation to the position of local communities in the climate change discussions. The paper applied a political ecology perspective in an attempt to shed light on the forces behind introduced climate change mitigation options.